Design and Distribution of Detachable Digital Prostheses

2 Design and Distribution of Detachable Digital Prostheses

Numerous social representations about digital objects are generating elements of technological creativity, as much in the imagination and in terms of affective and financial investment, as in the desire that they incite. This desire is expressed through the proliferation of models on the market, software applications and, last but not least, new social practices. Whilst the actors who design endoprostheses or bionic limb prostheses can be relatively easily identified, since they are linked to a reduced number of scientific domains, there is a plethora of industrial actors who design and distribute detachable digital prostheses. It is impossible to encapsulate all the research being carried out at the moment in this field. In order to study detachable digital prostheses, I looked into the conditions in which the materials and digital technology software are created, and paid a visit to a Japanese laboratory known to excel in this field of research. The idea was to get closer to a laboratory that combines research with implantable digital articles and research into detachable digital devices. In addition to this 3-month participatory observation, I have focused my research on scientific articles about cognitive digital prostheses. The explosion of both smartphones and tablets into our social environment, which took place at the time of my research, was of particular interest to me. The social impact of information technology is not a surprise after-effect. Since 1948, the first publication that made the notion of information technology and cybernetics accessible to all already designated this tool as a possible “governing

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device”, as a technological system in a position to rationalize the function of society and enable the governing classes to control society and the economy to a greater extent [DUB 48]. Father Dominique Dubarle put us on our guard and described the uses of information technology that turned out to be the true uses in what followed. The more recent predictions of Mark Weiser [WEI 93] are also in the process of coming true. This researcher anticipates that the next evolution on the drawing board appears to relate to the fact that computers are tending to become more and more “ubiquitous” and “pervasive”. The digital prostheses that have the greatest effects on the social universe are perhaps not implants, but rather detachable devices to transform us into “enhanced humans”. Thanks to the possibility of placing microprocessors in a greater number of tools, the advent of detachable body prostheses, which were previously unknown, is now possible. Engineers are constantly creating new applications for cognitive prostheses. They are currently in the form of touchpads, but they will probably move closer to the human body and take the form of glasses, watches and perhaps jewelry. A ubiquitous presence of information technology in our lives, when the interaction with a program is no longer a choice, but a systematic act imposed by society, can be considered as a true form of excessiveness1. For Plato, excessiveness consists of allowing ourselves to be guided by a “human madness”2. He insists on no longer taking certain realities, certain objective limits, into account. For Aristotle, immoderation and excess are essentially related to an “outrage”. This process can, in a certain way, be put into perspective with another, extremely worrying form of excessiveness, which is that expressed by a means of accelerated exhaustion of natural resources. These two forms of excessiveness appear to be fed by a common driving force, in all probability linked to the implementation of unbridled capitalism, disconnected from traditionally instituted operational modes

1 Excessiveness is denoted by hybris in Ancient Greek. The term “hybrid”, on the other hand, originates from the Latin word “ibrida”, which means “hybrid” or “mixed”. The English word brings it closer to the term hybris, perhaps due to the fact that hybridity can be seen as a kind of excessiveness. Seeking to hybridize Metal and the Flesh is in any case an ambitious undertaking, almost demiurgic, and is a reflection of the extreme ambition of modern sciences and in particular of cybernetics, to create robots, to reconstruct the living or to modify humans themselves. 2 Socrates, in Plato, makes a distinction between two types of madness, manike, one positive, “divine madness”, and the other detrimental, “human folly”. See Plato, Phaedrus followed by Jacques Derrida, La Pharmacie de Platon, pp. 114–115 (243e–244b), Flammarion, Paris, 1992.

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and rhythms. Cyber-utopianism serves as a contrast to legitimize this techno-scientific explosion, the pure product of industrial mechanization. 2.1. Constructing self-animated objects such as digital prostheses The commercial and industrial dimension and the R&D efforts made have been integral to crafting the systems that we use at present3. During my stay at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, I experienced the daily lives of international research teams4 at the cutting edge of cybernetics. I was able to fundamentally appreciate the confrontation between invasive and non-invasive approaches and the comparison between the various methods of non-invasive interfacing. My objectives were: – to understand current technological trends (this allowed me to gain knowledge of augmented reality, in the same way as image processing5 and haptic interfaces); – to study at the imagination and practices at work in a research establishment into cybernetics in Japan. A very warm welcoming committee, comprising PhD and Master’s students, welcomed me on my arrival, on March 12, 2008. Right from the start, I felt included in the group. The “group” is something systematically brought to the forefront in Japan. The research environment is no exception to this. The buildings in Suzukakedai are very beautiful and modern. One thing surprised me, however; the relative disorder, something that is extremely uncommon in Japan, that prevailed in the laboratories. Research, just like social life in Japan, functions mainly on the basis of groups operating under an elder, a “central pillar” known as a daikoku bashira. At the laboratory, this role of a “father figure” was taken on by the Director of the laboratory, Yasuharu Koike, who supervised all research undertaken.

3 After all, keyboards could be partially operated by feet, like a piano, or their keys could be positioned in alphabetical order in the same way as the first Minitel models. Trackballs could appear more frequently on our desks than mice and so on. Light pens have gone out of fashion and the digital drawing tablet tends to only useful for computer-aided design, although these interfaces could have very easily become more widespread. 4 These laboratories have professors, associate professors, assistant professors, post-doctoral students, and students studying for PhDs or Master’s courses. 5 Image processing means “image processing by computer”. This is an essential technique to create a visual effect of augmented reality in real time.

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Yasuharu Koike, was seconded by a post-doctoral student, Hiroyuki Kambara. The laboratory at the time had seven PhD students and around 15 Master’s degree students. The Tokyo Tech environment was mainly made up of men; there was only one woman amongst the Master’s students and one woman amongst the PhD students. Many wall decorations made reference to the world of video games and mecha (anthropoid robotized vehicles that feature in the imaginary world of science-fiction mangas). In the room allotted to the Master’s students, there was even a shelf dedicated to science-fiction mangas. I also often spent time in the Sato Lab (research into haptic and virtual reality interfaces) and the Kumazawa Lab (research into image processing and augmented reality). The worlds of devices and digital programs, for engineers, are intellectual and cultural spaces that they consider to be secure and protective. The status of students at Tokyo Tech is held in high esteem due to the prestigious reputation of establishment. Forging Metal is also a gratifying activity, since significant advances are regularly carried out and they throw up opportunities in various fields, ranging from mechanics to hi-fi systems, and including optics, video games, biometrics, robotics and medicine. The Tokyo Tech engineers who undertake the design of prostheses for the body generally have the ambition of succeeding in establishing replicas for missing body parts. However, rather than looking to “improve” the Flesh, the R&D that I observed was above all constantly striving to perfect Metal. The fields of research seen in these laboratories aim to design and experiment with a range of interfaces (BCI, haptic, EMG, NIRS, etc.) to create prostheses and robots. There was a striking abundance of state-of-the-art equipment. In contrast to management of the personnel, it seemed that there was a very low degree of financial constraint on investment in scientific and information technology equipment. The various latest technological novelties created by large Japanese and global industrial groups were made available to students. There was also a large number of robots around. Experiments by the Koike Lab used Sony aibos in particular, as well as very complex humanoid robots and industrial robot arms. At Tokyo Tech, there was a plethora of flat screens, some of which were of a very large size, something rather avant-garde for the time. The laboratory director, symbolically, had an enormous screen in his office for videoconferences and displaying PowerPoints.

