Archive
Black box

Some links: miscellaneous, pertinent to architectures of control

By: Dan
01-09-2006
1984, Analog hole, Architecture & urbanism, Audio, Bad design, Black box, Broadcast flag, Bureaucracy, Business model, Cargo cult, Censorship, Cinema, Circumvention, Civil rights, Consumer rights, Control, Copyfight, Copyright, Corruption, Creeping erosion of norms, Crime, Deleuze, Democracy of innovation, Design, Design engineering, Design philosophy, Design with Intent, Designers, Digital rights, Discrimination, Discriminatory Architecture, Distasteful corollary, Do artifacts have politics?, DRM, Dystopia, Education, Embedding code, Engineering, Engineering design, Entertainment, Entropy, Erosion of liberty, Everyware, Exclusion, External Control, Feature deletion, Fightback Devices, Forcing functions, Foucault, Freedom to tinker, Future, Gadgets, Gravy train, Greasing palms, Health and safety, Hidden persuaders, Indoctrination, Intellectual property, Interaction design, Internet economics, Intrusive technology, Invention, Killjoy technology, Law, Legislation, Liberty, Lobbying, Monopoly, Movie industry, MP3, MPAA, Music, Music industry, Norms, Observation, Open source, Oppression, Orwellian, Panopticon, Pervasive computing, Philosophy of control, Political design, Privacy, Product design, Propaganda, Prophecy, Protest, Public money, Punishment, Razor blade model, Regulation, Rent-seeking, Restriction, Reverse engineering, RIAA, Security, Site Announcements, Sneaky, Social engineering, Software, Spatial, Stallman, Stifling innovation, Surveillance, Technical protection measures, Techniques of persuasion, Technology, Technology policy, Technology underclass, Treacherous computing, Trusted Computing, Ubiquitous computing, Underclass, Urban, User experience, User Psychology, Vague rhetoric, Worldwide, Your property

Ulises Mejias on ‘Confinement, Education and the Control Society’ – fascinating commentary on Deleuze’s societies of control and how the instant communication and ‘life-long learning’ potential (and, I guess, everyware) of the internet age may facilitate control and repression:

“This is the paradox of social media that has been bothering me lately: an ‘empowering’ media that provides increased opportunities for communication, education and online participation, but which at the same time further isolates individuals and aggregates them into masses —more prone to control, and by extension more prone to discipline.”

Slashdot on ‘A working economy without DRM?’ – same debate as ever, but some very insightful comments

Slashdot on ‘Explaining DRM to a less-experienced PC user’ – I particularly like SmallFurryCreature’s ‘Sugar cube’ analogy

‘The Promise of a Post-Copyright World’ by Karl Fogel – extremely clear analysis of the history of copyright and, especially, the way it has been presented to the public over the centuries

(Via BoingBoing) The Entertrainer – a heart monitor-linked TV controller: your TV stays on with the volume at a usable level only while you keep exercising at the required rate. Similar concept to Gillian Swan’s Square-Eyes

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The illusion of control

By: Dan
30-08-2006
Bad design, Black box, Cargo cult, Consumer rights, Control, Creeping erosion of norms, Design, Design engineering, Design philosophy, Design with Intent, Designers, Do artifacts have politics?, Dystopia, Engineering, Engineering design, Entropy, Erosion of liberty, External Control, Feature deletion, Freedom to tinker, Future, Gadgets, Good design, Hidden persuaders, Indoctrination, Innovation, Interaction design, Intrusive technology, Liberty, Mistake-proofing, Norms, Observation, Philosophy of control, Poka-yoke, Political design, Product design, Propaganda, Restriction, Sneaky, Social engineering, Spatial, Techniques of persuasion, Technology, Technology policy, Technology underclass, Treacherous computing, Trusted Computing, User experience, User Psychology, Vague rhetoric, Worldwide, Your property

De-calibrated thermostat control on a storage heater

Scott Adams recounts an anecdote illustrating the ‘illusion of control’ and how important it is to many people – even to the extent that it is the single defining characteristic of mankind which one might use to explain human behaviour to aliens:

“The maintenance man is moving the thermostat in our office today. I started talking with him about the “Thermostat Wars” [from Dilbert comics]. He told me about one office with 30 women where they could never get the temperature to an agreeable level. At his suggestion they installed 20 dummy thermostats around the office. Everyone was told that each thermostat controlled the zone around itself.

Problem solved. Now that everyone has “control” of their own thermostat there is no problem.”

To what extent is the illusion of control, rather than real control, what most people really want in their products?

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‘Carmakers must tell buyers about black boxes’

By: Dan
25-08-2006
Black box, Bureaucracy, Civil rights, Consumer rights, Control, Copyright, Crime, Design, Design engineering, Design philosophy, Design with Intent, Designers, Do artifacts have politics?, Embedding code, Engineering, Engineering design, Everyware, External Control, Future, Gadgets, Health and safety, Innovation, Law, Legislation, Liberty, Motoring, Norms, Panopticon, Pervasive computing, Philosophy of control, Political design, Privacy, Product design, Public money, Speed control, Speeding, Surveillance, Techniques of persuasion, Technology, Technology policy, Traffic calming, Ubiquitous computing, User experience, User Psychology, Vague rhetoric, Your property

A traffic jam in south London, 2002

According to Reuters,

“The [US] government will not require recorders in autos but said on Monday that car makers must tell consumers when technology that tracks speed, braking and other measurements is in the new vehicles they buy.

