The acceleration of computation has transformed everything from social and economic relations to political institutions. A social network can harness the combined computation of the average Joe and create a rudimentary form of artificial intelligence. Amazon has already accomplished it. Today, we depend on Amazon bots to tell us what we will like. This is a major paradigm shift from less than a decade ago when we bought books solely based on recommendations from humans rather than computers. Everything a user does on a social network says a little bit about them. What happens if all those bits get put into one big trove of data about the user and their tastes? Advertisers heaven.
Has anyone here read John Battelle's "The Search?"
He coins the term "Database of Intentions." He suggests some really provocative scenarios that is even more applicable now with recommendation engines.
Hey, thanks for pointing that out. "The Search" does indeed provide provocative scenarios on this. I will quote directly from the book: "..Zeitgeist revealed to me that Google had more than its finger on the pulse of our culture, it was directly jacked into the culture's nervous system. This was my first glimpse into what I came to call the Database of Intentions-a living power of immense power. My God, I thought, Google knows what our culture wants!...Could it not also start a research and marketing company capable of telling clients exactly what people are buying, looking to buy, or avoiding? How about starting an e-commerce firm that already knew what the buyer wanted? How about a travel business that knew where the customer wanted to go? The possibilities, it seemed, were endless".