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It is very much due to this opulent use of technology that since 2008 I have been familiar with the uses of facial recognition technologies and that I have an understanding of the issues related to 3D printers. However, I noticed that the use of this large amount of equipment was hindered by the time taken to create control programs for the devices. Thus, a humanoid robot that was in one of the laboratory rooms was not used, because for this to happen, a large amount of C-language programming would be necessary in order to make its arms and legs move, or for it to maintain its own balance. My observations confirm those made by Marie-Christine Pouchelle who considers that Japanese techniques advance faster in the fields of mechanics and electromechanics than in the field of programming6. According to the author, this is due to the highly esteemed position held by the discipline of mechanics in the history of research in Japan. At Tokyo Tech, the laboratories are accessible at all times of the day and night. A fellow PhD student, due to his very large workload, sometimes slept beside his computer. Moreover, a camp bed was available in the PhD students’ room as well as a few blankets. Indeed, researchers in Japan spend an enormous amount of time in their laboratories, and there are no scheduled hours. The campus is only closed a few times a year for bank holidays. What appeared to me to be very impressive in the Japanese-style organization of research was the systematic sharing of researchers’ individual resources, under supervision by the head of the laboratory. Another, more specific example illustrates this Japanese-style organization. One day is set aside for students and professors to share the task of cleaning the laboratories on campus. Everyone must be present. In a single working day, all the classrooms and floors of the immense campus are cleaned. The furniture, printed documents and books are all completely sorted and tidied away. I have never seen, in any French administration system, this kind of pooled effort amongst all students, teaching and administrative personnel.

6 Étienne Dombre, Jacques Gangloff, Guillaume Morel et al., La Robotique chirurgicale au Japon, Unpublished report, Ambassade de France au Japon: Service pour la Science et la Technologie, available at: http://eavr.u-strasbg.fr/media/rapport_amb_rob_chir _japon_08.pdf, 2008. The anthropological report can be consulted at: http://www.iiac.cnrs.fr/IMG/pdf/La_robotique.pdf, 2008.

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The factor that drew me to the Koike Lab at the Tokyo Tech in 2008 was the open-mindedness and technical ambition expressed there through research subjects pertaining to all forms of Human/Machine Interfaces (HMIs). Fifteen years ago, the idea of being able to control a robot, a drone or a robotic limb just by thought was still viewed by the general public as a science-fiction fantasy. In Japan and in the USA, it has not been stated categorically that these subjects of research are “eccentric”. Very much to the contrary, there has been experimentation with different approaches. I note that, at Tokyo Tech, the research directors have a priori not closed their minds to ideas that are very ambitious or very unlikely to become a reality. A failure to create a device serves in any case as feedback, which demonstrates the feasibility or not of one technique or another. Organization of research was essentially subdivided, in 2008, as follows: a restricted group (the director and a few assistants) experimented with invasive HMIs on rhesus monkeys. Another group improved the techniques of neuron networks (allowing rapid calculations to be carried out, which are the interpretative basis of myoelectric signals sensed by electrodes), and another part of the laboratory designed graphics and haptic interfaces and tried to improve the ergonomics of the interfaces and image processing tools. Previous sets of experiments had demonstrated that two types of non-invasive interfaces appeared to be most promising: detection of the body’s myoelectric signals (EMG) in the arms, shoulders and legs and detection of Near Infra-Red Signal (NIRS) in the brain. Little by little, all activities carried out in the laboratory became focused on interfaces that had been observed to be the most efficient, that is to say, myoelectric devices7. It seems that HMIs based on electroencephalography (EEG) had already been discarded a long time before I arrived at the laboratory. In the past, this direct detection of brain activity gave inconclusive results about controlling digital devices. Researchers working on NIRS seemed to confirm that this approach to create a BCI HMI was more difficult to put in place than an EMG interface. Research into NIRS at the Koike Lab also seemed to be in the process of being abandoned. In the neighboring laboratory, this kind of selection process between projects had taken place a few years beforehand. Following what were obviously several 7 Hiroyuki Kambara, Kyoungsik Kim, Duk Shin et al., “Learning and generation of goal-directed arm reaching from scratch”, Neural Networks, vol. 22, pp. 348–361, 4 May 2009.

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experiments into haptic control, the “SPIDAR” system had been chosen and the entire laboratory sought to improve it with the intention of increasing its adoption and commercialization. At the Koike Lab, the research fields of invasive HMIs and bionic limbs were the most prestigious. On the one hand, this required strong interdisciplinarity between biology and information technology, and, on the other hand, this field legitimized the allocation of part of the funding. The theme of “repaired humans” is strongly supported by public and private investment. The imaginary world of the body-machine is highly mobilized as part of such research. Repairing the body with mechanics and information technology is seen as a “noble” activity, complementary to medical procedures. With therapeutic information technology prostheses, the imagined situation of a “salvatory action” is expressed. Research into invasive interfaces was carried out at the Koike Lab by a PhD student who was both a medical doctor and a computer scientist. The experiments, carried out on rhesus monkeys, tested possible modes of connection between a primate’s nervous system and computer wiring. Something that I retain from these experiments is that animal testing, especially on living things as expressive and as similar to humans as rhesus monkeys, triggered a certain moral unease within the team and in myself. The animals undergo surgery to the cranium, fixed to metal structures. The experimental procedures seemed to me to be horrendous torture. For my colleagues, all these experiments were legitimized by the need to treat disabled humans and to ensure the “progression of science”. It was suggested that I make an attempt to distance myself emotionally, but this made me deeply uneasy. I could not resolve myself to accepting to watch the experiments in situ. During a conversation, Yasuharu Koike himself admitted feeling this moral unease caused by animal suffering. In his opinion, analgesics and euthanasia were methods that allowed the treatments inflicted on these sensitive creatures to be made “humane”. Moreover, the non-invasive detection of physiological signals of the human body is a method that presents no danger to the body, because it does nothing more than detect and use signals emitted naturally by the body. In this field, students benefitted from much free rein to create new applications for emerging technologies, or to create new technologies from nothing.

