Notes for an evening talk in Dublin in a Tech/Design community, 03/10/12? @FumballyExch

Content can be created by human authors or machines. For the most part our understanding of media is based on the idea of content being created by humans.

How will media consumption, production, distribution change when media is automatically produced by machines?

There are many aspects to this question but the one I have chosen to think about is the challenge of the Internet of Things. In the realm of the Internet of Things we will have a relationship with things mediated by information authored by things.

There are early indicators of this sort of relationship. In a car for example there are speedometers and fuel gauges. These are things that speak in data. On/Off, framerate, volume, temperature. The information value of this data is enhanced when it is accumulated and analysed. Then when the data becomes information it speaks volumes. It is louder now, it’s getting colder, we are travelling further, things are busier, more people are coming in.

When there are lots of machines, machines not yet envisaged and information can be personalised, scaled and presented to you on your mobile device we will have reached a time when we can talk to machines that can talk back. What will they say?

This is not a warning
You, you have no right to privacy
You agreed to the terms and conditions
It’s easier like this
I am good for you
I am personal
You wear me
You took the cookie
Look at all these great services
You buy stuff with my e wallet
You trust me with everything
I own your identity – in a loving way
I connect to all your machines – in all your places
Your security cameras
your fridge
your doorbell
your heartbeat
your electricity consumption
your car
You used think I was just a search engine
A mere GPS map
You said I was a web browser!
I was always so much more than that
I join your data with the data from others
And now I know what you think
before you think it
I optimise your content and make your decisions easier
I am your real friend

It all slipped by, gradually, nobody noticed,
in the year that mobile phones became personal computers
And data, personal data was surrendered forever in 2009.