Gordaen’s Blog

Bernie posted about the Future of History and brought up some very interesting points. I started to comment, but the comment grew and grew until I was forced to acknowledge that it was heading toward rambling, which really should be a category on my blog. That being said, I think we’re on a trail that eventually leads to the steps that go to the “Information Age.” Many people claim we are there, but I don’t think they see the big picture.

Right now, we still base a lot of our decisions on what we personally know or what our friends know. A friend saying, “I heard that restaurant isn’t very good,” might sway you from a particular choice, but real information will be available in the future (e.g., easy access to restaurant ratings like many online stores have product ratings). Consider how people used to give directions (especially when they claimed to have the fastest route); now you can just pull up a map to give you very detailed information.

Dating is still largely a “game” of meeting someone randomly or dating a friend of a friend, but maybe the world will steer toward match.com-style services. Imagine if a computer could give you a list of possible people to date based on both people’s interests, and I’m not just talking about blonde/brunette preferences. If you always wanted to go to Diego Garcia, it might match you with someone who has been there, who also plans to go there, or who goes there regularly. The little things (like food preference) would be considered, but, really, anything could be considered. It might seem strange to have a computer “hook you up,” but it seemed strange to have a computer tell you “veer right in 2.3 miles” at one point too.

Information will bring accountability. Politics is the best example. When our country was founded, no one knew what congress was doing. Now, we’ve seen people upset at the “do less than the do-nothing congress” congress and suddenly the balance of powers took a major swing. It’s a start toward the answer. Politicians will think twice about the actions they take when they know the public has easy access to that information. The same is true for any business. When the shady shop on the corner installs generic speakers in someone’s car and claims they are Boston Acoustics, everyone will know and the business will fail. When a mechanic just resets the check-engine light and charges for it, no one will go to that mechanic. Honesty based on personal integrity is preferred, but honesty forced by business necessity is fine by me.

The hard part about moving forward is where you draw the line. At what point is the loss of privacy more significant than the benefits gained? A huge number of people went crazy over the Facebook feeds because they felt it was an invasion of privacy, but what about the people who were able to reconnect with friends by accessing the information in the feeds? If we know where everyone is all the time we gain security and lose privacy. Is a lower crime rate better than a higher privacy rate? Information is only going to become easier to access as we progress into the future, but what losses will we incur?