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With a few years’ hindsight, I realize that research hypotheses that I observed there have now been released to a wider audience (especially in the field of augmented reality). Engineers who proposed portable information technology systems for “cognitive” uses do not necessarily associate themselves with any imagined therapeutic approach. The main argument in favor of the promotion of cognitive prostheses is to “make life easier”, to “make things simpler” and to increase productivity at work. The creation of very complex mechanisms to “make life more pleasant” causes the load of “complexity” to be shifted, to the detriment of the user. The more the machine is complex and said to be “intelligent”, the more the user is excused from acquiring any kind of expertise, nor are they required to move in order for their desire to come true. For example, to avoid having to get up to change the channel, engineers have invented remote controls. Zapping or channel surfing therefore becomes much simpler for the user. Engineers have knowingly created a relatively complex technical object to simplify the lives of users. The new tool was taken on by users who are positioned at the cutting edge of innovation. From the point of view of the Tokyo Tech engineers whom I met, this operation is entirely desirable. Each day, cohorts of researchers, on the one hand, educate themselves about “technological” practices and, on the other hand, try to create objects that will be a commercial success. However, the example of the remote control8 immediately raises a large number of questions. Widespread use of technological object this has made it essential to have one in order to use a TV. The remote control is in fact a proposition by engineers, conveyed by industrial leaders, which creates a new reason for consumers to spend, and presents additional maintenance needs9. The invention of the remote control justifies, above all, social and professional activities of engineers, who are employed to think up devices of this kind even before representing any use for the consumer whatsoever.

8 The remote control was invented by Robert Adler and Eugene Polley in 1955 in Zenith Electronics laboratories. 9 This maintenance, for a remote control, is certainly very brief, but becomes much heavier economically when we refer to maintenance pertaining to software updates and, above all, equipment updates (for example, going from an iPod 2 to an iPod 3).

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Industry leaders sold remote controls in order to make their products more attractive and more expensive, without really studying the notion of the increasingly sedentary status of those watching. Is the excessively sedentary behavior that a remote control produces truly beneficial for an individual? Would it not be better, for a person in good health, to have to get up and move to the screen to change the channel, rather than staying stretched out on the sofa for too long? The design of non-therapeutic digital prostheses is based on a system of offers made by engineering that have to do with much more than a market demand arising from consumers. It turns out that if the user is encouraged to “simplify life”, they must accept to delegate part of their psychomotive activity to the object that they are provided with. A remote control removes the need to get up to change the channel. By becoming accustomed to this method of saving time and energy, they end up considering the technical object as a necessary part of the television. The engineering “offer” has succeeded in causing demand amongst consumers by creating a new requirement. Possession of technological objects whose presence is no longer called into question rapidly becomes the norm. As time went by, the remote control indeed became, for both users and designers, a detachable part of the television, to the point that a good number of buttons available on the remote control can no longer be accessed by any means other than through this detachable interface. There is, after all, a parental link between remote controls and smartphones. Their shape is similar and smartphones allow the consumer to carry out a significant number of different tasks without having to move or meet another human being. By creating a technological object, whether it is a remote control or a cognitive prosthesis, in the end, engineers’ own vision is imposed. There are therefore value judgments that accompany each technological object de facto. This is the initial idea considering that a remote control or a smartphone is “progress” that is obligatory with commercialization of this type of tools. By analogy with remote controls, everything that is supposed to “make our lives easier” (like smartphones, tablets and augmented reality) is more or less the result, in fact, of decision-making carried out by engineers and industry leaders. With non-medical detachable digital prostheses, the imagination and the moral judgments of engineers and industry leaders are imposed on us. The decision is very often made for economic or reputational reasons rather than true improvement of the quality of life of the end user in mind. Often, the attempt to “make life easier” generates collateral damage, which was absolutely not planned when the technical object was released onto the market.

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A second argument, arising from engineers, in favor of the design of new prostheses, is in the context of an almost moral obligation that they have, to propose new technological possibilities, and to propose new experiences to consumers. This pioneering imagined situation is an integral part of a linear concept of time, of a “promised land” to be reached. A factor that legitimizes jobs and students at Tokyo Tech is to an extent Japanese technology’s contribution to “progress”. This is symbolically and socially gratifying. Tablets are a fundamental example of “progress” imposed by industrial leaders. When the first-generation iPad was put on the market, the specialized press asked the question of what requirements this tool was going to provide for. In the end, the tool was in fact bought first by consumers due to a fashion trend, before they knew what they would use the device for. Air France currently uses these devices to allow pilots to easily transport and rapidly update their technical documentation. However, the device was not initially created for this purpose, and its uses came to light after the event. The prosthesis designers I met at Tokyo Tech have two different archetypal end users in mind. – In a first instance, research is legitimized by the idea that technical solutions must be found in order to make life easier for those who are ill, disabled or ageing. Getting in touch with patients is not a main objective. The important thing is to propose digital systems and interfaces that are likely to be of interest to clinics, the general public, industry leaders and so on. – The second archetypal end user is a fully able-bodied person, who is in fact an individual with fundamental similarities with the designer themselves. The researchers I met, responsible for creating non-therapeutic tools, focused on the construction of technical objects without truly profoundly considering their potential social uses. Engineers perhaps do not sufficiently predict the fact that a tool that is very easy to handle and intended for an adult, can, for example, quickly be put into the hands of a child. All questions of responsibility were avoided or were considered to be secondary. At Tokyo Tech, two of my neighbors in the laboratory spent their days optimizing neuron networks by means of computer programs. One of them confided in me that he thought it necessary for human sciences researchers to study social uses and the global impact of new technologies developed by the engineering world.

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He described his work thus: “We are always extremely focused on our work, therefore we don’t really have the time and the training to think about the potential consequences of the technological innovations that we are creating here”10. This declaration reminds me of the confession made by the former director of the research and development department at Orange11, who admitted, in response to a question asked by addiction specialist and clinical psychologist Elizabeth Rossé, that no social or psychological impact study was carried out at his company before a new type of communication product was released. In terms of non-therapeutic detachable digital prostheses, industry proposes devices and implements elaborate sales processes, but regarding the responsibility involved with use, this falls to the end user. Outside the therapeutic framework, it is up to the user to use self-discipline to protect themselves from the damaging effects of Metal on their Flesh. It is up to them to find out about good practice and potential risks. It is up to parents and guardians to take responsibility for making digital tools available or not to their children. Designers and industry leaders do not feel that incorrect use or detrimental secondary effects are their concern. To capture our fascination, during his conference, Gérard Eude showed us the many possibilities proposed by “tomorrow’s communication systems”. The example gave us great insight into a naïve thought process existing from a sociological point of view. Consequential innovations about data flows, the generalization of “4G”, “Wi-Fi” and “WiMAX” networks and the rise in “femtocells” will, according to Mr. Eude, allow a user to be able to watch a football match on the living room wall in the company of a virtual friend, a real friend, and at the same time be able to use a mobile phone to send messages on social networks and play forecasting games about the match results. “Progress” will arise from the increase in the bandwidth. For this designer of telematic devices, “more” appears to be systematically associated with “better”. This example served to illustrate fabulous communication technologies, which allow the simultaneous use of videoconferencing, television, telephones and social

10 Kim K. at the Koike Lab in May 2008. 11 Presentation by Gérard Eude: “Infrastructures et services pour les images numériques” [Infrastructures and services for digital images] (France Télécom R&D - Orange), during the summer school doctoral program about practices in the use of images in information societies, 6–11 September 2009.

