Here a chip*, there a chip, everywhere a chip-chip!
What are all these chips doing besides driving us all crazy?
Some do important things like remind us to put our seat belt on in the car or turn off the car lights.  One day, our refrigerator might call our car to remind us to pick up milk on the way home.
Technology surrounds us.  So doesn’t the word pervasive attached to the word technology seem redundant?
 

Pervasive technology is also referred to as pervasive computing.

On the National Institute of Standards & Technology web site: www.nist.gov/pc2001/, pervasive computing is described as “shorthand for the strongly emerging trend toward” computing devices being:

· Numerous, casually accessible, often invisible
· Mobile or imbedded in the environment
· Connected to an increasingly ubiquitous network structure

I like what the site writes for us computer users:

The underlying premise [of pervasive computing or technology] is compelling—simplicity of use, ubiquitous access, minimal technical expertise, reliability and more intuitive interaction.  The aim is for easier computing; more available everywhere it's needed.

 When people talk about pervasive technology or pervasive computing, what they are really talking about is the concept of “forward thinking” and how technology gets incorporated into our daily lives.  Successful corporations think about customers’ needs evolving in the near future and how to best respond.  If they don’t think that way, they may become obsolete!

As big as our world seems, it seems it’s getting smaller and smaller with every chip produced.  We really are all connected.  We seem to have no choice but to accept new technology, for one way or the other it will infiltrate our lives.  But how much of this pervasiveness is necessary?

John Thackara, designer, writer and researcher and director of Doors of Perception, discusses the challenge of pervasive computing on his web site:

www.doorsofperception.com/projects/chi/
 
 

Thackara ponders the cultural consequences that result when everything around us is smart and networked.  He believes in creating technology for its usefulness rather than for creation’s sake.  He says we need to consider the fact that just because an item is usable doesn’t make it useful.

That said, we need our ethicists who specialize in technology.  And it is crucial that technology law continues to rapidly grow.

When we can responsibly think our inventions and their consequences through, we may find that pervasive technology finds us at a better place than we were before.
 
 

*A chip is the central processing unit (CPU) or electronic brain of the computer

 She can be reached by email at jana@barberio.com