adio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a key part of the infrastructure underlying the burgeoning Internet of Things. RFID tags, which can be attached to objects and then scanned with readers to give these objects a digital signature, can be as small as a grain of rice. To take just a few examples, RFID tags can be embedded in subway cards, articles of clothing in retail shops, and living beings like livestock or even humans. Infrastructure is, often by design, difficult to notice. We tend to take even large, visible infrastructure like roads and bridges for granted unless we encounter a pothole or a traffic jam. RFID, even though it underlies electronic toll collection and other systems we interact with every day and is poised to become practically ubiquitous, is far less conspicuous. Jordan Firth’s A Billion Little Pieces aims to bring RFID into the foreground, giving readers a sense of what the technology is, how it is being and could be used, and how concerned we should be about its implications, especially those regarding privacy. This book is not aimed at people well-acquainted with RFID. A good portion is devoted to explaining what RFID is, tracing its development, and giving a general overview of its uses. Those seeking an in-depth treatment of the physics of RFID or detailed technical specifications of RFID tags are explicitly enjoined to look elsewhere. Already knowledgeable readers might find later chapters discussing the social implications of RFID more interesting, but the contents of these chapters will also likely not come as news to people who have thought about these issues. While the book does not presume any special knowledge of RFID or technical background on the part of its readers, if you are unfamiliar with the style of writing favored by continental theorists like Foucault, some of Frith’s prose can be jarring. For example, rather than write about RFID being used to track the movements of “people,” he prefers the term “bodies.” Perhaps this jargon is warranted since, as he explains, one important use of RFID is in managing livestock. Still, even in contexts like access to subways or toll roads where it’s clear no non-humans are involved, Frith favors phrases like “the mobility of bodies.” However, writing in this stilted fashion can remind us that, from the point of view of an RFID tag, human beings are just another object. Locutions of this sort appear throughout the book but are thickest in the introduction, which invokes theoretical jargon from fields like sociology, philosophy, and communications studies. But the book as a whole is not as abstruse as the introduction might suggest. A few of the more jargon-y terms Frith employs show up throughout the book, e.g., “spimes,” coined by futurist Bruce Stirling, which refers to objects that are able to relate their own histories. However, in most cases Frith will introduce a concept, briefly describe how RFID is a good example of it, and then move on without returning to it again. In the more descriptive chapters about the history and details of RFID technology, the writing is notably less abstract with fewer recondite citations. The main argument of A Billion Little Pieces is that RFID is best understood as an “infrastructure of identification.” The key function of RFID tags is to allow individual objects (which can be shipping pallets, toll transponders in cars, articles of clothing in retail stores, livestock, etc.) to be identified in a way that can be read and then processed digitally. To function, RFID tags must be part of a system that includes readers to scan the tags and software that adds the scanned information to a database or manipulates it in some way. The bulk of the book is devoted to filling in the details about these systems and the various things they can be used to do. R

中文翻译：

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十亿小片【书评】

射频识别 (RFID) 是新兴物联网基础设施的关键部分。RFID 标签可以贴在物体上，然后用阅读器扫描以给这些物体一个数字签名，它可以小到一粒米。举几个例子，RFID 标签可以嵌入地铁卡、零售店的衣服以及牲畜甚至人类等生物中。基础设施通常在设计上很难被注意到。除非遇到坑洼或交通拥堵，否则我们往往认为道路和桥梁等大型可见基础设施是理所当然的。RFID，尽管它是电子收费系统和我们每天与之交互的其他系统的基础，并且有望变得几乎无处不在，但它并不那么引人注目。Jordan Firth 的 A Billion Little Pieces 旨在将 RFID 推向前台，让读者了解该技术是什么、它是如何使用的以及如何使用，以及我们应该如何关注它的影响，尤其是关于隐私的影响。本书的目标读者不是熟悉 RFID 的人。很大一部分专门用于解释 RFID 是什么、跟踪其发展并对其用途进行总体概述。那些寻求深入研究 RFID 物理或 RFID 标签详细技术规范的人被明确要求到别处寻找。知识渊博的读者可能会发现后面讨论 RFID 的社会影响的章节更有趣，但这些章节的内容对于考虑过这些问题的人来说也可能不是新闻。虽然本书不假定读者具有任何 RFID 特殊知识或技术背景，但如果您不熟悉像福柯这样的大陆理论家所青睐的写作风格，弗里思的一些散文可能会令人不快。例如，与其写关于 RFID 用于跟踪“人”的运动，他更喜欢“身体”这个词。也许这个行话是有道理的，因为正如他解释的那样，RFID 的一个重要用途是管理牲畜。尽管如此，即使在地铁或收费公路等很明显没有非人类参与的情况下，弗里斯也喜欢“身体的移动性”这样的短语。然而，以这种生硬的方式写作可以提醒我们，从 RFID 标签的角度来看，人类只是另一个对象。这类词句在整本书中出现，但在引言中最厚，它引用了社会学、哲学和传播研究等领域的理论术语。但整本书并不像引言所暗示的那样深奥。弗里斯使用的一些更行话的术语在整本书中都出现了，例如，“spimes”，由未来学家布鲁斯斯特林创造，指的是能够关联自己历史的物体。然而，在大多数情况下，Frith 会介绍一个概念，简要描述 RFID 是它的一个很好的例子，然后继续前进而不再回到它。在关于 RFID 技术的历史和细节的更具描述性的章节中，其文字明显不那么抽象，而且隐秘的引用也更少。《十亿小件》的主要论点是，最好将 RFID 理解为“识别基础设施”。” RFID 标签的关键功能是允许以可读取的方式识别单个物体（可以是运输托盘、汽车中的收费应答器、零售店中的服装、牲畜等），然后进行数字处理. 要发挥作用，RFID 标签必须是系统的一部分，该系统包括用于扫描标签的阅读器和将扫描信息添加到数据库或以某种方式对其进行操作的软件。本书的大部分内容都致力于填写有关这些系统的详细信息以及它们可以用来做的各种事情。电阻 RFID 标签必须是系统的一部分，该系统包括用于扫描标签的阅读器和将扫描信息添加到数据库或以某种方式对其进行操作的软件。本书的大部分内容都致力于填写有关这些系统的详细信息以及它们可以用来做的各种事情。电阻 RFID 标签必须是系统的一部分，该系统包括用于扫描标签的阅读器和将扫描信息添加到数据库或以某种方式对其进行操作的软件。本书的大部分内容都致力于填写有关这些系统的详细信息以及它们可以用来做的各种事情。电阻