“The Internet of Things,” in which a weave of networked perception wraps every space, every place, every thing, and every body on Earth.
It’s clear that the appeal of this is overwhelmingly to young workers in the technology industry itself, the control they harvest from the act of quantification intended to render them psychophysically suitable for performance in a work environment characterized by implacable release schedules and a high operational tempo.
a not-insignificant percentage of the population has so decisively internalized the values of the market for their labor that the act of re-sculpting themselves to better meet its needs feels like authentic self-expression.
You get your detergent on time, yes, but Amazon gets so much more. They get data on the time and place of your need, as well as its frequency and intensity, and that data has value.
Defining the Internet of Things
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Mike Kuniavsky (technologist and early proponent of IoT):
Describes a state where “computation and data communication [are] embedded in, and distributed through, our entire environment.” -
Greenfield’s interpretation:
This represents the colonization of everyday life by information processing—the extension of digital rationalization into every domain of material and social existence.
From Smart Devices to Smart Homes
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The “smart home” is the most recent manifestation of this logic:
A conscious, coherent effort to recruit domestic and intimate spaces into continuous technological upgrade cycles. -
Economic logic:
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Promotes subscription-based services and perpetual resupply of consumables.
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The promise of convenience replaces the earlier novelty of connection as the selling point.
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Implication:
The home becomes an extension of the marketplace—an instrument for constant data extraction and product dependency.
Quantified Self and Biometric Monitoring
“More elaborate models measure heart rate, breathing, skin temperature and even perspiration—biological primitives from which higher-order psychoemotional states like stress, boredom or arousal can be inferred.”
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The Quantified Self movement:
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Uses biometric data to track and optimize one’s physical and mental states.
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Example: metrics designed to “quantify inner peace” once associated with Zen or yoga disciplines.
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Critical perspective:
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While presenting as self-knowledge, these technologies impose a regime of efficiency and disciplinary power over the body.
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Biometric tracking aligns with late-capitalist imperatives of productivity, optimization, and self-surveillance.
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Life-Hacking and Neoliberal Subjectivity
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Cultural context:
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The appeal of biometric tracking and “life-hacking” is strongest among tech-industry workers under intense productivity demands.
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Quantification becomes a tool for maintaining performance under “implacable release schedules and high operational tempo.”
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Subjective internalization:
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Many have internalized market values so deeply that reshaping themselves for efficiency feels like authentic self-expression.
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The self becomes a project of optimization, aligned with the logic of capital rather than resistance to it.
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Data, Convenience, and Surveillance Capitalism
“You get your detergent on time, yes, but Amazon gets so much more.”
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Exchange logic:
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Consumers trade convenience for data.
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Companies harvest data on time, place, frequency, and intensity of needs—turning everyday behavior into valuable predictive information.
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![[Radical Technologies pp. 31-62 AC.pdf]]