The Secret Life of Data in the Year 2020 or just more dilemmas?
Source of viewpoint: http://www.wfs.org/futurist/july-august-2012-vol-46-no-4/secret-life-data-year-2020
This post at The Futurist is by Brian David Johnson (worst linkedIn profile ever!) who is a futurist for Intel and writes about how geotags, sensor outputs, and big data are changing the future. He argues that we need a better understanding of our relationship with the data we produce in order to build the future we want.
Personally I am not sure that anyone will think about sensors and the data that is shared but I do think that there will be debate about who decides. The classic of this is the fictional scenario of the self drive car, a narrow bridge and a school child.
Scenario 1. You and I are being driven by the auto drive and as you cross the narrow bridge the child jumps out in front of us – the sensors go mad and realise that you cannot stop and you are driven through the wall into the raging river below. Child lives, I might if I am lucky but my premiums will be shocking next year.
Scenario 2. You or I are now substituted by President, Premier, Royalty or high net worth - does the algorithm know more about the person in the car and make a different choice to hit the child rather than plunge the passenger into the river.
Sensors are the same, context is the same, starting data different – but will the algorithm or indeed you or I know?
The future is full of new digital dilemmas and ethic !