Sci-fi movies bring people not only visual and sensory experience, but also philosophical and political thinking about science and technology and the future. Many sci-fi books or movies have mentioned topics like “chip” and “consciousness upload”. Similar elements appear in the trailers of Feed and Alternative Carbon, which shows that people have never stopped thinking about these ideas. However, imagine one day, humans are really asked to upload, share or transfer their minds, will they be willing to do so? In some medical researches, this may be a good idea, and many companies are already working on chips. However, it takes courage to get the “spirit” out of the body.
One of the things that avoids us to do so is privacy, a power that is important to everyone. Internet practitioners and interaction designers are aware of this from the beginning, so many regular brands will provide “user privacy service regulations” and other similar instructions. Users have the right to choose not to open some functions, such as reading photos, turning on the camera and microphone. However, the operation of IoT is inseparable from various data of users. Our data may really be transmitted far away all the time.
My social science class has a topic about “surveillance capitalism”. It is a new form of information capitalism aims to predict and modify human behavior as a means to produce revenue and market control. I remember the speaker made an interesting point: when we use social media, social media uses us; when we search on Google, Google searches us.
Therefore, even if we don’t want our life to be the same in Black Mirror, we are approaching it unavoidably. If information transparency is an inevitable trend, I hope designers and network workers can consciously remind users to enhance their awareness of privacy protection.
“designers and network workers can consciously remind users to enhance their awareness of privacy protection.” I totally agree with your idea! Information transparency seems more like a Double-edged sword for our life. Thank you for your sharing!
I have heard of the ‘surveillance capitalism’ theory. We can’t let the social medias turn against us and manipulate our behaviors.
I think the point “when we use social media, social media uses us; when we search on Google, Google searches us” is interesting. Yeah, when we are using Instagram look at K-pop idol I like, Instagram will collect the history on what I had browsed, and help them to build their data, but is hard to stop using those internet services in today’s society. Everyone knows there is a risk, but it does bring some positive effects on our life. So I think it is like betting
Very interesting! I agree with your idea that users have the right to choose not to open some functions, such as reading photos, turning on the camera and microphone. However, the operation of IoT is inseparable from various data of users.
Inspiring! I totally agree with your statements. It is interesting to know “surveillance capitalism”. It is true that the scenes in the movie are really close to our real life.
It is great that you mention about predicting and modifying human behavior. I came across on article in JStore dated back in 2008. It mentioned about the prototyping that were used to nudge people behavior through multiple iterations or through user testing.
I agree with you. We share and live a lot of data in the IoT world, and we need to think deeply about whether our privacy is well protected.