**5.1 The phenomenon**

Ambient intelligence refers to environments that are sensitive and responsive to the presence of people by means of electronics. In harmony with the modern view of our future haven, it was developed as a corporate initiative in the late 1990s to provide a projection on the future. Information and intelligence were supposed to be hidden in the network that connected different devices. The technological framework behind them was thought to gradually disappear into the surroundings until only the user interfaces remain perceivable by users. The parallel to the Panopticon way of unilateral control is striking!

The ambient intelligence paradigm builds upon computing, profiling, context awareness, and interaction design. Applied systems and technologies are supposed to be context aware as they recognize individuals and their situational context. Moreover, they are personalized and tailored for individual needs, and adaptive as they can respond to individuals. They also anticipate individual desires without conscious mediation. The parallel to an age-old narrative, the life of the master and his servants, is obvious.

Ambient intelligence is said to rely on user experience, and the advancement in sensor technology and sensor networks. In response to operational obstacles, a design emerged that created new technologies and media around the user's personal experience. The user is asked to give feedback to improve the design. Biohacking may be an example that illustrates the most private sides of such applications, which seem to draw the line between private and public inside the body of the users.

Ambient intelligence requires a number of key technologies to exist. These include unobtrusive, user-friendly hardware and human-centric computer interfaces. Computing infrastructure is characterized by interoperability, networks and service-oriented architecture. Systems and devices must be reliable and secure, achieved through self-testing and self-repairing software and privacy ensuring technology. The promises for the future resemble those of salvation of the afterworld.
