A Story of Paradise: Interactive, Digitally Enhanced, and Radioactive

Posted January 13, 2020

External Article: ACM Interactions

Nassim Parvin, associate professor in the School of Literature, Media and Communication, co-authored a piece in the Association of Computing Machinery's Interactions magazine for the January/February issue.

Parvin's piece, written with Lisa Nathan of the University of British Columbia, considers how the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) continues to be oriented towards the status quo and a "market-based ethos," which the authors arque could be inadequate given the current and impending severity of the climate crisis.

Excerpt:

To date, the prevalent HCI response to the ever-worsening climate crisis appears to be to continue the status quo. Digitally enhanced homes, networked workspaces, and smart cities assume the West’s continued access to unlimited electric (and geopolitical) power, fast Internet, clean water, safe food, and secure housing. Perhaps the dominant approaches to HCI will continue, well aligned with visions of an interactive, digitally enhanced, radioactive future paradise. If that isn’t desirable, it is time to openly acknowledge that the climate crisis cannot be addressed by HCI through the same methods, approaches, and market-based ethos that is leading us to this paradise. Until we reject the assumptions listed above, our work will continue reproducing the pattern that is creating a future we can’t survive.

Read the full article here.