Intimate Computing

This upload comprises the abstract and slides of a talk I gave at the philosophy conference 'Dimensions of Vulnerability' in Vienna, 2018, outlining my vision of 'Intimate Computing'. 

Digital information technologies become more and more intimately interwoven with our society and individuals' daily lives. Through developments in sensor technology and material sciences, technologies such as wearables, high-tech clothing, smart objects, and assistive technologies become embedded in our environments and on our bodies. These digital technologies have many (potential) benefits, e.g., regarding health, efficiency, safety, and human connection. Yet they also raise concerns about how we might be affected as human beings, in particular combined with the power of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science. In this abstract I posit that the 'intimate' nature of these technologies that collect and respond to us based on highly personal data gives rise to new human vulnerabilities that affect physical, psychological and social aspects of our identity. I argue that we should account for these vulnerabilities in engineering intimate technologies: intimate computing is computing with vulnerability.