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The Privacy Ceiling

By: Dan
22-08-2006
Bad design, Black box, Bureaucracy, Business model, Civil rights, Consumer rights, Control, Copyright, Creeping erosion of norms, Crime, Design, Design engineering, Design philosophy, Design with Intent, Designers, Digital rights, Discriminatory Architecture, Distasteful corollary, Do artifacts have politics?, DRM, Embedding code, Engineering, Engineering design, Everyware, External Control, Feature deletion, Future, Good design, Insurance, Intellectual property, Interaction design, Intrusive technology, Invention, Law, Legislation, Norms, Panopticon, Patents, Pervasive computing, Philosophy of control, Political design, Privacy, Product design, Prophecy, Regulation, Restriction, Surveillance, Technical protection measures, Techniques of persuasion, Technology, Technology policy, Treacherous computing, Trusted Computing, Ubiquitous computing, User experience, User Psychology, Worldwide, Your property

Scott Craver of the University of Binghamton has a very interesting post summarising the concept of a ‘privacy ceiling’:

“This is an economic limit on privacy violation by companies, owing to the liability of having too much information about (or control over) users.”

It’s the “control over users” that immediately makes this something especially relevant for designers and technologists to consider: that control is designed, consciously, into products and systems, but how much thought is given to the extremes of how it might be exercised, especially in conjunction with the wealth of information that is gathered on users?

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Ed Felten: DRM Wars, and ‘Property Rights Management’

By: Dan
15-08-2006
Analog hole, Arbitrary, Bad design, Black box, Broadcast flag, Bureaucracy, Business model, Cargo cult, Cartridges, Circumvention, Civil rights, Consumer rights, Control, Copyfight, Copyright, Creeping erosion of norms, Deleuze, Democracy of innovation, Design, Design engineering, Design philosophy, Design with Intent, Designed to be unpleasant, Designers, Digital rights, Discrimination, Discriminatory Architecture, Distasteful corollary, Do artifacts have politics?, Dongle, DRM, Dystopia, Embedding code, Engineering, Engineering design, Entropy, Erosion of liberty, Exclusion, External Control, Feature deletion, Fightback Devices, Firmware, Forcing functions, Freedom to tinker, Future, Gadgets, Hidden persuaders, Indoctrination, Ink cartridges, Innovation, Intellectual property, Interaction design, Internet economics, Intrusive technology, Invention, Killjoy technology, Law, Legislation, Liberty, Lobbying, Monopoly, Norms, Open source, Oppression, Patents, Philosophy of control, Political design, Printers, Product design, Propaganda, Prophecy, Protest, Razor blade model, Regulation, Rent-seeking, Restriction, Reverse engineering, Sneaky, Social engineering, Software, Specious arguments, Stifling innovation, Technical protection measures, Techniques of persuasion, Technology, Technology policy, Treacherous computing, Trusted Computing, User experience, User Psychology, Worldwide, Your property

RFID Velcro?

At Freedom to Tinker, Ed Felten has posted a summary of a talk he gave at the Usenix Security Symposium, called “DRM Wars: The Next Generation”. The two installments so far (Part 1, Part 2) trace a possible trend in the (stated) intentions of DRM’s proponents, from it being largely promoted as a tool to help enforce copyright law (and defeat ‘illegal pirates’) to the current stirrings of DRM’s being explicitly acknowledged as a tool to facilitate discrimination and lock-in — and the apparent ‘benefits of this’:

“First, they argue that DRM enables price discrimination — business models that charge different customers different prices for a product — and that price discrimination benefits society, at least sometimes. Second, they argue that DRM helps platform developers lock in their customers, as Apple has done with its iPod/iTunes products, and that lock-in increases the incentive to develop platforms.

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Freedom to Tinker – The Freedom to Tinker with Freedom?

By: Dan
04-08-2006
1984, Arbitrary, Bad design, Black box, Bureaucracy, Business model, Cargo cult, Circumvention, Civil rights, Consumer rights, Control, Copyfight, Corruption, Creeping erosion of norms, Crime, Democracy of innovation, Design, Design engineering, Design philosophy, Design with Intent, Designed to be unpleasant, Designers, Digital rights, Distasteful corollary, Do artifacts have politics?, DRM, Dystopia, Embedding code, Engineering, Engineering design, Erosion of liberty, Exclusion, Feature deletion, Freedom to tinker, Future, Gadgets, Gravy train, Greasing palms, Indoctrination, Innovation, Intellectual property, Interaction design, Internet economics, Intrusive technology, Invention, Killjoy technology, Law, Legislation, Liberty, Lobbying, Monopoly, Norms, Open source, Patents, Philosophy of control, Political design, Privacy, Product design, Propaganda, Prophecy, Protest, Public money, Punishment, Regulation, Rent-seeking, Restriction, Reverse engineering, Stifling innovation, Technical protection measures, Techniques of persuasion, Technology, Technology policy, Technology underclass, Treacherous computing, Trusted Computing, User experience, User Psychology, Worldwide, Your property

An open bonnet At Freedom to Tinker, David Robinson asks whether, in a world where DRM is presented to so many customers as a benefit (e.g. Microsoft’s Zune service), the public as a whole will be quite happy to trade away its freedom to tinker, whether the law needs to intervene in this, and on which side: ensuring freedom to tinker, or outlawing it in order to enshrine the business model that “most people” will be portrayed as wanting, given the numbers who sign away their rights in EULAs and so on.

“Many of us, who may find ourselves arguing based on public reasons for public policies that protect the freedom to tinker, also have a private reason to favor such policies. The private reason is that we ourselves care more about tinkering than the public at large does, and we would therefore be happier in a protected-tinkering world than the public at large would be.”

Many of the comments – and those on the follow-up post – look in more detail at the legal issues, with some very interesting analogies to freedom of expression and points made about the impact on innovation – which benefits everyone – when power users are prevented from innovating.

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Written by Dan Lockton, 2004-12

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