Beyond the cybernetic loop: smart” pain technology in a recursive society
This article examines emerging “smart” pain technologies in the United States. New wearable and implantable devices aim to partly remove human decision-making from pain management, delegating it to more or less closed feedback loops that capture signals directly from the body, process them algorithm...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SAGE Publishing
2025-06-01
|
| Series: | Big Data & Society |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517251343862 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1849723538270846976 |
|---|---|
| author | Benjamin Lipp Stephen Hilgartner |
| author_facet | Benjamin Lipp Stephen Hilgartner |
| author_sort | Benjamin Lipp |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article examines emerging “smart” pain technologies in the United States. New wearable and implantable devices aim to partly remove human decision-making from pain management, delegating it to more or less closed feedback loops that capture signals directly from the body, process them algorithmically, and administer electrical stimulation to modulate nerve response. This endeavor to create increasingly “closed loop” pain treatment reflects both the cybernetic dream of building self-regulating machines and biomedicine's discontent with the subjectivity of pain. The article conceptualizes and empirically explores the building and maintaining of loops in pain management, examining this sociotechnical process and the many elements it implicates, both within and beyond pain management. We focus on two specific devices: one implantable and the other wearable. The analysis shows how physicians and company officials imagine—and actively seek to realize—changes in the role of patients, the nature of medical expertise, the understanding of chronic pain, and the business models of companies. We argue that such activities are a type of technoscientific activity that portends potentially new forms of healthcare and social life. Finally, we propose that an analysis of “looping techniques” can contribute to recently advanced theories of a recursive society by demonstrating how building and maintaining loops shift different actors in and out, interface them at different scales, and establish new regimes of control. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-5d6a13e2b3854f03b3a4d1925b35d070 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2053-9517 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Big Data & Society |
| spelling | doaj-art-5d6a13e2b3854f03b3a4d1925b35d0702025-08-20T03:10:59ZengSAGE PublishingBig Data & Society2053-95172025-06-011210.1177/20539517251343862Beyond the cybernetic loop: smart” pain technology in a recursive societyBenjamin Lipp0Stephen Hilgartner1 Technology, Management and Economics, , Lyngby, Denmark Department of Science & Technology Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USAThis article examines emerging “smart” pain technologies in the United States. New wearable and implantable devices aim to partly remove human decision-making from pain management, delegating it to more or less closed feedback loops that capture signals directly from the body, process them algorithmically, and administer electrical stimulation to modulate nerve response. This endeavor to create increasingly “closed loop” pain treatment reflects both the cybernetic dream of building self-regulating machines and biomedicine's discontent with the subjectivity of pain. The article conceptualizes and empirically explores the building and maintaining of loops in pain management, examining this sociotechnical process and the many elements it implicates, both within and beyond pain management. We focus on two specific devices: one implantable and the other wearable. The analysis shows how physicians and company officials imagine—and actively seek to realize—changes in the role of patients, the nature of medical expertise, the understanding of chronic pain, and the business models of companies. We argue that such activities are a type of technoscientific activity that portends potentially new forms of healthcare and social life. Finally, we propose that an analysis of “looping techniques” can contribute to recently advanced theories of a recursive society by demonstrating how building and maintaining loops shift different actors in and out, interface them at different scales, and establish new regimes of control.https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517251343862 |
| spellingShingle | Benjamin Lipp Stephen Hilgartner Beyond the cybernetic loop: smart” pain technology in a recursive society Big Data & Society |
| title | Beyond the cybernetic loop: smart” pain technology in a recursive society |
| title_full | Beyond the cybernetic loop: smart” pain technology in a recursive society |
| title_fullStr | Beyond the cybernetic loop: smart” pain technology in a recursive society |
| title_full_unstemmed | Beyond the cybernetic loop: smart” pain technology in a recursive society |
| title_short | Beyond the cybernetic loop: smart” pain technology in a recursive society |
| title_sort | beyond the cybernetic loop smart pain technology in a recursive society |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517251343862 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT benjaminlipp beyondthecyberneticloopsmartpaintechnologyinarecursivesociety AT stephenhilgartner beyondthecyberneticloopsmartpaintechnologyinarecursivesociety |