Any reader of Science Fiction, especially space science fiction, knows that a lot of things that were dreams and ideas in books have become reality today, or there are active projects working to make it so. Our robotics technology is bringing us closer much faster for things like automated vehicles, service, warfare, and much more. There is really a plan to make a space plane. There is a real project to create a space elevator. So much has become near to our grasp in the last few years, and the possibilities are growing even faster.
I recently read a novel in the Robert Ludlum series where someone had figured out how to actually connect a smart device directly to the brain. It could replace eyesight for blind people. It could give a deaf person hearing. It could enhance both for seeing and hearing individuals. That was really cool. They even had the ability to manipulate prosthetics limbs directly from the brain, just as if it were a physical limb.
Then, using IOT, it was able to bring meaningful information to the user using a tool they called LayerCake. Think of layercake as a search aggregator, finding facts about your surrounding such as items you are currently shopping, and returning to you a score based on what it had learned from you, and other resources and reviews of the product. For people it graded them again based on the available knowledge of the other person, what it knew about you, and known interaction from you with the other individual. All of this evaluation was performed in real time, providing the consumer with a condensed version, primarily in the form of shades of colors, from massive volumes of data.
I know this was not reality today. But out of all the things this science fiction product could do, LayerCake was the thing that got me thinking. Using massively scaled search and categorizing capabilities we already have today it could really be possible to build the software. We may not package it so pretty unless we used virtual reality glasses. But it won’t be long until we are able to interface with living tissue for virtual reality. I’m wondering what it would take to build LayerCake. Even if we could build LayerCake, would we be able to get beyond privacy issues? What about when people begin to complain that they have been categorized negatively, or that they have been evaluated at all?
Would you consider the benefits to be worth giving up some of your privacy? Is this exposing too much information into a realm outside of your control? Do you think it is coming? How about sharing your reactions? We have room in our comments. Share your thoughts.
Cheers,
Ben