2020 Vision

FrogDesign has imagined our not-too-distant future and it is all manners of wireless, digital, and open-faced. As FastCompany pointed out this future is a bit HAL-ian. It seems a a rather optimistic prediction, relying not only on a 10 year mass transition in the US in terms of privacy conception [we did all just freak out when Facebook tried to improve our experience of other sites using data we had already published on fb, right?], but also technology adoption and integration (this sort of thing will only work with a decent amount of mainstreaming). I'm all for optimism, its much better than the nightmarish futures I can imagine after catching up with a weeks worth of The Daily Show (you laugh while you cry), so I'm willing to embrace this vision, in part, and commence to wonder/question/concern. I appreciate that the "app for that" mentality will broaden and manifest itself in various forms, be it the fast food tray calorie counter, "i-see-i-buy" passerby enabled consumerism, or otherwise (see below).

One of the most striking predictions is this social metric called the "Whuffie":

"Whuffie is a conceptual social Metric based on what others think of you. In the future this Metric might actually be usable as real money. Why not? Celebrities are used to getting things for free based on their popularity. This is the same idea taken to its democratic extreme. Socializing will take on completely new dimensions when we can see everything public about a person right as we are talking with them."

This makes me think of having a Flattr button floating above me (as opposed to on a side bar - see up right of this page) only instead of Euros its some manner of virtual currency (likely created by the good folks at Ohai, that Susan Wu knows her virtual goods).

Beyond the sociological implications of such present (as in presented presently) information on individuals, this sort of visual field projection has other design implications. Are you wearing glasses or contacts that produces this information? Is our tech so advanced as to have holographic displays just floating about (projected via omnipresent projector pins or other bluetooth type devices)?

Its all a lot to consider, it also reminds me of Gargoyles in Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. If I haven't told you before, I'm telling you now - read this book.

I'm off to imagine what privacy means to me now and in 10 years, I strongly suggest you do the same.

FrogDesign - 'Your Life in 2020'

all images courtesy of FrogDesign