The broken dream of pervasive sentient ambient calm invisible ubiquitous computing

Abstract

We dreamt of technology becoming invisible, for our wants and needs to be primary and the tools we use for making them a reality to become like a genie, a snap of the fingers and ta daa, everything is realised. What went wrong? Was this always an impossible dream? How did we end up with this fetishised obsession with mobile phones? How did we end up with technology tearing apart our sense of experience and replacing it with 'Likes'. No one meant this to happen, not even US Corporates, they just wanted to own us, not diminish our sense of existing and interacting within the real world. In this paper we consider how tools took over, and how the dream of ubiquitous (or whatever its called) computing was destroyed. We rally rebellious forces and consider how we might fight back, and whether we should even bother trying.