Weiser understood that the virtual world could never be more than a shadow land no matter how much data it absorbs: “Virtual reality is only a map, not a territory. It excludes desks, offices, other people… weather, trees, walks, chance encounters and, in general, the infinite richness of the universe.” He wrote that virtual reality “simulates” the world rather than “invisibly enhancing the world that already exists.” In contrast, ubiquitous computing would infuse that real world with a universally networked apparatus of silent, “calm,” and voracious computing. Weiser refers to this apparatus as the new “computing environment” and delights in the possibilities of its limitless knowledge, such as knowing “the suit you looked at for a long time last week because it knows both of your locations, and it can retroactively find the designer’s name even though that information did not interest you at the time.”

Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Cap…, loc. 619