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networks. Mixing all these stimuli together does, however, lead to the image of a thick data soup. Each type of information acts as a parasite on the user’s correct reception of other data. The act of presenting uses of elements of digital data that are totally interlinked with each other reminds me of the concepts of “tautism”12 and of a “double-bind”13 [BAT 77, pp. 209–224]. How can concentration be given effectively to four complex sources of information at the same time? This kind of device would probably have the effect in particular of damaging socially structuring interactions between the two friends who have come together to watch a program. Even if techniques allow us to do so, should we systematically give in to a demand due to a fashion trend, which would place us both here and elsewhere at the same time, in the presence of a friend and at the same time absorbed by the network or an improved form of remote control? Jaron Lanier, one of the pioneers in terms of virtual reality and augmented reality (Datasuit programmers, Datagloves and probably the person who designed the function of the digital avatar) tells us in his book You Are not a Gadget: a Manifesto14 [LAN 10, p. 10]: “It is impossible to work on information technology without also engaging in social engineering […] We, inventors of digital technologies, are like stand-up comedians and neurosurgeons, in that our work resonates with deep philosophical questions; unfortunately, weʼve proven to be poor philosophers lately […] Back in the 1980s, when the internet was only available to a small number of pioneers, I was often confronted by people who feared that the strange technologies I was working on, like virtual reality, might unleash the demons of human nature. For instance, would people become addicted 12 “Tautism” is a neologism from Lucien Sfez who describes tautology associated with sealing oneself off in order to describe the self-referencing that communication technology can cause. For this author, a tautistic society is a society in which all symbols are merged together and rapidly become inoperative. 13 The “double-bind” describes a proposition that contradicts itself. It is a simultaneous acceptance of two logically antagonistic meanings (for example, “I love you and I make you suffer” and “You are a person and you are my object”). 14 “When digital technology programmers create a program that incites you to interact with the computer as if it were a real person, they oblige you to tacitly accept somewhere in your mind that you could one day, in turn, be seen simply as a program” (author’s translation). Jaron Lanier is far from being a technophobe, rather he is the pioneer of virtual reality research.

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to virtual reality as if it were a drug? Would they become trapped in it, unable to escape back to the physical world where the rest of us live? Some of the questions were silly, and others were prescient”. My observations led me to believe that the representation of the human body and cognitive operation, shared by members of the laboratory and more widely in the imagination of Tokyo Tech engineers, is a mechanistic view of the body that idealizes the theoretical abilities of devices. The ultra-powerful Metal is almost responsible for a cleaning mission with regard to the weak Flesh. In a PowerPoint presentation by the laboratory15, the comparison made between human and machine does not seem to be very flattering for us. Humans: – are “slow”; – “readily make errors of judgment”; – are “less effective after a certain period of time at work”; – are “endowed with a small memory capacity”; – “readily make errors of memory”; – are “bad at repetitive tasks”; and – their capacities “vary depending on motivation”. Inversely, machines: – are “fast and precise”; – they “understand the meaning of algorithms”; – they “have a large and precise memory capacity”; – are “good at repetitive tasks”; and – their efficiency “increases as their algorithms are improved”. In the end, this perspective places machines on the top spot of the podium. They are depicted as more productive, more effective and so on. Machines are seen to be highly performing, predictable, reliable and therefore reassuring. However, as indicated by Jaron Lanier, all software is affected by an extreme lack of social comprehension, they can absolutely not be compared to humans in terms of global performances [LAN 10]. Programs only excel at accomplishing 15 Comparison proposed in a PowerPoint document that was presented to me personally at Koike Lab in June 2008.

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certain very standard tasks. Engineers who exist surrounded by information technology seemed to me to sometimes lose sight of this side of things, and tended to put human minds and computer programs on an equal footing. 2.2. Constructing augmented reality

simulated

environments:

virtual

reality

and

Virtual reality is a digital environment in which the user can immerse their senses in real time (and frequently in 3D). The film Tron is the first popular cinematographic work that depicted this type of artificial “reality”. MMORPGs16, such as World of Warcraft, are highly popular virtual worlds which allow a considerable number of people (several million) to interact in the same virtual environment. Immersing oneself in a virtual reality requires us to be momentarily cut off from our relation with the “real” world. The mind is therefore absorbed by the screen, and attention is focused on the virtual environment and leaves the stimulations of the physical environment to one side. Virtual realities are multiple and arise from a plethora of programs and interface systems. The Oculus Rift, acquired by Facebook, proposes high-performance glasses to plunge the user into a virtual reality. HTC and Sony also sell virtual reality glasses. The use of augmented reality is rather incompatible with social situations where other people are also present. The headset, at a matter of principle, obscures the surrounding reality in order to replace it with another visual and auditive environment. There are benefits associated with the opportunities for education and play that this represents. Nevertheless, these devices remain too uncomfortable to be used for a long time. After a few dozen minutes (the time varies depending on the individuals and their physical condition), the “VR” headset progressively gives rise to a feeling of nausea, in rather the same way as carsickness. VR headsets are progressively more and more easily accessible, since powerful smartphones, inserted in some kind of specially adapted hollow “glasses” (Google Cardboard, Archos VR Glasses, etc., which are very cheap products, since they are almost entirely devoid of electronics), can serve as effective virtual reality devices.

16 MMORPG, Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game, denotes a category of online video game that brings millions of players together simultaneously in virtual worlds.

