Ambient Intelligence and the Built Environment

An in-depth analysis of the digitization of space and its impact on society.As the emergence of smart environments marks a new phase of capitalism, Patrick Lecomte situates how the invasion of technological tools in the built environment influences our personal spaces. For Big Tech, he argues, human space has become the new frontier in a fierce battle for dominance in the emerging market for Ambient Intelligence (AmI). Our relationships with the environment and our reality are the resources that technology companies want to exploit.Lecomte uses various conceptual lenses to explore the societal challenges posed by the integration of digital technologies and AI in the production of space. In particular, Lecomte investigates how AmI promises to make our living spaces intelligent, and how this creates danger for individuals’ fundamental freedoms and rights. Through these analyses, Ambient Intelligence and the Built Environment exposes societal and ethical issues such as generalized surveillance, a lack of respect for private life, and limitations on human beings’ freedom of action and capacity for individuation.