THE PARADOXICAL AND THE REVERSIBLE: TOWARDS A CRITIQUE OF PERVASIVE COMPUTING AND THE INTELLIGENT NATION 2015 (IN2015) MASTERPLAN IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

This dissertation critically analyses the iN2015 Masterplan and pervasive computing by unpacking their discourses. I highlight how both are shaped by and shape their contexts, specifically, globalisation and its technologies, underpinned by neo-liberal values, post-Cold War techniques and technicity, coding needs and desires. I argue that the iN2015 Masterplan and pervasive computing produce active technological subjects needed to perpetuate the technological economy and the military, which, in turn, sustain their projects in a generalised cycle. In this cycle, humans are inducted into their codes that, paradoxically, subordinate them further under the logic of the technology.