Wearable computer devices to monitor and control behavior were already imagined in the 1970s

Evidence

The senators reserved their most vivid rebukes for what they considered as the two most extreme and pernicious behavior-modification techniques. The first was psychosurgery. The second was “electrophysiology,” defined as “the use of mechanical devices to control various aspects of human behavior.” The report notes with special horror the example of “devices” designed to be worn by a subject “constantly to monitor and control his behavior through a computer” and to “prevent a suspected behavior from occurring.” — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1018

Categorization

• CANDY: A 1970s Senate report describing a wearable computer that ‘prevents suspected behavior’ reads like a dark joke about an early Fitbit — fun and tweetable.
• XREF: Connects to the running prediction/behavior-modification thread and to the concept of preempting behavior that surveillance capitalism later institutionalizes.