ACEIZE Tracking the current state of Science and Technology

The guy who runs infosthetics recently went to a conference on pervasive computing (those crazy people with budgets, huh). He sat in on a talk by Adam Greenfield about the ethics of ubiquitous computing. The talk was about the ethics of ubiquitous computing, aka 'everyware' (software that is ubiquitous). The 5 points Adam lays out are:

(1) all ubiquitous systems should default to harmlessness.
(2) ubiquitous systems should be self-disclosing (e.g. be clearly perceptible, "seamlessness" must be an optional mode of operation). proposal of 5 different graphical icons to disclose capabilities of an object (see first image above the post).
(3) be conservative of face, so that ubiquitous systems do not unnecessarily embarrass, humiliate or shame their users.
(4) ubiquitous systems should be conservative of time, not introduce undue complications into ordinary operations.
(5) ubiquitous systems should be deniable, offer users the ability to opt out, always & at any point.

It all sounds pretty reasonable to me.