Before they get too dazzled by Gadgets Fantastic and mesmerizing videos let me remind you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom and wisdom is not clairvoyance. Each comes from the other and we need them all (Arthur C. Clarke).
In the great tradition of dystopian novels – About by Yvegeny Zamyatin (1924), the brave new world by Aldous Huxley (1932), 1984 by George Orwell (1948) and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953) – we are, once again, on the threshold of a “mysterious era”, one that links humanity and technology, full of mystery, hope and many dangers. They all speak of conditioning and manipulation, of surveillance and police of thought and, in Orwell's case, of news. Does the digital age have any relationship with this dystopian tradition?
In fact, we are, once again, on the threshold of a brave new world, on a journey to the cyberspace universe. This time, this brave new world arrives in the form of exponential technology, but also of transhumanism and post-humanity. Let's look at the main trends in this brave new world and then look at “a normal day” measured and provided by the service algorithms. Here is the news language of the digital age.
I. The big trends of this “brave new world”
The great trends of this brave new world follow the formula of the “three Ds”: digitization, dematerialization and disintermediation.
First, the digital transformation, that is, the introduction of information and communication technologies within organizations and companies with a view to dematerializing processes, products and services. This change changes the organization's automatisms, its efficiency and productivity and its labor relations, as well as the ratio/proportion between profits and wages.
Second, conventional commercial intermediation between producer and consumer is called into question and in many economic activities this relationship is directly assumed by "peers", in terms of the so-called collaborative economy or, more commonly, "uberization" of the economy, by analogy with the Uber company. The gains obtained in the previous commercial relationship are now “distributed by peers” and by the new digital intermediary.
Third, the new collaborative economy is only possible because mobile devices (smartphones), the technological platforms (uber) and the applications ( ) are decentralized and interconnected, using the great arterial route that is the broadband internet.
Fourthly, all types of data collected on fixed and mobile devices (which concern us) are filtered and processed in large data centers (Big Data) through mathematical protocols and conventions called algorithms.
The end result of this processing is in the form of personalized profiles and behavior patterns, which are then sold to marketing and advertising companies or directly to large distribution and retail companies.
These two-sided markets, free upstream and paid for downstream, are called “two-sided markets” and it is they that provide the gigantic revenues to the big digital platforms like Google and Facebook.
Fifthly, the “human internet” is joined by the “internet of things” and its smartification. It's a real revolution in the economy of the Big Data, only possible with the extraordinary increase in processing capacity provided by exponential technologies. From now on, all objects will be able to be connected to a mobile device by means of sensors and continuously output all the pre-cooked information, for example, through an intelligent digital assistant.
Sixth, this whole revolution in the Big Data it is only possible by the combinatorial art of various exponential technologies that have in computational models (cloud computing) and in automation its maximum exponent.
The intelligent machines, the deep learning and robotization frees us from an important part of our tasks and alleviates our “hard drive” for other purposes.
Seventh, the maximum interdependence and connectivity between devices allows a growing part of our memory faculties and our routine and decision activities to be externalized and delivered to mobile devices that assume themselves as a kind of intelligent digital assistants.
Eighth, we are increasingly an "augmented man" through countless Gadgets and devices that allow us access to augmented and virtual reality; this “addition of humanity” is made possible through new interfaces and implants between the brain and technological devices that can be as much the watch and glasses as the nano-devices implanted in the brain.
Ninth, the approximation between the augmented man and the intelligent machine will progressively lead us to the so-called “point of singularity”, perhaps in 2050 (Ray Kurzweil, Google); at that time a dangerous threshold will be crossed, the intelligent machine will have acquired the “awareness of its autonomy”.
Finally, the news language in its maximum exuberance, namely, the ideology of transhumanism and post-humanity. It's not just about gene therapies and increased longevity, the mixing between the augmented man and the intelligent machine it can give rise to a new “human species” and a diversion to unnamed paths.
II. A “new normal”, the everyday life
Here, after this news language with algorithms and behavior profiles, object sensing, intelligent digital assistants, automatic and intelligent machines, augmented and virtual reality and the flag of transhumanism, we are "finally" in a "new normal ”.
Daily life in this “new normal” can be extraordinarily boring and tiring. Otherwise let's see. It's 7 am, I wake up to the sound of the “internet of things” (IOT), my digital assistant tells me what the agenda is for today. Ringing at the door, are the services of babysitting who had hired a start-up Last day. Play again, it's the pet sitting, a service to care for the animals.
While I have breakfast I try to order thenon-demand hypermarket purchases to deliver in the late afternoon. Suddenly, the heater's IOT sensor tells me that there is a gas leak, I turn on my “repairs” app for a specialized plumbing service. Because of this small incident, I contact my space for co-working to say that I will arrive a little later.
While I wait for the plumber, I take the opportunity to register some more idle assets that I have at home at the start-up of rental of objects of occasion, is always an interesting income supplement.
I do the same with the rental of my private car, which is infrequently used, while, at the same time, I call a car from start-up local taxi services to go to the main square. While I'm in the taxi, I use the housekeeping and gardening application to hire this service back home.
I arrive at the community space of co-working around 10:30. In this space, I am responsible for the economy crowd, that is, from the crowd funding of small business, of crowd sourcing e crowd learning for the areas of training and education. We have a new one in progress start-up in the area of IOT for the smart home and we are negotiating participatory financing for this purpose. In my application-funding-lending I have all the necessary information.
At lunchtime, a colleague suggests that we order a typical meal from his home country, the meal is ordered in the home meal application.
After lunch, I have a session via Skype or Whatsapp with a colleague from OuiShare from Paris because of a that we are producing in “collaborative common” mode.
However, I get a message from home, one of the children has a fever. I look at my medical-services application and manage to get a doctor to go home in the late afternoon.
Finally, for the crowd learning I'm preparing a MOOC (massive online open course) for a group that is subscribed to my time bank. By the way, I note in my bank the time I now have two hours to devote to volunteering at Santo António hospital. However, because of the doctor at home, I make the exchange with a colleague.
It's time to go home, I call an uberized taxi to transport me home. As I make the return trip, I receive information about my objects at home. The water heater is fixed, the shopping on-demand They're on their way.
I come home, the services of babysitting e pet sitting they give me back the children and the dogs. After dinner, made by me through an application "do it yourself", you Gadgets and os minibots here at home they take care of the children's last hours before bedtime.
I have to finish a job free lancer em open source it's late at night, because of time zones.
It's bedtime, the IOT sensors prepared my room for a good nap, from the good temperature to lullabies. Yes, because tomorrow is another day.
Complicated perhaps, but there is already a start-up working on meta-applications to make everything simpler.
Final grade
This is the “new normal” of our daily lives. A little exaggerated perhaps. Fiction, I wouldn't say so much. Everything is already on the market and whoever wants to try it, just look for it.
A final note regarding the mix income provided by this pluriactive or uberized life. Here, too, there are several possibilities. O mix income may include part-time wage income for others, variable income from self-employment. on demand, an income in kind (voucher) for collaborative and voluntary work in the local community, an equally variable income from the rental and/or sale of occasional goods and, who knows, a “universal basic income” in the near future.
However, in order to safeguard the maximum possibilities, it is necessary that the cross reputational effects of these various activities do not cause irremediable collateral damage in any of these income modalities. A Cyclopean task, no doubt.
Author António Covas is a full professor at the University of Algarve and a PhD in European Affairs from the Free University of Brussels
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