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Augmented virtuality is made up of an incrustation of images, sounds and videos from the real world within a display featuring a virtual universe. To a certain extent, a video game that includes participants controlled by human players is comparatively a form of augmented reality, as opposed to an offline video game where all the characters, except the player themselves, are bots (information technology programs). Augmented reality is a superposition of a digital environment onto our “natural” sensory perception of reality. Projecting a digital image in a room is already a form of augmented reality insofar as the image that is displayed is an addition of digital information onto a blank wall. The material nature of the wall does not change, but we see an image on it. A Head-Up Display refers to information that is displayed directly in the line of sight. This technology comes from research in the field of certain military materials, such as fighter planes. In this scenario, this allows the pilots to receive useful information without dropping their gaze to the level of the dashboard instruments. Analog information was displayed on a transparent screen located in front of the pilot. Subsequently, the displays became digital, and were then placed inside the headset of each crew member. Augmented reality is, today, already often present in cinema, in particular in Terminator (1984), Minority Report (2002, inspired by the short story of the same name by Philip K. Dick), Iron Man (2008) and Avatar (2010). It is presented as a superimposition of digital data on the real world by means of overhead projectors, holograms and glasses. Since the 1980s–1990s, cognitive prostheses using augmented reality have made appearances in popular fiction. In particular, the cartoon targeted at young people, Dragon Ball Z, one of the greatest successes from the Japanese manga and anime industry, made the concept of augmented reality glasses popular, with the fictional wearable computer called the “scouter”17. 2.2.1. Cognitive prosthesis interfaces The most common non-invasive HMIs for broadcasting information (output) act at a distance, without direct contact, by stimulation of the eye (screens) or hearing (loudspeakers).

17 http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Scouter.

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The most common means of making input commands constitute buttons to press: keyboards and mice. Joypads, joysticks, Wiimotes, steering wheels and other gamepads18 are interfaces used for video games and for piloting drones. Screens are the currently preferred devices to restitute information as output to the information technology system19. The screens are of different sizes (cathode ray, tft, plasma, 3DTV). High-volume, energy-consuming and fragile cathode-ray tubes have given way to flat screens. These screens are currently installed on many different devices: mini televisions, laptops, telephones, tablets, MP3 players, game consoles or even portable DVD players. Connected objects, or wearables, are a new family of tools that can serve as MMIs. Some of them, like connected watches (Apple Watch) or augmented reality glasses (Google Glass, HoloLens), have screens. Other objects of this type work differently, in particular to serve as sensor systems paired with monitoring programs. Wearables are indicative of three technological trends: – a growing miniaturization of HMIs; – an increased capacity of HMIs to accompany the human body during daily activities; – a continuous diversification of different types of HMI, the result of attempts to create new market opportunities. External digital interfaces do indeed take on different forms. The effects of a fashion trend are considerable. For example, a few years ago, thousands of smartwatches were sold. There was a considerable amount of media hype. Currently, sales of objects of this kind are considerably lower. Touchscreens are currently still “in fashion”. They combine keyboard, trackpad and graphical display on a single surface. Touchscreens provide the user with a very intuitive means of control.

18 Computer mice, touchpads, trackballs, trackpads and light pens are interfaces that allow the area of the program window in which the users wish to interact to be indicated on the screen. 19 Feedback is possible in this case if a camera activates a digital device that detects movements or shapes (recognition of faces, smiles and body movements: Kinect by Microsoft and EyeToy by Sony).

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Smartphones are connected objects that have inspired constant fascination throughout the last 10 years. They rival the desktop computer, the laptop computer, the game console, the television and so on. This system especially provides children of a young age with the ability to use an information technology system. In contrast with the traditional keyboard, there is no need to know how to read or write in order to use a touchscreen; simply the capacity to use the icons is required. Virtual reality or augmented reality glasses are video screens that are worn on the end of the nose. Models of virtual reality glasses are opaque and only display the virtual world or a video screen. Augmented reality glasses superimpose a video display in our field of vision. In 1997, in London, I tried out some SEGA virtual reality glasses that calculated the digital surroundings in real time following movements of the head. The impression that they have left on me is that I very quickly forgot what I had seen, a little like when we try to remember a dream immediately after waking up: very quickly, a whole host of details are no longer accessible. The aspect that was detrimental to my memorization process is perhaps something to do with an unpleasant sensation felt due to a slight time delay between the movement of my head and the displayed image. To avoid this problem, I tended to avoid moving my head too fast20. Over a long period of time, the glasses were quite tiring due to this time delay. Longer use of a smaller model, which did not, however, take into account the movements of my own body, presented another problem for me personally, namely the close proximity of the screen, which very quickly made my eyes very tired. “Virtual lights”21 produced by the various interfaces can be the source of intense ocular fatigue.

20 This is what happens with the Nintendo 3DS console display. This necessary immobilization imposes bad posture and tires one’s eyes, which is why Nintendo advises against leaving a child under the age of 8 to use the 3D function of the 3DS. However, this function is easily activated by means of a scroll wheel identical to a volume scroller, and this console is very often left in the hands of younger and younger children. To my knowledge, it is not possible to deactivate the 3D function within the program itself. For children from the age of 6 to around 10, a simple DS is a better choice (without a 3D display). Unfortunately, this excellent toy (since it is suitable in terms of both ergonomics and content – apart from the games such as GTA China Wars, aimed at an adolescent or adult audience) will soon be considered obsolete. 21 Referring to the expression that is used as the title of the book by William Gibson [GIB 93], Virtual Light.

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Twenty years later, virtual reality devices (like those made by Oculus Rift, Sony, HTC, etc.) have made significant advances in terms of comfort but have not managed to eliminate these difficulties completely. Non-invasive HMIs can be harmful to health. A screen placed against the light in front of a sunny window causes our eyes to adapt to the luminosity of the screen, disregarding the significant flow of UV rays that enter through the window pane. If this situation is frequently repeated (for example, at a workstation), it can lead to a decrease in sharpness of vision. Problematic use of screens can be considered analogous to an audio headset used at an unsuitable volume level and capable of causing hearing loss. A keyboard, a mouse or a tablet, by encouraging very repetitive gestures over long periods of time, can induce certain types of joint pain in the hands or in the shoulders. Digital prostheses, even those that are detachable, require certain precautions to be taken in order to avoid physiological inconvenience. 3D cinema, which has been developing in recent years, also causes some spectators to suffer from ocular fatigue. The 3D images are certainly impressive, but users object not only to paying more for their cinema seat, but also to having to make an effort just to watch the film all the way to the end. It is true to say that, at present, 3D Imax films have been limited to screenings of films no more than 40 minutes long. Virtual reality glasses have been on the market for more than a decade, but they have not been a success from a marketing point of view. On the one hand, it is difficult to wear them for a long time, because they are tiring to use, and on the other hand, they totally isolate our field of vision from the real world, which limits them to strictly domestic use. Augmented reality glasses from the Google Glass project are transparent; they do not block the field of vision, but instead superimpose additional information on it. Let us hope that more widespread use of augmented reality glasses does not contribute to an outbreak of ophthalmic migraines, short-sightedness or strabismus within a population. Man–machine interactions are fully dependent on interfaces inherited from a series of precursory devices.

