Hitchcock Design
What does the future hold for design:
I see a great deal of change in how technology will affect human existence. Information is becoming available at unbelievable levels. I recently read that you will now be photographed at the store shelf when you buy Gillette razor blades which have RFID chips. Car rental companies can know when you are speeding from GPS signals from their cars. Cell phones will be tracked to give locations of users.
Vast amounts of money are spent developing methods for mining this information for what seem to be mostly negative purposes. Consider spam, technologically this could be considered a marvel. A hand full of individuals can, with the touch of a button, instantly advertise anything to the known world. Unfortunately, this technological marvel makes as much sense as the immensely positive effect that the Exxon Valdez spill had on the GNP. What is occurring in both cases is that the model doesn't account for real losses to the totality of the environment. In the case of spam, I believe that ultimately people will acquire mail boxes which can charge postage for delivery of mail. Wanted mail will be forgiven or even paid for. Solicitory mail will be carefully crafted by information miners to only target willing recipients. Thus a complex sorting mechanism is created which has a net benefit to all participants. Primarily through decreased wasting of individual time.
I see a tremendous opportunity to employ similar strategies to many current problems. One of the next areas I believe will experience an open source meltdown will be in finances. Currently we have institutions which seem determined to trick us out of our money. Typical examples are atm fees, or hidden banking and communications charges. Soon we will have financial avatars who shop for our services (imaging having the cell phone companies all bidding for your business each time you make a call) The avatars would manage all our accounts and give up to the minute access to all your needed data. An avatar would be part machine/part human. You personal teller and adviser. An Avatar would also be charged with protecting your privacy. Like a Swiss bank.
The key for this system to succeed is to once again create a well designed plan that benefits all involved. Each day brings new examples of the combination of technology and peoples willingness to work for each others benefit. I believe that these types of alliances will be the bridge to the future of human decision making.
