Skip to main content
Journal cover image

RFID: Human agency and meaning in information-intensive environments

Publication ,  Conference
Katherine Hayles, N
Published in: Theory, Culture and Society
March 1, 2009

RFID tags, small microchips no bigger than grains of rice, are currently being embedded in product labels, clothing, credit cards, and the environment, among other sites. Activated by the appropriate receiver, they transmit information ranging from product information such as manufacturing date, delivery route, and location where the item was purchased to (in the case of credit cards) the name, address, and credit history of the person holding the card. Active RFIDs have the capacity to transmit data without having to be activated by a receiver; they can be linked with embedded sensors to allow continuous monitoring of environmental conditions, applications that interest both environmental groups and the US military. The amount of information accessible through and generated by RFIDs is so huge that it may well overwhelm all existing data sources and become, from the viewpoint of human time limitations, essentially infinite. What to make of these technologies will be interrogated through two contemporary fictions, David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and Philip K. Dick's Ubik. Cloud Atlas focuses on epistemological questions - who knows what about whom, in a futuristic society where all citizens wear embedded RFID tags and are subject to constant surveillance. Resistance takes the form not so much of evasion (tactical moves in a complex political Situation) but rather as a struggle to transmit information to present and future stakeholders in a world on the brink of catastrophe. Ubik, by contrast, focuses on deeper ontological questions about the nature of reality itself. Both texts point to the necessity to reconceptualize information as ethical action embedded in contexts and not merely as a quantitative measure of probabilities.

Altmetric Attention Stats
Dimensions Citation Stats

Published In

Theory, Culture and Society

DOI

EISSN

1460-3616

ISSN

0263-2764

Publication Date

March 1, 2009

Volume

26

Issue

2-3

Start / End Page

47 / 72

Related Subject Headings

  • General Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
  • 4702 Cultural studies
  • 4410 Sociology
  • 2002 Cultural Studies
  • 2001 Communication and Media Studies
  • 1608 Sociology
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Katherine Hayles, N. (2009). RFID: Human agency and meaning in information-intensive environments. In Theory, Culture and Society (Vol. 26, pp. 47–72). https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276409103107
Katherine Hayles, N. “RFID: Human agency and meaning in information-intensive environments.” In Theory, Culture and Society, 26:47–72, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276409103107.
Katherine Hayles N. RFID: Human agency and meaning in information-intensive environments. In: Theory, Culture and Society. 2009. p. 47–72.
Katherine Hayles, N. “RFID: Human agency and meaning in information-intensive environments.” Theory, Culture and Society, vol. 26, no. 2–3, 2009, pp. 47–72. Scopus, doi:10.1177/0263276409103107.
Katherine Hayles N. RFID: Human agency and meaning in information-intensive environments. Theory, Culture and Society. 2009. p. 47–72.
Journal cover image

Published In

Theory, Culture and Society

DOI

EISSN

1460-3616

ISSN

0263-2764

Publication Date

March 1, 2009

Volume

26

Issue

2-3

Start / End Page

47 / 72

Related Subject Headings

  • General Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
  • 4702 Cultural studies
  • 4410 Sociology
  • 2002 Cultural Studies
  • 2001 Communication and Media Studies
  • 1608 Sociology