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The computer keyboard, which today remains the most important means of interaction with a personal computer, is based on a typewriter keyboard22, and that of a mobile telephone is the result of hybridization between a computer keyboard and the keys of a push-button landline phone. The keyboard allows sequences of numbers and letters to be input into the digital machine for processing; this is its preferred means of control. Certain vocal command devices can replace the use of keyboards. However, this remains the most common and the fastest input interface for inputting text. Loudspeakers are a simple and effective way of transmitting a sound signal23. Headphones are closer to prosthetics than simple loudspeakers, because they match the shape of the body and can follow it as it moves. This is the initial principle of the Sony Corporation Walkman. Wearing headphones over our ears, a phenomenon that is now back in fashion24, cuts us off and seals us from the world around us, which is not the case for a sound emitted from a loudspeaker (except if the volume is very high). Transmission of sound through bones is another HMI that allows an audio signal to be transmitted to a user. This method has the advantage of leaving the auditory canals free to hear the surrounding sounds. There are many other types of very specialized and little-used interfaces. These interfaces are still too expensive for widespread use. For example, the SPIDAR25 is a fully operational “haptic” interface, developed at the Sato Labo, the laboratory adjoining the Koike Lab. A SPIDAR is a type of mouse that has the capacity to give a return impulse. Devices of this kind can create the illusion of touch. This system allows virtual objects to be gripped: it consists of approximately ten “thimbles” suspended from motorized rope. It is simply a case of putting the extremity of your fingers in these “thimbles” so that the computer can precisely locate the position of your hands in space. Motorized ropes make the return impulse 22 The position of keys on a modern computer keyboard arises from technological constraints imposed on the first typewriter models made by Remington in 1874. 23 Regarding feedback by means of sound, there are very simple devices; microphones that allow the device to react to sounds. Very complex devices such as Apple Siri respond to the questions that we ask of it and it becomes possible for the smartphone to be directed by our voice (in the absence of thought). 24 Benjamin Jérôme, “Jamais sans mon casque” [Never without my headset], Le Parisien Magazine, available at: http://www.leparisien.fr/magazine/grand-angle/le-parisien-magazinejamais-sans-mon-casque-08-02-2017-6666339.php, 9 February 2017. 25 Makoto Sato, Yukihiro Hirata, Hiroshi Kawarada, “Space interface device for artificial reality-SPIDAR”, Systems and Computers in Japan, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 44–54, 1992.

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possible, which produces a sensory illusion of gripping. The object represented on the screen becomes physically palpable. Using the SPIDAR, I was in a position to feel the form, the weight and the texture of a virtual object. It was even possible to precisely feel the edge of a virtual cube or to perceive that I was touching a virtual ball. With our eyes closed, it is possible to imagine the digital object as if it were physically present in our hand. Weight and roughness can also be felt. The rarest interfaces are “marginal” external interfaces, which are also the most cumbersome and the most expensive. In the field of virtual reality, Jaron Lanier has tested the Datasuit26, stereoscopic virtual reality glasses and the Dataglove. These interfaces operate by means of a suit or gloves that detect the smallest movements of the body and transmit them in real time to the computer, which takes account of them to display a 3D environment with virtual reality glasses. Another means of immersion in virtual reality consists of creating rooms in which every wall is a screen. This means that you do not need to put on a very uncomfortable suit. 2.2.2. Banalization of cognitive prostheses of augmented reality Combining a digital environment and a real-life environment presupposes a mixing device; a special interface. This process therefore necessarily implies a “high-profile reality” situation. This media coverage is carried out by a particular model of cognitive prosthesis that is still relatively unknown, but which, in the light of my analyses, may have great success, perhaps analogous to that of a smartphone. Regarding other cognitive prostheses already in existence, Google Glass has the significant particularity of presenting a display that covers almost the entire field of vision. Steve Mann is a Canadian researcher who studied at MIT. He has worn augmented reality glasses for more than 34 years and he remains one of the main pioneers in this field, as well as in the field of lifelogging27. In an article entitled “Mediated reality with implementations for everyday life”, he explains that the concept of “virtual reality” was initially proposed by Jaron 26 The Datasuit is a neoprene suit loaded down by sensors that allow an avatar to be controlled or to simulate the movements of the body in a virtual environment. 27 Lifelogging consists of systematically recording a maximum amount of data about our lives. It can be a case of video or audio recordings, document scans, consulting web histories, bank account histories, GPS localizations, as well as physiological parameters, (weight, temperature, arterial pressure, cardiac rhythm, etc.).

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Lanier in 1989 and that the term “augmented reality” was invented by Tom Caudelle at the start of the 1990s [MAN 02]. It distinguishes “augmented reality” from “diminished reality” and from “augmented virtuality”. Thierry Hoquet’s idea of the “organorg” (the sensory retroaction loop offered by the Walkman, according to Hoquet, illustrates the organorg situation) is also applicable to the wearer of augmented reality glasses. Thierry Hoquet evokes the idea that a cyborg does not require wiring, nor is it deeply invasive to the Flesh in order to create a hybrid with Metal. The film RoboCop is dated and is part of a technological imaginary world of the 1980s. Hoquet personifies the “cyborg” and the “organorg” as allegorical figures that help to formulate hybridity between the Flesh and Metal: “We believed for a long time that, on the contrary to an ordinary tool, a cyborg required wiring connecting the device to the organism […] Thus, RoboCop can be accused of being a coarse representation of what a cyborg can be, in particular because it supposes that the junction between the organism and technology is always based on removal, where technology eliminates and takes the place of what is natural” [HOQ 11, p. 61]. “We propose to denote an ‘organorg’ as the device-organism assembly that was conceived as both an internal and external set of tools, without butchery or amputation, an equipped organism, endowed with new organs”. “In an organorg, the tool is not necessarily ‘grafted’, inserted violently and surgically into the organism; its wiring is simply designed as an interface, a simple relationship with an organ which is both entirely external and entirely integrated” [HOQ 11, p. 56]. “The most obvious path to follow for the development of the cyborg/organorg therefore consists of using a headset that, placed on the stuff [name given by Thierry Hoquet to the user/prosthesis combination], would be used to improve the analysis of situations: it would detect signals which escape from the ordinary senses, would translate various messages formulated in other languages or sent encrypted on waves, and would be able to suggest suitable solutions to the encryption. A design of this kind corresponds totally to what a cyborg would be in the world today, without necessarily resorting to post- or trans-humanism. The organorg develops a rhetorical strategy

