Science, Philosophy and Sustainability by Pereira Angela Guimaraes Funtowicz Silvio

Author:Pereira, Angela Guimaraes, Funtowicz, Silvio
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-317-63456-0
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

The standard imaginaries of the IoT

Before looking at the actual imagery of the IoT, we define and briefly articulate a four-dimensional space of standard imaginaries that will serve as a useful map to navigate into this complex interface between facts and values, between matter of facts and matters of concern, particularly vague and ambiguous as the factual content is a vision in itself, therefore a fast-moving target. Indeed, as we will see, in order to be operational as if a value-free technoscientific innovation in charge of securing the goods of development and progress, the dream of the IoT is standardised and defended along four dimensions, intrinsically connected and functional to each other. Four standard technoscientific imaginaries are implemented as sophisticated epistemic marketing devices: wonder, power, control and urgency.

Wonder is related to the modern ideal of scientists as explorers of the unknown, in charge of opening the doors of our perception and agency. As we will see, in the context of the IoT, wonder can be defined as the implicit assumption that a technologically mediated, namely a virtual, experience is more valuable and rewarding than a direct one. In this reductionist ideal, experience can be replaced by a series of algorithmic instructions, designed by software and hardware developers. Through this mediation, technology allows then for asymptotically effortless interactions with the external environment, be it social, cultural or natural. As we will explore, this shift entails a progressive alienation from phenomena, and a mediated, aesthetically standardised fruition of them.

Power is rooted in the ideal of extending indefinitely the limits of human being and agency through the creative manipulation of life, energy and matter. Either by reaching new territories on the macro, micro or nano scales, by intervening on organic and inorganic matter, or by fostering the convergence of nano, bio, information technologies and cognitive sciences, the power of human agency on its surroundings consists in a constant exercise of technoscientific creative enhancement of the known and prompt treatment of the unknown. In the IoT scenario, power is related to the possibility of enhancing our intelligence and our capacity to effectively act on our surroundings by hybridising and networking bio-physical, digital and virtual systems into common information spaces.

The founding stone of these standard imaginaries can be found in Francis Bacon’s posthumously published text The New Atlantis. In his writing, Bacon describes a utopia of wealth, happiness and security based on scientific advancements:

We have also engine-houses, where are prepared engines and instruments for all sorts of motions. There we imitate and practise to make swifter motions than any you have, either out of your muskets or any engine that you have; and to make them and multiply them more easily, and with smaller force, by wheels and other means: and to make them stronger, and more violent than yours are; exceeding your greatest cannons and basilisks.

(Bacon 1627a/1996)

His unfinished manuscript ends with a visionary list of ‘wonders of Nature, in particular with respect to human use’ (Bacon 1627b). Here are a few examples:

• The prolongation of life.

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