The Smartness Mandate

In their recently published The Smartness Mandate (MIT Press, 2023), Orit Halpern and Robert Mitchell analyze historically and critique the current imperative that we make every aspect of our world and lives “smarter” by means of technology, environmental computing, and learning algorithms. The techniques and technologies that make up the ever-expanding world of smartness are modes of managing life (human and other) that are currently understood almost entirely in terms of neo-Darwinian evolution, distributed intelligences, and “resilience.” Yet there are alternative imaginaries of the possibilities and potentials of smart technologies and infrastructures. In this discussion, Orit Halpern, Robert Mitchell, and Tobias Wilke explore the problems and potentials of smart technologies and the “smartness mandate.”