The dream of the Internet of Things: Do we really want, can and need to be smart?

In this chapter we explore the emergence and the co-evolution of unprecedented epistemic, normative and ethical dilemmas, rising from latest developments of our information and communication technologies, namely the so-called Internet of Things (IoT). Which ethics do we choose and apply for negotiating with the ever increasingly pervasive automated systems that are embedded in our daily life? How many and what aspects of our own agency, ability to think, feel and decide are we willing to sacrifice for our own survival? Where and how do we set the boundary between living and merely functioning? Do we need to preserve human agency and experience as we know them or witness, more radically, the possible transformation of their very nature? We argue that these unresolved and most often unseen matters of concern can be interpreted paradoxically as the epitome and the failure of the Cartesian dream of separation between the body and the mind, and of prediction and control over natural and societal phenomena.

BENESSIA Alice;  MARTINHO GUIMARAES PIRES PEREIRA Angela; 

2016-01-05

Routledge

JRC91438

978-1-138-79641-6,   

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC91438,