The New York Times recently issued the ninth edition of its annual Ideas feature for its magazine. I’ve read through most of the entries and found several really fascinating; others were also interesting but neglected to surface other important angles. I thought I’d use this space to highlight both, seeing as Tropophilia is all about ideas that may bring about change in our world.
The Advertisement That Watches You - I’ll leave the details of this particular implementation to the article, but the essence of the technology is a billboard with a built-in camera that, through facial recognition technology, can tell when anyone within a certain radius of the advertisement is looking at it. This one, interestingly, changes to its main message when people are not looking. You can imagine, however, how this technology might develop over time: electronic ads could be powered off until it new there were passersby actually looking at the space. Facial recognition could also be used to power an impressions-based ads payment system, much like exists on the web: advertisers would only have to pay per “view” or elapsed “eyeball time” on the ad. Of course, such commercial use of facial recognition technology also raises enormous privacy concerns (How long are camera images kept? Would the technology eventually be used to identify people and serve ads based on their personal interests, or even the clothes they were wearing or the book they are reading at that moment?). It will be interesting to see how this area grows, if at all.
Bicycle Highways - I thought this was a cool idea, but I’m not sure I see it gaining widespread adoption outside of cities that have significant numbers of bike commuters. What I think is really clever is the possibilities raised with GPS and RFID technology that would allow for bikers to create on-the-fly pelotons, which in turn would be able to gain privileges for traffic lights and such: a mix between EZPass and carpool lanes. Throw in a custom social network for the city so you could plan your departures in order to meet up with a regular riding group, and this could be really great for those cities with big biking cultures.
The Counterfeit Self - I think this research has implications for the Web. There has long been a debate about authentication online: when writing a blog, posting comments, or joining a social network, is it “better” for users to have the ability to remain anonymous or pseudonymous, or should they be encouraged or required to use their real identity (obfuscated to whatever degree they prefer). Many argue that encouraging or requiring authentication would, for example, solve the problem evidence by the (often hateful and troll-like) comments of any given YouTube video. Opponents summon the right to free dom of speech as a defense of anonymous use of the web. Some governments, like South Korea, actually require what is referred to as “real name verification” for websites in their jurisdiction that surpass a certain threshold of users; users are required to authenticate against a national registry before they can interact with the site. Considering the idea of how behavior is influenced by fake identity could offer a fresh perspective in this debate.
Good Enough is the New Great - One aspect that this idea doesn’t cover (and I can’t remember anymore if the Wired article does or not) is information. Just as consumers are turning to cheap cameras, low-fi music files, and YouTube videos, they are also turning to Twitter for their information fixes. Many argue that in moving from mainstream to social media as our main source of information, we make a similar sacrifice of quality for convenience. I think that may be true in the short-term, but I’m hopeful that just like companies are starting to fit better and better sensors into those tiny Flip cameras, so will Twitter eventually recapture some of the fidelity of the “news” that it carries.
The Google Algorithm As Extinction Model - I feared that this would be some diatribe about how Google would lead to our own extinction, but luckily my apprehensions were misplaced. This is a really, really cool one. I wonder what if PageRank could also be applied to, say, fighting crime? I guess that’s sort of what that show Numbers is all about…
Guilty Robots - OK, I’m going to admit, I’ve been on a bit of a Terminator fix lately. Robots scare me. I am a big fan of technology and the Internet, but when it comes to having robots do stuff with increasing autonomy… I mean, what? Why do we need to program “guilt” into a machine? Do we really need to automate our violence and our emotional attachment to it?
Literary Alzheimer’s - Yet another example of how almost any subject can be studied scientifically! This time: authorship. Are statistically significant results from an analysis of vocabulary a smoking gun for dementia? Probably not, but it’s still fascinating. I hope that more research like this can and will be done as more books are scanned.
Lithium in the Water Supply - I’m not sure “number of suicides” is the dependent variable on which I want to base a decision to add chemicals to my water. But an interesting idea nonetheless.
Lunar Legalism - Yes. Just, yes. This is awesome. We have an “Outer Space Treaty” and a “Moon Treaty”? Why did I not know this? Forget IP Law, I’m going to specialize in Interstellar Law suckers. I’m going to be the Jefferson of the Milky Way.
Massively Collaborative Mathematics - Another great example of opening up big problems for attack by the discrete “spare cycles” of thousands of people. The old saying is that “people are smart, but groups are dumb.” Plug a group into the Internet, and think again.
Social Networks As Foreign Policy - Lots of folks criticize social networks of all stripes as a waste of time: why put so much effort into keeping tabs on the digital profiles of others (and curating your own) when you could just talk to those people in person. I think as Americans we’re biased because we have the leisure of freedom of association and freedom of gathering together, all without fear of being caught up in violence or oppression. Digital networks allow those who otherwise don’t enjoy the social privileges we do to express themselves and to network with likeminded peers.
Subscription Artists - These things get me so excited. What I would like to see (maybe it exists already) is this model, except as investment in ideas. Instead of just funding an idea, you can actually invest in a “share” of it and reap some of the rewards. We wrote last year about a highly controversial and possibly fraudulent effort to do this with a novel, but I think there could be room for an SEC-approved approach. Some fear this will lead us back into the days of patronage, but I think that’s shortsighted. What better way to fund the arts than by the fans?
Undead-Austen Mash-Ups - One more point for the commons! Seriously, though, how many more regular Jane Austen novels do you think were sold as a result of this mashup? I bet it was not insignificant, and I bet that sales of this book did not substitute for sales of regular old Pride and Predjudice.
Waste Tracking - Just a smart idea, all around. Though I think it would experience a lot of roadblocks to widespread adoption, I could see this easily being adopted out here in the Bay Area and slowly expanding to other communities. If I knew I might pick up some cash for my trash, I’d spend more time being thoughtful about my waste.
Image used under a Creative Commons license courtesy of Flickr user Cayusa.
