Living without a safety net in an Intelligent Environment

Computing systems comprise a surreptitious and intrinsic part of our daily life activities. Applications that support humans in daily life facilitate the development of the so-called Intelligent Environments. Like any technology Intelligent Environments can fail. This paper examines potential negative consequences of such systems if they are too naively or optimistically developed and used. The aim of this work is to encourage those contributing to the technical area to reflect on these issues and to provide symbiotic solutions which make such a powerful technical development safer for humans so that it can unfold all its potential to empower future citizens, especially the vulnerable.