My only worry is that it can be taken very superficially (ditto for so-called “humane tech” with its focus on “attention”) without critical analysis of the greater impact of the whole system on privacy and human rights.

Case in point: ubiquitous face recognition is calm tech in that it is entirely invisible to you and just does what it does without disturbing you. In fact, that’s the whole idea. Surveillance technologies in general, if they’re smart, are calm.