Wearable computing: toward humanistic intelligence

Over the past 20 years, wearable computing has emerged as the perfect tool for embodying humanistic intelligence (HI). HI is intelligence that arises when a human is part of the feedback loop of a computational process in which the human and computer are inextricably intertwined. It is common in the field of human-computer interaction to think of the human and computer as separate entities. (indeed, the term "HCI" emphasizes this separateness by treating the human and computer as different entities that interact.) However, in HI theory, we prefer not to think of the wearer and the computer with its associated I/O apparatus as separate entities. Instead, we regard the computer as a second brain and its sensory modalities as additional senses, in which synthetic synesthesia merges with the wearer's senses. When a wearable computer functions in a successful embodiment of HI, the computer uses the human's mind and body as one of its peripherals, just as the human uses the computer as a peripheral. This reciprocal relationship is at the heart of HI.