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The Machines Are Blogging



Pretty interesting techie post over on a blog by Niall Kennedy. The idea seems to be that over the course of the next few years, not only will we ourselves be blogging, but our gadgets and technical devices will also be creating streams of data, which could be thought of as blogs or maybe even RSS feeds:

Your gadgets are blogging. Every time you take a picture, listen to a song, or play a video game you might also be blogging. Our shoes log and share our every step, our scales analyze our weight and body fat, and our cars let the world know it’s been too long since your last oil change. The creation and exposure of data from our daily lives is creating new data available for search and subscription. It’s time to rethink what we call a blog.

The availability of this new data will cause us to rethink what we want to share with the world, and where we want to access this personal information. Our gadgets are talking, but who should be listening?

Right now, a lot of people have links in their sidebars to books that they are reading, or music they are listening to. Imagine then that the books or CD’s themselves were transmitting this data - along with all other products you use, by way of RFID or similar technology. I think a lot of people in the conspiracy world tend to think of this type of thing in negative terms as surveillance or the creeping police state, but this post makes me re-think those assumptions. At some point, it’s like the government won’t need to upset people over wiretapping - because we will simply WANT products which track our every move and which can be correlated and used in interesting and creative ways both online and off. (Try also these two older posts in a similar vein if you’re interested in this subject…)

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3 Reader Responses

  1. Kylark Says:
    May 25th, 2006 at 12:25 pm

    The interaction of all these systems could become the functional equivalent of a nearly-omniscient deity who strives to cater to our every whim.

    Will this deity be benevolent or exploitative? Or a little of both?

  2. Ant Says:
    May 25th, 2006 at 12:29 pm

    Wow, weird. Could you imagine something that sent your daily routine to the internet and compared it to the rest of the population? This in some ways would be absolutely amazing for scientific research and would advance us a lot in the health industry as well as help track trends for consumers (and perhaps make consumerism a bit more “honest” and “useful” if companies decide to take a firm stance on not doing things just to sell…) But… wow, imagine how annoying it would be to constantly be comparing yourself with the rest of the population if this “blogging” resulted in guilt-inducing feedback. It would be like this little angel on your shoulder saying “Don’t eat that! If you do, you’ll become statistically unhealthy according to the National Health Administration. You will have increased your chance of dying of heart failure by .0001% And your new Real Age will be 25.384, a increase of .00008 years. ”

    AAAH! Let’s hope it doesn’t get to this point. :)

  3. Ktulu Says:
    May 26th, 2006 at 9:59 am

    The interaction of all these systems could become the functional equivalent of a nearly-omniscient deity who strives to cater to our every whim.

    Will this deity be benevolent or exploitative? Or a little of both?

    That’s the idea of Scott Adam’s (creator of Dilbert) duology, “God’s Debris: A Thought Experiment” and “The Religion War”. Essentially, according to the thought experiment, God does not exist as he did before creation. Creation was the result of God attempting the only thing he could be unsure of - what would happen if he destroyed himself. All of life is thus progressing to the recreation of God.

    I think a lot of people in the conspiracy world tend to think of this type of thing in negative terms as surveillance or the creeping police state, but this post makes me re-think those assumptions. At some point, it’s like the government won’t need to upset people over wiretapping - because we will simply WANT products which track our every move and which can be correlated and used in interesting and creative ways both online and off.

    I’ve reached the conclusion (for myself, not in terms of absolute truth) that there is no such thing as evil technology or advances. All knowledge, advancement, technology, improvement, etc. is purely objective. There is no room for good or evil in objectivity. HOWEVER, those who use such improvements are open to subjectivity. Thus, the improvements can be used for good/evil by good/evil persons. In other words, all knowledge, advancement, technology, improvement, etc. means is magnitude. The more it increases, the more intense the magnitude (and thus a smaller gray area). If you picture a bell-curve with a median at (0,0), then the greater the technology, the more the bell-curve is stretched veritcally. As it stretches towards infinity along the y-axis (objective magnitude), it becomes narrower along the x-axis (subjective positive/negative, good/bad). The middle-fence of ambiguity between black and white, absolute good and absolute evil will eventually get so narrow that all of humanity (or at least all who possess the technology, knowledge, etc.) will be either VERY good or VERY bad. I might be wrong, but in my opinion, all this technology and knowledge increase will do is make it much easier to distinguish the good from the bad.

    Just a thought or forty-two, :)



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