The trouble with ubiquitous technology pushers

The idea has seized our imaginations with all the force of a logical necessity. In fact, you could almost say that the idea is the idea of logical necessity — the necessity of embedding little bits of silicon logic in everything around us. What was once the feverish dream of spooks and spies — to plant a “bug” in every object — has been enlarged and re-shaped into the millennial dream of ubiquitous computing. In this new dream, of course, the idea of a bug in every object carries various unpleasant overtones. But there are also overtones in the larger and better-promoted notion of ubiquitous computing, despite the fact that our ears are not yet attuned to them.