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• 7 min read

Smart Until Disconnected

You're golden until the service drops (you).

technology capitalism
Featured visual for "Smart Until Disconnected"

Wearables! Smart appliances! Connection! Oh my!

The idea of wearables and smart appliances and convenient apps is one of utopian idealism …at least, on the surface. Unfortunately, this is a fucking joke and the actuality turns out to be a living, breathing dystopian nightmare.

The Rant

If I sound bitter, it’s because I am. The technology at our fingertips holds so much powerful positive potential. For years – years! – I was an eager early-adopter of all things technology. I was an evangelical all-in power user.

Two decades later I feel jaded. Duped one too many times by golden promises for a brighter tomorrow. Because now? I’m watching the pieces fall into place, too little, too late. Fool me once and all that jazz.

So let’s unpack the issues I take around everything suddenly being so damn smart.

The Ideal

The internet of things1 holds so much promise.2 It’s not just convenience either: it connects people across the globe in small meaningful ways like never before. It stimulates innovation, invention, and enables powerful tools never before imaginable to serve humankind at incredible levels.

Take accident prevention, for example! Imagine being able to check for certain whether you forgot your stove on by flicking a glance to some easy-access wearable, such as a smart watch. If it turns out to have slipped your mind, you can switch it back off with a simple swipe of your finger. Or better yet, a snappy verbal command.

The Assumptions

The utopian ideal of smart devices and services relies on a series of critical assumptions to be eternally, irrefutably true.

  • Corporations are benevolent.
  • Corporations (or at least their relevant products) will meet your needs.
  • The internet is fully ubiquitous.
  • The internet will always be functional.
  • The service will always be functional.
  • The service will always be secure.
  • The service will always be accurate.
  • The service will not take advantage of you.
  • You will always be able to afford to access this service.
  • You will always have access to this service.
  • The law will be on your side should something go wrong.

The Reality

While this technology is here to stay, the reality is unfortunately that many of the above assumptions are actively incorrect. Which means we, as the population at large, are put in quite a difficult position.

The world sucks. Companies aren’t reliable and they don’t give a rats ass about you, nor can you always access the internet. We pay more to own less via an increasing number of subscriptions, and those services offer less to the consumer as prices increase.

The overarching problem (as I see it) is the inability to disconnect. As “smart” becomes the status quo, everything “dumb” becomes so completely dysfunctional that it is essentially defunct. There is no true choice to opt-out, leaving you at the mercy of systems and players far outside your control. Not to mention, once you are integrated at all, it becomes increasingly difficult to de-tangle your life in even small ways.

Capitalism

Capitalism gives one singular fuck.

I’m going to hold your hand gently while I tell you this. Because that one fuck? It’s not about you. It’s all about the ownership and control of capital, baby.

Corporations under capitalism are fundamentally profit-driven and could not give less of a damn about anything but the bottom line always going up. Even when life itself is on the line, there is a cost-benefit analysis and (especially without strict regulation), corporations often err on the side of profit over human lives.3

That is to say, when corporations have access to two options: one that makes a smaller amount of money but takes no lives while the other makes a bigger amount of money but costs lives, they are eagerly smashing the “more money” option so long as they believe it does not effect them personally.

Hand smashing button meme

Those other ethical concerns, like cultural values, quality of life, preserving the earth? Well shit, if they can’t give a fuck about the bare existence of human life, why would they give a damn about any of that?

Whether it matters to a business if you live or die is a matter of capital. If they think they can squeeze an extra penny out of you or control your choices by ruining your life, they already have a plan to implement that change by the time you wake up tomorrow. Yes, sure, for the most part – statistically speaking – they need living, breathing subjects to pay up. But they also have every incentive to figure out how to give as little as possible for the highest profit margins.

Just keep in mind that these are the driving forces behind every smart device and service available. Because what happens when you wind up on the shit end of the statistics? And why are we okay that anyone else is subjected to that, either?

Your Data? Our Data :)

The Internet is Still a Privilege

The internet, while being widely available, has become too necessary for functioning day-to-day while still not being nearly accessible enough.

Can’t afford or don’t want an internet capable device with you at all times? How about keeping it charged? How about being privacy conscious and not wanting to be constantly beaming your data into the universe every second of every minute of every hour every day?

Too bad, so sad. Fuck you.

Out of range.

Not Just App-First: App Only

It’s not just that your device needs to be internet capable. No, no — your device must also support the latest and greatest version of whatever app is required to get your gas, pay for parking, you name it there’s an app for it… and there isn’t always a realistic alternative, either.

You’re Going to Get Locked Out

It is all but guaranteed that at some point, you will lose access to your 2FA/MFA, or the service will find a reason to terminate your account without recourse or reasonable appeal. Hopefully it is to something inconsequential, but what happens when it’s your banking app and you need access to it now but the support hours are not until tomorrow? Worse, what if it’s to do with access to medical care?

Someone Else is Getting Let In

Is Not Available in Your Country

I swear to fucking goooddddd

It Gets Worse

Enshittification is rant of its own that I will address in the future, but it plays a role here.

Premium Members Only

Fucking SUBSCRIPTIONSSSS

Keeping Up Is Costly

In this economy??

Nature Still Exists

Environmental ethics and global warming aside, we live on a volatile planet where nature is relentless and unforgiving. Tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis are just a few natural weather occurrences that can destroy huge amounts of infrastructure in the blink of an eye. Not to mention natural decay, or wild animals turning our vital networks into chew toys.

Okay, maybe sharks aren’t actually destroying the internet,4 but it is interesting to learn more about all the cables going defunct under the ocean nonetheless.5 My point is: What actually carries all our data around the globe and what goes into its maintenance against the power of nature?

Have you ever considered what happens if a major data-center6 gets taken out? Speaking of which, do you know what the cloud is?7

What Can We Do?

Directly, there is not much we can do.

It’s becoming a requirement to participate in this hellish landscape of connectivity. Thankfully, such connectivity does have its upsides and positive impacts. But when things go wrong, they can go so very, very wrong.

Staying informed and maintaining a realistic perspective on what’s happening in this space means you are better equipped to advocate and vote for improved regulations, as well as make more informed decisions about which particular products and services you are willing to dive head-first into. At the very least, to consider having backups and plans in place for when things become inaccessible to you.

References in the Media

  • Black Mirror: Season 7, Episode 1 “Common People” 8

Footnotes

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_things ↩

  2. Ibm. (n.d.). Internet of Things. IBM. https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/internet-of-things ↩

  3. Friedman, Hershey & Clifton, Clarke. (2022). Deadly Consequences of Emphasizing Profits over Human Life: How Corporate Greed Has Caused the Death of Millions. Journal of Intercultural Management and Ethics. 5. 19-35. 10.35478/jime.2022.3.03. ↩

  4. https://www.iscpc.org/documents/?id=1959 (PDF) ↩

  5. https://www.iscpc.org/publications/submarine-cable-protection-and-the-environment/ ↩

  6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_center ↩

  7. https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/legacy/sp/nistspecialpublication800-145.pdf ↩

  8. https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/black-mirror-common-people-ending-explained ↩