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that consists of removing the radical nature of cyborg to increase its public acceptance” [HOQ 11, p. 62]. The “organorg” made up of an individual carrying a Walkman and the “organorg” of a person focused on the screen of their mobile phone are precursors to the stuff to come: users of Google Glasses or digital contact lenses, plunged into augmented reality. Augmented reality glasses are going to extend the re-territorialization of the computer even more, by fixing digital screens to the faces of users28. If these cognitive prostheses (or their equivalent in competing companies), become generalized to a very great number of consumers, they will give all their users the technological possibility of being constantly in interaction with the web whilst being totally mobile. The information technology will still be more ubiquitous than it is now. Augmented reality glasses that will be permanently in use throughout the day will probably become, in the end, screens common to a large part of information technology devices, external as well as internal29, that we use. Apple and Panasonic have already planned to develop their own similar device. Many specific applications are likely to be developed. The company Oakley30 has already marketed Airwave ski goggles, which have an augmented reality function, which means that information can be displayed about the speed and the altitude of the skier, as well as other information from a GPS and a smartphone. Google’s announcement is entirely coherent with the ideology conveyed by the company. This ideology aims to disguise the essentially economic advantages by focusing on how our lives will be made easier, on the improvement of the fluidity of exchanges, and on the existence of a good relationship between these and the user,

28 Augmented reality glasses are the technological extension of a process largely accelerated by smartphones. Television programs, YouTube videos, Google Maps plans, video games, the area for reading and writing emails, Facebook, written press, music, pornography and online administrative sites are accessible at all times and practically everywhere. With augmented reality, these applications are in a position to phagocytize the field of vision and an even bigger portion of our available attention throughout the day. 29 For example, an artificial pancreas that professor Eric Renard is currently finalizing, is designed so that its graphical control interface can be installed on a smartphone. Implants of the future will perhaps be “monitored” by Google Glass or their equivalent, created by competitors. 30 Available at: http://www.oakley.com/airwave, consulted on 18 November 2012.

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epitomized as: “don’t be evil”, which is also an injunction addressed to the latter. All this “progress”, of which glasses are an example, is presented as “natural” and “inevitable” by marketing. Yet, the economic profits of Google are mainly based on advertising revenues. Therefore, the most important thing for the business model of this Internet giant31 is that we need its online services as often as possible in order to be able to give economic value to each click we make, our text and multimedia actions and the available attention time. Each time their services are used, Google will try to place a targeted advert or will content themselves with collecting information about us to be used later on in one way or another. It is therefore in the interests of companies like Google that fascination for these tools should be regularly maintained by announcements such as that of the Google Glass project, in order to broadcast the idea that information technology is not only a tool, but more a prosthesis in our daily lives, “a third hemisphere”32, that it is incontestably desirable to improve our quality of life. This view of things legitimizes wearing a high-profile reality device, which gives constant access to the network. The more we use the web, the richer Google becomes. Its economic model is entirely dependent on our presence on the network. Augmented reality is therefore a means of encouraging ourselves to share our whole waking lives with the Internet network, to take part in lifelogging for our own benefit (to remember our life experiences, meticulously recorded by our cognitive prostheses) or even for the benefit of Google (to profile us further, to be in a position to sell high-yield targeted advertising spaces for advertisers prepared to invest). Capturing lifelogs (sets of data relating to an individual’s lifelogging) is a significant intrusion into a person’s private life. However, our smartphones and our bank cards already allow quite an exhaustive lifelog to be established, which not all consumers are totally aware of.

31 The Internet is the main global information technology network, which from ARPANET that appeared in 1972. It has been different from MilNet since 1983. There are other local networks that are essentially military or scientific. The US army currently uses two information technology networks in parallel to the Internet: NIPRNet (pronounced “nipper net”) for sensitive data and SIPRNet (“sipper net”) for secret-defense data. SIPRNet is an example of a network using http, ftp and smtp, but which has no network connection to the Internet or the web that we use. 32 According to the words of its CEO, Eric Schmidt (see [ALI 11]), available at: http//www/ liberation.fr/Eric-Schmidt-Google-respecte-la.13694.html, consulted on 18 November 2012.

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In time, cognitive devices could perhaps go from a predictive or intuitive function to a more prescriptive role. The orthotic role of these tools makes it possible to implement a certain type of “cognitive orthopedics”. That is to say, a means of forcing a user to think about something (with an alert or a sudden notification) or to impose self-constraints on them; a self-censure (for example, due to the realization that we may be recorded, that our behavior and words may be re-transmitted, conveyed and interpreted by spectators). The essence of the “robotization” of everyday life would arise with the daily use of very intrusive diary services (such as Google Now33) in combination with Google Glass, at the interface that is “cognitively” highly intrusive. The Google Now project aims to get to know the user and their habits better (by corroborating search history, emails, SMS, phone calls, GPS surveys, movement habits, online purchases, consultation times and use of different services) than the user knows themselves. Google Now has the function of comparing all digital traces left by a person in order to propose personalized services (for example, by sending an instant message that gives a warning about traffic conditions, indicates a traffic jam and suggests a more fluid itinerary, or suggests leaving home earlier to arrive at work on time). These machines, in the same way as GPS, can become so essential that being deprived of them would almost become a handicap for users who have become addicted. The earlier the age at which we become accustomed to it, the more the object is part of the normal course of daily life. In the process, from day to day, the Flesh learns to live by means of the Metal, just as the driver equipped with a GPS is directed by impulses emitted by the device. The 2007 animated film Appleseed Ex Machina by Shinji Aramaki contains an imaginary device: the “Connexus”, which greatly resembles Google Glass. This science-fiction story tells us that the entire population of a town put on this device (which is presented as an ear surround that uses “free” software to superimpose

33 Google Now is a project that spontaneously sends advice to a user, such as books suggested by Google Books. Google Now suggests, for example, “to skip breakfast due to the traffic jams on the road section used to get to work in order to arrive on time despite the congestion” or to “receive information about the results of a match played by a sports team” based on the user’s search history. Google Glass, as we have seen, corresponds to an augmented reality glasses project, which displays data superimposed on the real world.

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digital data into the field of vision and emits sounds by means other than a microphone). Throughout the film, it turns out that the users can be manipulated by the creators of these detachable prostheses. This plot encapsulates the main fear that cognitive prostheses provoke: the “obsolescence of humans”, overtaken by the power of their tools. Once again, highly developed technology formerly reserved for a very small number of users who were rather “in-the-know” (such as researchers and military personnel) spread at great speed across the social environment. Many social representations are probably going to be transformed by augmented reality, which will initially become a fashion statement, and then, perhaps, a new normality. This type of tool will in all likelihood only serve to accentuate the daily cases of “absent presence”34 that are already seen with existing digital prostheses. Metal frequently monopolizes the attention of people who are physically positioned in front of someone, but whose mind is elsewhere, their attention caught by the gadget. Sherry Turkle [TUR 11] calls this as being “alone together”. We have no feedback about the educational impact of Google Glass, nor about their use by adults and children, since they have not yet been released on the market. Nevertheless, our thoughts about the effects of screens and touchscreens on the very young also apply to this new type of Head-up Display visual interface. Google Glass smartglasses and similar models present new HMIs, which may give rise to social effects specifically related to the recurrent use of augmented reality. With the likely explosion of augmented reality in our social environment, the means of social control of use, applied by parents in particular, are going to be made even more difficult as new ultra-miniaturized digital interfaces make their appearance on the scene. Reality mediatized in real time by the cognitive prosthesis will make the incrustation of digital images onto our field of vision banal. Maps, images and videos can be displayed in real time on our retinas. In such a way that in the medium term, Metal will have the opportunity to trick our senses by giving us digital hallucinations.

