Personal and Ubiquitous Computing - Undisciplined disciples: everything you always wanted to know about ethnomethodology but were afraid to ask Yoda
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing - Undisciplined disciples: everything you always wanted to know about ethnomethodology but were afraid to ask Yoda #socialroot #EpistemicAuthority #valleyeconomy
From the journal, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, comes a paper on Undisciplined disciples: everything you always wanted to know about ethnomethodology but were afraid to ask Yoda. This paper is free to read (link) through September 2019.
Abstract
As computing technologies become ubiquitous in social life, social science increasingly becomes the study of those technosystems.…
Time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking... into the future...
I read a blog post on this particular subject by @robinberjon and I found another article by the New York Times which also had some interesting ideas and predictions too from notable industry peeps, albeit a bit more deeper and maybe more than just 10 years into the future. Inspired and in response to these two articles, I thought I’d make some of my own thoughts on predictions, hopes and dreams regarding the Internet — and subsequently humanity’s — potential future developments.
Aside from Robin's post admitting it was “conservative speculative” (I could not agree more!) he postulates on how the Internet may fare in 10 years time. I thought it funny that Robin’s post that also mentions “waiting for the singularity” as I thought his predictions were more just describing what’s already happening now, not 10 years in the future. A lot of the details within are more based on standards infrastructure — which are all notable and worthy causes, and I think he adequately illustrates these primary interests in the first paragraph — however it is in my view is that while the mindset behind standards today will persist (more tightening of protocols, emphasis on adherence and expansion of features and support), the application and delivery will be significantly different, due to the expanded interfaces and “Internet of things” buzz we all hear about (which just essentially amounts to interconnectivity).
One language to rule them all?
Robin mentions also in his post about most things on the web being powered by JavaScript (JS). I think holding on to the notion that JS will power a majority of the net is a bit short-sighted (but perhaps even true?), but I think the patterns and techniques will further influence other more deeply integrated systems and languages, to support a mutable and flexible approach to programming (he predicted that there’d be a web browser powered by JS, and whaddaya know: http://breach.cc). JS’s idiosyncrasies are already a big influence on languages today — notably the new Swift by Apple — but I even think that programming things like sites, apps, etc. will be simplified further. While high-level coding will still be present, a majority of how the web will be built will be by harnessing distributed models and services designed to fit together like lego pieces, because there will be a great shift in input methods which will greatly interface how we perceive and construct the digital (and physical) world around us.
Wearable and ubiquitous computing will be the most important factor during the 2020s and beyond: contact lenses (or skin-surface sensors) will allow integrated augmented reality and allow the eyes and mind a means for input into computer systems; electricity from the sun, atmosphere, air, body, and even our kinetic motion, will power the wearable/ubiq-tech. This new tech will also herald further automation in creation processes: instead of pounding out the code letter-by-letter, the distance from ideation to action will get shorter as further studies of the human brain and machine learning will allow for more accurate transferral of thought waves to machine actions meaning that we use our voices, gestures and brains to initiate commands. Further development of this interface bridge will go from basic button triggering to full on dictation and recording of thoughts straight to production. Continued developments into unlocking more of the mysteries of human consciousness will help fuel A.I. research and development which will have an immensely symbiotic relationship to humanity in the digital-physical space. “I think, therefore I build,” may become a maxim for the times — 3D printers will certainly star in that.
What's already happening now is the emphasis on the health and fitness capabilities of technology monitoring, and after being grasped by the majority, everyone will wonder "why on Earth wasn't this around sooner?". Automated monitoring and reminders for nutrition, medication, mental health, even preventative diagnoses that will flip the current "treat the symptoms" mindset that many every-day medical practitioners have. Patients will be better informed of their health thereby reducing the load on the public healthcare for basic flus/infections and helping reduce over-supply of antibiotics.
Talk talk
APIs — as prolific as they already are — still continue to be a fundamental feature of all distributed online services and continue to allow the interconnectivity between device, software and humans. Perhaps some standardised form of machine interconnectivity will become even more common-place (i.e. "The Internet of Things"), or most likely the documentation will be more open and comprehensive, or there will at least be more emphasis on the ease and ability for others to connect via software/hardware APIs and/or networks.
This distributed and shared model of interconnectivity will continue to influence societies around the world and has an unintended effect on opening people up to more possibilities of sharing knowledge and resources that the open source movement started.
Do you really want to track me?
Data collection of services isn’t as much used for profiteering as it is used more for social research into continued understanding of humanity and its relations. Regulations on commercial usage of this data is governed by an international non-profit organisation.
In terms of advertising and commercial interests, the previous popular backlash against privacy and tracking has subsided mildly (but still continues) as international data capture restrictions, information protection rights, and technology continue to be developed so that individuals can’t be identified (worldwide acceptance of TOR-style networks operate, plus consumer-based products regarding distributed communications networks means that the majority of people are connected via an alternative encrypted radio-based “mesh” P2P Internet, as opposed to the physical fixed wired Internet), however large groups can be (i.e. whole populations) anonymously monitored via public services (transport, health) and records for the benefit of improving public services, understanding behaviour, prediction and containment of health challenges, etc. A governmental body will allow licenses and regulation of data tracking, with the supervision of non-profit NGOs, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, as an integrated watchdog partner for greater transparency.
Intellectual property rights still pose some issues, however the majority of American dominance and lobbying in favour for more draconian legal restrictions continue to lose steam as the further proliferation of tools and platforms which enable everyone to create and distribute their own media continues to grow. High quality crowd-funded/produced entertainment takes centre stage as the leading entertainment choices of the new generation, as these platforms allow for easier automation of generating and distributing revenue based on viewer contributions and advertising agreements. About the only area where continued “old school” dominance reigns will be regarding sports leagues and coverage.
The Butterfly Effect
The distributed share economy will continue to grow and develop in mentality and practice and we’ll find that while the online community grows larger, more people will spread out and live in physically smaller communities. Further emphasis on cleaner environments will affect cities and towns to build smarter infrastructure and incorporate more natural renewable elements for pollution control and healthier living. Advances in energy technology (again, building up consumer-based distributed power generation networks) mean we effectively harvest more ambient electricity and can put more into public transport, health and educational purposes at minimal to zero cost. Sharing/distributing responsibilities and resources means that the quality of living will improve, and that the added benefit is that everyone’s just a little more smarter and courteous which means that we actually improve our chances of surviving just that little bit more.
Tiny behemoths
Nanotechnology will inevitably come to the ubiquitous point as well. Whether it is robotics, bioengineering, regular engineering, etc. wide-spread usage and development of nanotechnology will undoubtedly herald the next humanity-defining epoch. In all applications that are mentioned in this article, nanotech will probably feature in some way.
To infinity and beyond
So some of the above may be considered for the next 10 years, and maybe a little bit further then — or not at all! Either way, it was a fun thought experiment. I'd imagine that at some point cold fusion is cracked, wireless electricity is freely available, interstellar transportation feasible, and the USS Enterprise is hooning around space. Actually, maybe that’s more 100-200 years into the future… so long as we don’t blow ourselves up before then and the bad parts of capitalism are rewritten away from its current oligarchical-enforced class structure.
