Gadgetory

okay so you know that black mirror episode where a giant tech company has been analyzing user data for decades and now it's using that information to shape human behavior I changed my phones and shipping us products to improve our lives oh wait that's okay so that actually isn't a black mirror up so but it sure sounds like it exactly the plot of a nearly nine minute long internal video from Google so what is this video and what does it say about Google's future the video is only meant to be used internally apparently as a thought experiment to provoke discussion about the possibilities of data it was created in 2016 by Nick Foster the head of design at what used to be known as at Google X that's the company's moonshot factory where they make things like hot-air balloons that deliver Internet connections the video was supposed to stay internal but my colleague glad salve of obtained a copy of it if you wanna watch the full thing you can do it at the verge comm will have a link in the description here's what Google had to say to us about the video we understand if this is disturbing it is designed to be this is a thought experiment but the design team from years ago that uses a technique known as speculative design to explore uncomfortable ideas and concepts in order to provoke discussion and debate it's not related to any current or future products and you know what I agree with them this video is disturbing it's really weird and eerie there are references to Pinocchio Harry Potter Richard Dawkins there are closed steps of insects and human faces it's just meant to feel like a sci-fi film the video basically makes one grand comparison what if user data is like DNA but for our behavior what if like we were able to sequence DNA to the benefit of our health and medicine we could send how sequence user data to make similarly grand improvements in proposing this idea Google brings up a number of fascinating possibilities it also brings up a ton of potential ethical and privacy concerns in the process the central idea presented early on is the concept of a ledger that's basically the word they're gonna use to refer to all the data that they collect and assemble on you this codified version of who we are becomes ever more complex developing changing and deforming based on our actions in this regard this ledger of our data may be considered a Lamarckian epigenome the Lamarckian epigenome he just mentioned refers to a pre-darwinian theory on evolution which isn't actually that important really the science reference is just there to frame the idea of a file that collects all the data generated on us which can then pass down to future generations like your children or even just the population at large to impact the future and their behavior and that's where it starts to get a little weird because the video introduces the idea that maybe your data doesn't belong to you what if we thought of ourselves not as the owners of this information but as custodians transient carriers or caretakers that drawing with the weird blobby humans is really creepy and not just because of the drawing it basically says that I don't own my data but my data belongs to my entire lineage if not my entire society and all societies to come which is a huge leap about how we think about data privacy we're currently freaking out about Facebook data leaking this is talking about creating a repository of generations worth of data to be worked and studied upon forever the video imagines a number of ways in which this data could be used it starts out pretty simple initially the notion of a goal oriented ledger may be user driven as an organization Google would be responsible for offering suitable targets for a user's ledger whilst the notion of a global good is problematic topics would likely focus on health or environmental impact to reflect Google's values as an organization once the user selects a volition for their ledger every interaction may be compared to a series of parallel options this is basically like your phone's assistant making suggestions based on what it knows you like so if you're trying to be more environmentally friendly it might suggest you take an uber pool home or buy organic bananas but listen to that one more time and pay close attention to the phrasing here initially the notion of a goal oriented maybe user-driven initially the notion of a goal-oriented ledger may be user driven the implication here is that eventually Google or some grand AI will start taking a much larger role in your decision making the AI might start to be proactive about going out and gathering data on you so I can start providing even more services in the example given the ledger is missing data about your weight so it goes to incredible lengths to get it it uses the data it knows about you to create the perfect scale for you and uses your design interests to design the scale and then 3d prints the scale and offer us to sell it to you all so that it can pull that weight data back into its system to know more and more about you and again this isn't all that far from what's possible today Google and Facebook both serve ads and news based on your interests and sometimes that's helpful I read articles all the time that I'm served but the added benefit for those companies that with every article I click on or don't click on they're getting more information that they can then use to tailor even more products and services to my tastes not to mention a lot of us wear wearable devices that send information back up to those company's servers which they can then use to suggest health tips to us in the final portion of the video it jumps ahead to a world where Google has decades if not generations of data and with that information the company can map patterns of behavior or even disease mental illness and social issues it concludes in the suggestion the ledger can change from a system that collects data to one that uses data to actively solve problems for individuals if not entire populations these are incredible possibilities and there may even be some reality there but the one thing that video never does is question whether it should be done or thing to be done ethically it never asks if this data is really as valuable as they make it out to be or how we can scientifically prove any of this out I actually take a lot of issue with the premise of this video I don't think my data is really that representative me it's just these residual points left over for advertisers to targets up to me it's not human behavior and on top of that this data isn't even representative of all humans it's just for Google users what's most scary to me right now is that all this video is presented as possible and there's really no one right now that can stop it or put a check on it there's no new universal ethics regulator that can make sure that tech companies aren't messing with their users lives there's no one making sure that any experiments are being conducted in a safe fashion or that changes are being made that actually help people this kind of stuff is already happening several years ago Facebook briefly altered its newsfeed to see if we could make people happier or sadder and it worked Facebook was behavior to alter people's emotions this is a giant tech company using data to manipulate humanity and again Google says that this video was a thought experiment and it's not reflective of any current or future products but even if that's the case this is still a scary glimpse into the thinking in Silicon Valley these companies are awake to the possibilities arising from our data we should be too or else one day and may not be ours thanks for watching if you have a chance you should definitely watch the whole video because it is fascinating and actually just really entertaining for a filmmaking perspective to promoting a lot of the movie blodgett a you can check it out we'll have a link in description below let us know in the comments what you think we'll be around to answer any questions