34 “Absent presence” is a concept that we propose in order to depict the behavior of a human who is physically present amongst a group of individuals, but whose attention is elsewhere, caught by an electronic mechanism. This notion completes the idea of “concrete presence” as it is found in Anders [AND 02, p. 155].

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A simple table could serve as a screen, a keyboard or a piano. A new form of video game is clearly going to flourish: Augmented Reality Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (I propose the acronym “ARMORPG”35 to denote this). The success of Pokémon Go is a first sign of this. It could be that the first chapters of Alice in Wonderland36 will no longer appear fantastical to tomorrow’s children if they become accustomed to augmented reality right from the word go. It will be entirely possible to see an artificial image of a white rabbit passing through our immediate environment. These tools run the risk of promoting a “gamification” of everyday life. Pokémon Go has already given very clear insight into this. Superimposing games on reality could cause relative infantilization of adult users. Since everyday acts become pretexts or means to distract or interact in an untimely manner with online services of a commercial vocation, this could be amusing if it is not excessive. However, if there is loss of control with regard to this, this could generate truly irresponsible behavior, or even terrible human tragedies. Moreover, these machines make it almost impossible to check what the user sees. From an educational point of view, this presents certain difficulties. A computer placed in the living room is a very comfortable way of giving parents the possibility of checking children’s activities online and of checking the content displayed. When the machine becomes portable in the form of a laptop, or netbook (a mini-laptop), tablet or smartphone, this educational surveillance operation becomes more complex.

35 These games will not have the essential characteristic of being massively multiplayer, but will involve augmented reality. The beta version of this type of game was Ingress, created by Google and Niantic in 2012. Pokémon Go, created by Nintendo and Niantic, is its immediate successor (see [DER 14]). The video game Ingress is available at: https://play.google.com /store/apps/details?id=com.nianticproject.ingress, consulted on 18 November 2012. The game Pokémon Go is available at: http://www.pokemongo.com/, consulted on 24/10/17. The video game Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is scheduled for a 2018/2019 release. 36 Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, William Collins, 2010.

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Making a smartphone available to a child is in fact very often equivalent to giving them uncontrollable access to the web. Pornography37 becomes, amongst other sensitive content, easily accessible. Augmented reality glasses will no longer even allow us to be aware of what a child sees or hears, even if they are present in the room. Augmented reality glasses present a significant risk of untimely advertising displays and shocking images without parents being able to immediately intervene. Of course, children are not the priority target audience of engineers who invent most detachable prostheses. Augmented reality devices are today not at all aimed at consumers that are children. However, the same was true for computers, mobile phones and smartphones. In spite of this, these tools are frequently used today by people of all ages, including individuals in primary schools and even kindergarten. Google Glass smartglasses and similar devices risk going down the same path. Children like to imitate adults and they are sometimes allowed to use the old model when parents renew the device that has been judged obsolete. Adults can be infantilized by cognitive prostheses and children run the risk of being exposed to adult content by these same devices. By the end of 2012, parachuting videos in subjective view, taken with Google Glass, were showcased by Google. Thus, Google was also promoting the social uses of this project by staging, in a promotional video, a young American mother who records her baby’s first moments of life and sends the images to her mother-in-law who lives in France. The last images of the promotional video showed the child, a few months old, wearing sunglasses. The mother hints that her young baby “enjoyed playing” with these. Does this not suggest, rather blatantly, the idea fantasized about by GAFAMs, namely that the children of the future must imperatively familiarize themselves with these new prostheses, right from the first months of their lives? By the acronym GAFAM, I refer here to: Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft, but also, in fact, Oracle, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi and so on

37 Over and above the question of pornography, exposure to certain audiovisual content which systematically presents very thin women as a model of beauty has a profound effect on the mindset of both young men and women alike. Amongst the latter, exposure to this type of message can lead to eating disorders (anorexia/bulimia). Overall, the frequent sexual references that are scattered across marketing and commercial programs are content that are probably the cause of the increased sexualization of young people.

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without, of course, forgetting, to a certain extent, IBM, Salesforce and Juniper Networks. These are high-profile companies, worth billions of dollars, which all enrich themselves directly from the appetite of people and companies for communications and digital tools. The researcher Jaron Lanier baptized them: “the lords of the Cloud” [LAN 13]. The Cloud is the infosphere made up of data stored in numerous interconnected computer servers. The Cloud is the backbone of our globalized digital world. Marketing from all these companies, and from their competitors, aims to sell products and services. Children and adolescents are priority targets for advertising, because they can put pressure on parents’ buying behavior, and especially because habits of consumption learnt at a young age have a high chance of continuing on a life-long basis. The untimely explosion of virtual reality during daily journeys could lead to new types of accidents (for example, on roads or in the street). FPSs38 (First-Person Shooters) will in all likelihood be used with augmented reality devices. Are we going to witness shooting galleries, in public areas, in augmented reality? Players will perhaps soon be seen running after each other with virtual pistols, in the middle of a sort of game whose whys and wherefores are entirely hermetic in the eyes of disconnected individuals. This leads to speculation about the possibility of a good number of strangely incoginizant social situations. The viewpoint put forward by research into pervasive information technology leads us to believe that digital prostheses are likely be become very miniature and ergonomic. It will perhaps even be difficult to determine whether a person is wearing one or not. Will certain people choose to record everything they do with these “magic” glasses on their nose? In the event that wearing these glasses is banned in certain places, for reasons of respect for privacy or authors’ rights, the alternative made possible by Innovega augmented reality contact lenses will certainly be used. Screens placed directly on the cornea will definitely become a flourishing market.

38 “FPSs” are a category of video games involving shooting, where players evolve within a 3D environment in a subjective view. Wolfenstein 3D (Id Software, 1991) and Doom (Id Software, 1993) are the first successful video games considered to fall into the FPS category.

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Social regulation will be even more difficult to implement if these detachable digital machines become “invisible”. However, it is still unlikely that we will see widespread implantations of this type of device in the cornea, even if this will probably soon be technically probable. The advantage of detachable tools is that it is easier to change them, for example, due to a change in fashions, and that they require fewer health authorizations before being commercialized than implants do. Implanted digital tools are, and will for a time, still reserved for uses where no real therapeutic alternatives exist (cochlear, heart implants, etc.), whereas detachable digital tools have just started to proliferate around us.