Have you ever heard of smart buildings? They’re the cornerstone of smart cities that promise to make life easier by providing a personalized experience for their occupants and managing interactions between them and their environment.
However, there are some concerns about this technology, mainly about privacy. And there’s much more to think about regarding this concern. So how are digital technologies making their way into our homes and workplaces affecting our freedom of action and our ability to make our own decisions?
With the rise of ubiquitous computing, the interactions between people and their environment are becoming less visible. People don’t realize they are constantly being monitored. As an example, personalization allows us to adjust the temperature and brightness in our workspace to the perfect level, which can be great, but it also comes with a cost.
We can no longer act completely free as our choices are impacted by the technology and the algorithms that control them.
I’m reminded of John Locke’s analogy of the locked room. Imagine a person who wakes up in a room and is having a great time chatting with an old friend. However, unbeknownst to that person, the door is locked, so even though they are enjoying the moment, they are not free because they can’t leave if they want to.
This is similar to what’s happening in smart buildings. Occupants benefit from the personalization and the comfort that comes with it. Still, they are not free because their actions are controlled by technology and algorithms, which are far from neutral.
Our ability to make our own decisions is being challenged. Arendt, a German philosopher, saw freedom of action as one of the most fundamental rights of humans, and smart buildings infringe on this right.
So, what can be done to protect our freedom? To begin with, we need to be able to make informed choices about the technology in our buildings. We must be able to decide for ourselves the role technology should play in our lives.
Ultimately, smart buildings should adhere to a philosophy close to the one that Socrates outlined in The Republic – a city where people have the luxury of making their own choices rather than having them made for them.
Technology and digitalization can be great assets, and we should embrace them. But not at the expense of our freedom. Smart buildings should be places where people are free to make their own choices.
