Ubiquity: Micro to Macro Ecosystems?

Abstract

Specialists usually interpret the defining keywords of ubiquitous computing "anywhere, anytime" as "any geographical place at any moment of a given day". Our alternative interpretation "at any scale over the years" offers a complementary conceptual framework covering microscopic to macroscopic ecosystems. We introduce nano-bots, implants, smart artefacts, wearable computers, domestic robots, smart buildings, smart cities (aka u-cities), smart territories, and interplanetary systems then analyse their energetic and informatory relationships. We conclude that technologies linked to non-human scales are neglected, that convergence is insufficient to guide ubiquity, that environmental factors endanger resulting ecosystems, and that these ecosystems lack critical organisms, links and mechanisms. We accordingly suggest thirteen foundations for viable and healthy ecosystems based on ubicomp. They involve guiding concepts, ubiquitous virtual reality, sustainability, climatic factors, resource optimization and management, waste processors, open standards, features (anonymity, redundancy, simplicity), and mechanisms (provision, regulation, support) to structure and maintain ecosystem services useful to humans.