Data few years later

We are back again with turmoil in thoughts riding on brain waves stimulated by all sorts of observations and intake of information, some voluntary other completely involuntary and when I say involuntary I mean as in predictably irrational sort of way, where I was messaged to be manipulated and I got tricked by my own programming.

So the question is if we are predictable in our behavior to certain degree and messages can be created to transform us or to "guide" us through our selection process, how will it all turn out for us as consumers of information, buyers of products, recommenders of services, spreaders of word, as the crafting, scaling and targeting of those messages becomes more granular, more scientific and shall we dare say more accurate.

Where will all this ability to forecast "us" lead to?

We say finding information has never been easier. Anybody who has gone through a book store or a library and tried to find a book through the ISBN numbers will tell you that Amazon, Google and the likes have "bettered" it. But if 90%+ people don't go beyond first page of search and search for most words results in millions of search engine result pages, is the problem really solved and why are all those other pages created, maybe that is question for another time but if more people "link" to information does that make it the most likely to be what I am looking, The answer is "most likely" yes!, but the prominence of sponsored results on all of these information platforms and users propensity to actually think they are relevant tell us that we are not as black and white, even though a tad bit predictable.

 Ah! but here is where we say that all that predictive goodness of machine learning will help since not all users are alike in their tastes and not all humans understand the intent of their words, the machine will guide them by looking at their past intents through their past journey and present them with the most likely result of their endeavor better than they intended. Currently scaling on the traditional online realm of internet, this type of "intelligence" will be soon intertwined with our lives. Never mind the privacy concerns, the thought of the cyber space and all kinds of devices knowing me and my intent better than I do myself is, well, I wouldn't say scary, it is just another phase of enlightenment.

Data, analytics, algorithms machine learning may seem like something from start trek to some, for now, but that will change. The users will casually plug in algorithms to find relevant information. No one will be concerned where the intelligence comes from Azure, Watson, Tensor Flow, Spark, Hadoop, Cloudera etc etc... I don't mean in the broader sense, because in broader mechanisms this is already in place. Companies and organizations already use this to find solutions, I mean at a user level.

 If in past I have felt comfortable at a certain temperature in my house, what 3 devices should be kept on and what should I eat to go with that temperature and my mood. Actually how should I be feeling in this ambient atmosphere, well maybe I will leave that for me to decide (but it sure can be influenced on a tiring day). If my watch is connected to my voice and body, the devices in my home are connected to my watch, and my voice is connected to my devices through "echoing" gizmo, and to my transport, it is all but a matter of crunching sensory information to predict what is going on with me at that moment and take or recommend the "most likely" actions.

I can be in my car, and all I have to say is "game day" or "super bowl party" and some of the things are taken care of automatically. The TV is set to turn on the time it needs to on the station it needs to, snacks (based on off course my "patterns") are already ordered, wine /beer ordered, the cleaning robot started, the cooking robot in action, the room temp adjusted, the door man or the Automata /Virtual receptionist informed....my intent of a get together posted....to media of choice....responses gathered ...and responded to... the list of consequential preparation can go on till all there is left for me is to get out of the car at my door, while the car goes and parks itself, pick up the stuff in my pickup spot (brought in by a flying droid...but of course) and listen to the status of the tasks..list of potential guests....weather..sports....and days proceedings... as I walk in the door....

I don't want to predict that HAL "3000" will be saying, sorry Ashar I can't do that, you must eat your no salt, non fat, no cholesterol..."Soylent green", but with all that understanding of behavior and its connection to future of a person, regulations will pop up, lets just hope that I can still have my fill of delectable indulgences.

The data is already ubiquitous and so is the collection. The interpretation and use is rapidly gaining ground in all facets of life. It will continue, and there will be a point where the discussion of data,  utilization will be moot. It will be a fact of life just like the internet.