[-empyre-] yes, but, well, and...

[Scott L. Minneman]

I don't remember there being much mystery about where things were headed
with the potential for collecting lots of information about us and inferring
ad nauseum for purposes of advertising and such.  We saw the advent of
recommender systems (and applauded when we discovered a movie or a new band
via these mechanisms) and marveled when a search engine seemed to make good
sense of the drivel we typed their direction.  Folks jumped at free services
in exchange for surrendering their info and eyeballs.

 

These days, the algorithms are seemingly trying too hard, or
maybe..well..perhaps they just don't know me as well as they think they do.
Amazon seldom suggests a purchase I'm interested in, and I actually wish for
a switch on Google so it would just stop trying to be clever.  And I'm
sorry, friends, but I think I can count on a single hand the number of times
when the "personal results" portion of a Google search have yielded
anything.  I can no longer tell you to click the third search result.odds
are it's not the same for you.

 

As we begin to see bigger corporations (including the biggie) looking
seriously about how to directly augment our experience with mixed and
virtual stuff, be it with glasses or tablets (or eventually contact lenses
and brain stimulation), the slope gets disturbingly slippery.  The world,
even if we're in the same place, at the same time, starts to no longer look
the same.  You're hungry, so you've got the "food specials" layer turned on
(if you even have control of it, perhaps your Nike "Fuel Band III" has
detected that you need some calories and switched on that overlay for you).
The person next to you is a tourist, so they're subscribing to a "historical
landmarks" layer, and their son is playing some mixed reality first-person
shooter.  Your views of the world are much different.  

 

[.and all of them have their peripheral vision blocked by banner ads and
never see/hear the bus that runs them over - physics still doesn't care.]

 

I'm seemingly not as worried as Mark about what the powers that be are
learning about me.  I'm more worried about how poorly it all works, and
about how much stock they seem to be putting into their lame inferences.
What they think I was asking becomes more important that what I really
asked.  And then they infer more from our reactions to the junk they put in
front of us.  Complicating matters is that our whole culture is highly
dependent on shared experiences, and those are in flux and becoming
increasingly scarce.

 

Not sure where I'm going with this, but I'll toss it out into the public
interactives and interactive publics ring (oooh..there's a name for a book
Anne and I should write).  Hopefully Google won't re-write it for each of
you, in an attempt to relate my text to your recent searches for tips on how
to get 3-Stars on the 27th level of Angry Birds Space (or whatever).

 

slm

 

Scott L. Minneman, PhD

Professor and Industry Liaison - CCA

Principal - Onomy Labs, Inc.

onomy.com & slminneman.com <http://www.slminneman.com> 

415 505-7234 - cell

 

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