The world is saturated by services and products provided by companies that have a “secret grip” on the way we live. In 1951, the French-born American industrial designer Raymond Loewy described a typical day “of the average guy” from the moment he wakes up until he goes to bed. The point being that the average guy’s life was saturated with designed products.

In 2024, the average person may be woken by an alarm on a smartphone, and benefit from hot water that is controlled by smart heating controls – also linked to a smartphone and the internet. There might be a delivery tracked via the internet and a ring on a doorbell also linked to the internet. Online banking links them to an array of financial services.

Our lives are increasingly dependent on being able to access what I have termed

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