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đŸȘ” The Threshold

Physical space is being redesigned as browse-able environments of sensor data

Properties2
tagsja-picks, define, storystem, definitional_content, trade, singleton, xref, category/definitional-content
aliases@zuboff_age_2019, loc. 647

3 min read

Physical space is being redesigned as browse-able environments of sensor data

Evidence

Paradiso and his colleagues wrestled with the paradox of, on the one hand, proliferating sensor data in nearly every environment—from smartphones to home devices to streets to cameras to cars—and, on the other hand, the difficulties involved in integrating sensor-generated data flows and producing meaningful analyses. Their answer was “DoppelLab,” a digital platform for combining and visually representing sensor data. The idea is to transform any physical space, from the interior of an office building to an entire city, into a “browse-able environment” where you can see and hear everything going on in that space as it flows from thousands or billions or trillions of sensors. Just as browsers like Netscape first “gave us access to the mass of data contained on the internet, so will software browsers enable us to make sense of the flood of sensor data that is on the way.” — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 647

Categorization

  • DEFINE: Introduces ‘DoppelLab’ and the ‘browse-able environment’ concept — the claimed analogy between web browsing and navigating sensor-saturated physical space.
  • STORYSTEM: A world where buildings and cities are fully browse-able, sensored environments is itself a rich speculative-fictional premise — the omniscient browser probing every physical space.
  • XREF: connects to: Data are a physical raw material requiring sensing, storage, and cleaning infrastructure. — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 43; Researchers aim to translate every physical space and behavior into searchable information — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 650; Georgia Tech’s 2000 Aware Home prototype embedded context-aware sensors in a house. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 28 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

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