Effects of Pervasive Computing on Sustainable Development

Effects of Pervasive Computing on Sustainable Development provides an overview of a study commissioned by the Swiss Centre for Technology Assessment (TA-SWISS) to discuss the opportunities and risks of pervasive computing for sustainable development focusing on its impacts on human health and the environment. It explains that pervasive computing could amplify already existing problems related to the environment, human health, and society. Power consumption for digital networks, e-waste streams, and exposure to non-ionizing radiation may all increase.

Environmental Impacts
The study splits the environmental issues in: resource consumption, end-of-life treatment, and indirect effects:

Pervasive computing will bring about additional loads on as well as benefits to the environment. [...] The functional requirement of low energy consumption provides a great opportunity to the environment on the macro level as pervasive computing could increasingly replace the PC for many applications [...] However, due to the increasing number of components that will be used, the total material and energy consumption caused by the production of electronic goods [23] is still expected to accelerate global resource depletion. [...] Always-on devices in particular and devices in stand-by mode will also form a substantial part of the total electricity consumption. On the other hand, there is a great potential for power savings due to the trend to mobile devices because the acceptable weight of mobile devices limits battery size. [...] The increasing quantities and shorter service lives of components that accompany pervasive computing will most probably counterbalance or even outweigh the benefits obtained from progressing miniaturization. [...] Another environmental risk of pervasive computing is the release of pollutants caused by the disposal of the resulting waste.

Health-Related Aspects of Pervasive Computing
The usual concerns about pervasive computing are the unpredictable long-term physical affects of non-ionizing radiation (NIR). The most interesting to my research is the potential impact of poor usability, disturbance and distraction of pervasive computing on the user behavior:

Further health-relevant effects of pervasive computing can be caused indirectly by influences on user behavior and the social context encountered. [...] In particular, pervasive computing could cause stress for various reasons, such as poor usability, disturbance and distraction, the feeling of being under surveillance (privacy issues), the possible misuse of technology for criminal purposes, as well as increased demands on individuals’ productivity. [...] Although there is a promising opportunity for better adaptation of pervasive computing to human needs, experience with established ICT shows that interfaces with poor ergonomic quality are widely accepted by consumers. There is a general trend to frequent distraction of human attention caused by technical devices. Such disturbances are likely to increase in future due to the diffusion of pervasive computing gadgets. The question is still open as to how such harassments can be effectively prevented.

The last sentence hits the core of my current research interest

Via Nicolas: The dark side of Pervasive Computing: environmental issues