Smartness Mandate News Today

In the August 2023 issue of E&T, readers discuss the implications of switching off 3G communications for rural communities, the relative virtues of electric vehicles and more.

Smartness, the drive towards ubiquitous computing, has gone beyond technological horizon-scanning to shaping the way we live today, says Orit Halpern.

Who doesn’t dream of owning a house that automatically closes the windows when it starts to rain, or a car that copes with traffic so you don’t have to? The science fiction of yesterday is today’s reality, and even better days are on the horizon. Such is the promise of “smartness.” It’s touted as the answer to all of humanity’s problems, a path not just to prosperity but to the very survival of our species. Is a smart future inevitable, though? What would a world constructed by sma...