IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 22

CA: I think we are more connected than ever and I
think that technology has a role. Sometimes we look at
some parts in our digital connection that is broken but
in reality we have never been as connected as today.
We have never been as smart as today because today
you can Google something. In a second you can find an
answer that leads to the next question, so you can build
stuff together even when you're in different parts of the
world. So I believe it's the best time ever for humanity.
I would never travel back in time, I'll always travel forward. We are becoming smarter and I'm very positive
about the future of humanity and I believe technology
connects us, extends us and augments us, and that's
what I'm fascinated about.

you can have constant information on anything that
is happening in your body so you could have alerts
that are triggered for yourself or your medical caregivers and you can know when anything gets out of
shape and you know prevent things way before they
happen. It's a whole new world but I think it's a little ahead of us but nanotechnology things like that,
probably microchips and things like that. Like Google
just announced a little contact lens that will test your
glucose levels constantly and it has just a tiny, tiny
chip and that's going to help a lot of people not to
have to worry about their numbers and be aware of
every moment to prevent accidents and things -
the sky's the limit.

AH: So what will the technology look like if it has
gone from wearable technology to an embedded technology? What sorts of embedded technologies would
we be looking to better understand?

AH: The sky's the limit...what a fantastic title for
this interview. I look forward to hearing a great deal
more about your thoughts in that trajectory of technology as it comes closer and closer and in fact eventually as you say being embedded within us. So thank
you very much for joining me today.

CA: There are going to be chips that we are going
to implant that have GPS, information about our identity, information for health. It is amazing because

OPINION

(continued from page 15)

We are already seeing people do this, i.e., the large
number of wearable health monitoring systems. Let us,
in fact, give equal "weight" to our study and practice of:
■

■
■

Veillance: surveillance and sousveillance (inverse
surveillance);
Curity: security and suicurity; and the
Vironment: environment and exvironment (reciprocal environment, i.e., ourselves as much as that
which surrounds or encircles us).

The extent to which security guards forbid "suicurity"
systems such as the wearable computer, is the extent to which
we are living "in custody," that is, the extent to which we're
expected to "trust security" while being mis-trusted by it.

Author Information
Steve Mann is the Chief Scientist of Meta-View
(spaceglasses.com) and a Professor in the Depart22

CA: Thank you Alexander.

ment of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the
University of Toronto, Canada.

References

[1] D. Cardwell, "At Newark Airport, the lights are on, and they're
watching you," New York Times, Feb. 17, 2014.
[2] R. Rodenbecket al., "Electronic user interface for electronic
mixing of water for residential faucets," U.S. Patent 8, 162, 236,
Apr. 24, 2012.
[3] CBS News, "Cameras can stay in Talisman's locker room, says
commissioner," CBC News, Mar. 22, 2007; http://www.cbc.ca/news/
canada/calgary/cameras-can-stay-in-talisman-s-locker-room-sayscommissioner-1.665716.
[4] L. Bobrige, "Goolwa Shopping Centre toilet cameras defended,"
Newcastle Herald, Mar. 1, 2014.
[5] "The spy who scrubbed me," Daily Mail, Feb. 7, 2014.http://
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2553837/The-spy-scrubbedRussian-official-lets-slip-Sochi-hotels-hidden-surveillance-camerasSHOWERS.html.
[6] "Russian officials fire back at Olympic critics," Wall Street J.,
Feb. 6, 2014.
[7] S. Mann, "Humanistic computing," Proc. IEEE, vol. 86, no. 11,
pp. 2123-2151, 1998.
IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

SUMMER 2014

http://www.cbc.ca/news/ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2553837/The-spy-scrubbed http://www.spaceglasses.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014