Nest Founder 'Wakes Up In Cold Sweats' Fearing The Impact Of Mobile Technology (fastcodesign.com)

theodp writes: Fast Company's Co.Design reports that Tony Fadell, who founded Nest and was instrumental in the creation of the iPod and iPhone, spoke with a mix of pride and regret about his role in mobile technology's rise to omnipresence. "I wake up in cold sweats every so often thinking, what did we bring to the world?" Fadell said. "Did we really bring a nuclear bomb with information that can -- like we see with fake news -- blow up people's brains and reprogram them? Or did we bring light to people who never had information, who can now be empowered?"

Faddell added that addiction has been designed into our devices, and it's harming the newest generation. "And I know when I take [technology] away from my kids what happens," Fadell explained. "They literally feel like you're tearing a piece of their person away from them-they get emotional about it, very emotional. They go through withdrawal for two to three days." Products like the iPhone, Fadell believes, are more attuned to the needs of the individual rather than what's best for the family and the larger community. And pointing to YouTube owner Google, Fadell said, "It was like, [let] any kind of content happen on YouTube. Then a lot of the executives started having kids, [and saying], maybe this isn't such a good idea. They have YouTube Kids now."
The article suggests Fadell is describing a world where omnipresent (and distracting) screens are creating "a culture of self-aggrandizement," and he believes this is partly rooted in the origins of the devices. "A lot of the designers and coders who were in their 20s when we were creating these things didn't have kids."

Comments

This says it all

[barrywalker]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

OMG get over yourself

[Anonymous Coward]

If he had not invented the smartphone, someone else would have. It wasn't nearly as original an idea as he thinks. It was written of in popular fiction for decades prior. It was a natural evolution of the technologies that already existed, and its entrance to the market was inevitable.

Maybe it would have taken a few more years. Big deal. The end result would have been the same.

none of the above.

[nimbius]

you brought them an overpriced thermostat they dont control.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story...

you brought them a piece of electronic garbage that leaves them without heat in the dead of fucking january

https://tech.slashdot.org/stor...

and finally...perhaps the most unforgivable sin, you brought them a gadget that sells their personal information to their own utility companies.

https://yro.slashdot.org/story...

Maybe ...

[fahrbot-bot]

"I wake up in cold sweats every so often thinking, what did we bring to the world?"

... he just has male menopause.

I think there's a Nest thermostat setting for that, but then Google will use that information for marketing.

Cut the cord, sometimes

[SeattleLawGuy]

Amazing how negative the responses to this are so far.

Cut the cord, sometimes. That's a positive thing. And huge for a kid. And it's not a problem with a device, just with becoming too dependent on it.

I was fortunate as a child to have months where television was unavailable or incredibly limited, and where the video game systems weren't connected or the computer wasn't in the house. The result? A lot of outdoor adventures and a lot of reading. I still enjoy Netflix and video games, but if you want kids to read, make that the dominant available form of entertainment for a while. And find them places to adventure in where they can learn some independence.

It's like at scout camp. Take the electronics away for a while. Children learn.

Re:Another doomsdayer.

[TWX]

I don't agree that he should sleep easy. I will agree that what he's worrying about (at least per the article summary) is not the concern, but the whole, "Internet of Things," really should be instead called the Internet of Insecure and Exploitable Things.

Consider that tech companies, that theoretically understand the technology they're principally responsible for the development of, have trouble with information security and systems security. We have operating systems for even commercial applications of limited-scope like ATMs and Point of Sale systems that are vulnerable to many of the same exploits as desktop consumer operating systems. Do you expect Rheem or Daktronics or AO Smith or Carrier to be able to do even as good a job as a Microsoft or an Apple?

Now consider that not only do these systems communicate on the network generally, but the manufacturers are implementing the model where the customer has to use the vendor's systems on the Internet to control the device. Some do this for consumer devices because it's a convenient way to bypass the problems with ignorance of the user, and some do it for commercial applications to use the Meraki model, to get the customer to pay and pay and pay because without the contract the device simply doesn't work anymore. Either way, the communications loop is not just from the end-user system like the phone, tablet, or computer on the user's LAN to device also on the LAN, but from the device to the firewall, across the Internet to whatever system the vendor has propped-up, then back across the Internet to whatever LAN the end user PC is on.

Daktronics uses Windows Embedded for their modern marquees, and there's no real security on the marquees. They run a website that the software on Windows Embedded connects to in order to check for changes to the marquee. Once the initial account is created for the organzation, the users can add more users, and in many cases the sign-shops that set up these accounts basically with full admin privileges, so that the users can add or delete more users. In a large organization simply managing legitimate users can be a real chore as neither the sign-shop nor Daktronics place emphasis on end-user security.

Now, those servers that Daktronics maintains would be potentially quite a prize, if they can be exploited and if the protocols that update the signs allow for more updates besides the imagery on the sign then that pathway allows for there to be an exploited device on a corporate network that is not necessarily well understood by the IT department and may not be able to be serviced like a normal PC, despite running an OS very much line a normal PC has.

That's only one example. One can probably find similar problems with most other, "Internet of Things," devices. I would encourage every IT department to harshly segregate these devices on the network, no traffic to anything on the corporate network except for possibly ICMP to verify up/down, Internet traffic limited to only those servers required for management, and then only those ports required for that communication. Deny the ability to touch the corporate network, deny the ability to reach any third-party command-and-control servers.

Re:Another doomsdayer.

[mikael]

Previous generations had similar problems. It's just they have forgotten about them. Spreading rumours? That happened with kids writing messages about each other and putting them on the school noticeboards. Rumours could spread simply by word of mouth without any need for Twitter, Facebook or IM. Teenagers would spend hours talking to each other by telephone. When we lived in terraced streets, mothers would be desperate not knowing where her daughter was, when it was dinnertime. Then, she would have to call around everyone else to find out where she was.

Teenagers spending too much time playing video games. In the past, they would spend too much time surfing, skateboarding, hanging around the shopping mall, playing football, baseball or any other activity.