Fabien Benetou's PIM | Analysis / PrinciplesForPrototypingWithEmergingTechnologies

Most of the prototypes built here rely on emerging technologies including but not limited to : virtual reality, augmented reality, Internet of things, 3-D printing and artificial intelligence

All of those prototypes do rely on software either running locally remotely or on the edge

All those prototype do consume energy at different rates.

There are different impacts on using emerging technology starting with energy consumption recycling but also questions of power for example who controls the stack is the software stack open source? Is it open hardware?

In the case of artificial intelligence is the data set open? Has it been created? Thanks to human labellers, are their working condition good if so have they been paid for fairly?

It is important from an ethical and moral standpoint to be prototypes because it questions how technology can be used or should be used

That said, though building prototypes and sharing them will have social and sociable consequences .

It is important then not to confuse the building and sharing of prototypes relying on emerging technologies with the promotion of such technologies

Some of the stacks are technically impressive sometimes maybe even unique but they might be produced in conditions that are not socially positive. They might also be used as tools in order to concentrate power for example through the centralisation of data or of drivers required in order to run the hardware.

Consequently, it is important when trying remixing or promoting the results of such new prototypes to be aware of the process itself and the consequence of using those technologies

Arguably, a good heuristic for relying safely on emerging technologies in prototyping and otherwise is to understand if it increases imbalance of power or rather if it decreases them thus promoting collaboration

This specifically has been the pinned tweet since 2020 : "avoiding gadgets or services (free or not) that increase inequality by design, through technology or business model or both, would be a good starting point." cf https://x.com/utopiah/status/1306566303839391744 and has served as an interesting guideline in order to invest, either by purchasing, learning a framework or participating to events for emerging technologies

Even though all this is currently applied to XR or IoT or AI, it is also applicable to future emerging technologies that do not exist today

Principles For Prototyping With Emerging Technologies {Analysis}