While Aristotle was writing centuries before wearables, his view of moral education provides a foundation for the theory behind the benign tyranny of the device. Or, if one prefers, the bearable tyranny of the wearable.

In his Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle addressed the practical problem of how to make people good. He understood merely listening to discourses on morality would not suffice. In an apt analogy, he noted that such people would be like patients who listened to their doctors but did not carry out their instructions: they will get no benefit.

His solution is one that is both endorsed and condemned today: using the compulsive power of the state to make people behave well and thus become habituated. Most are happy to have the state compel people to act as they would like them to act; yet equally unhappy when it comes to the state imposing on them. Aristotle was also aware of the importance of training people from an early age, something later developed by both the Nazis and Madison Avenue.

While there have been attempts in the United States and other Western nations to use the compulsive power of the state to force people to engage in healthy practices, these are often unsuccessful and opposed as draconian violations of the right to be unhealthy. While the idea of a Fitness Force chasing people around to make them exercise seems funny, I would oppose such impositions on both practical and moral grounds. However, most need external coercion to force them to engage in healthy behavior. Those who are well-off can hire a personal trainer or fitness coach. Those who are less well-off can appeal to the tyranny of friends who are already self-tyrannizing. However, there are problems with relying on other people. This is where the tyranny of the device comes in.

While the quantified life via electronics is in its infancy, there is already a multitude of devices available including smart watches, smart rings, smart plates, smart scales, and smart forks. All these devices offer measurements of activities to quantify the self and most of them offer coercion ranging from annoying noises to automatic social media posts (“today my feet did not patter, so now my ass grows fatter”), to the old school electric shock (really).

While the devices vary, Aristotle presented their basic requirements back when lightning was believed by some to come from Zeus. Aristotle noted that a person must do no wrong either with or against their will. In the case of fitness, this would be acting in ways contrary to health.

What is needed, according to Aristotle, is “the guidance of some intelligence or right system that has effective force.” The first part of this is that the device or app must be the “right system.” The device must provide correct guidance in terms of health and well-being. Unfortunately, matters of health are often ruled by fad and ideology.

The second part is the matter of “effective force”, so the device or app must have the power to compel. Aristotle noted that individuals lack such compulsive power, so he favored the power of law. Good law, he claimed, has practical wisdom and compulsive force. However, unless the state is going to get into the business of compelling health, this option is out.

Interesting, Aristotle claims that “although people resent it when their impulses are opposed by human agents, even if they are in the right, the law causes no irritation by enjoining decent behavior.” While this does not seem entirely true, he did seem to be right in that people find the law less annoying than being bossed around by individuals acting as individuals (like a bossy neighbor telling you to turn down the music).

The same could be true of devices. While being bossed around by a person (“hey fatty, you’ve had enough ice cream, get out and run”) would annoy most people, being bossed by an app or device could be less annoying. In fact, most people are already conditioned by their devices and obey their smartphones. Some people obey even when it puts people at risk, such as when they are driving. This provides a vast ocean of psychological conditioning to tap into, but for a better cause. So, instead of mindlessly flipping through Instagram or texting words of nothingness, a person would be compelled by their digital masters to exercise more, eat less crap, and get more sleep.  Soon the machine tyrants will have very fit hosts to carry them around.

So, Aristotle has provided the perfect theoretical foundation for designing the tyrannical device. To recap, it needs the following features:

1. Practical wisdom: the health science for the device or app needs to be correct and the guidance effective.
2. Compulsive power: the device or app must be able to compel the user effectively and make them obey.
3. Not too annoying: while it must have compulsive power, this power must not generate annoyance that exceeds its ability to compel.
4. A cool name.

So, get to work on those devices and apps. The age of machine tyranny is not going to impose itself. At least not yet.