Ambient intelligence is a vision on the future of consumer electronics, telecommunications and computing that was originally developed in the late 1990s for the time frame 2010–2020. In an ambient intelligence world, devices work in concert to support people in carrying out their everyday life activities, tasks and rituals in an easy, natural way using information and intelligence that is hidden in the network connecting these devices. wikipedia 
The ISTAG advisory group suggests that the following characteristics will permit the societal acceptance of ambient intelligence (AmI). wikipedia istag
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AmI should facilitate human contact.
AmI should be oriented towards community and cultural enhancement.
AmI should help to build knowledge and skills for work, better quality of work, citizenship and consumer choice.
AmI should inspire trust and confidence.
AmI should be consistent with long term sustainability — personal, societal and environmental — and with lifelong learning.
AmI should be made easy to live with and controllable by ordinary people.
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See Hello Echo for a glimpse of living with an ambient intelligence.
See Corporatization of the Learning Process for a hint as to how traditional institutions of learning will be forced to accommodate the extreme convenience of ambient intelligence.
See Beware the Machines for a non-distopian but still chilling forecast for life after the singularity.