Intimate Computing: Abstract presented at the Philosophy Conference "Dimensions of Vulnerability" (Vienna, April 2018)

Digital information technologies become more and more intimately interwoven
with our society and individuals' daily lives. Through developments in sensor
technology and material sciences, technologies such as wearables, high-tech
clothing, smart objects, and assistive technologies become embedded in our
environments and on our bodies. These digital technologies have many
(potential) benefits, e.g., regarding health, efficiency, safety, and human
connection. Yet they also raise concerns about how we might be affected as
human beings, in particular combined with the power of Artificial Intelligence
and Data Science. In this abstract I posit that the 'intimate' nature of these
technologies that collect and respond to us based on highly personal data gives
rise to new human vulnerabilities that affect physical, psychological and
social aspects of our identity. I argue that we should account for these
vulnerabilities in engineering intimate technologies: intimate computing is
computing with vulnerability.