Here’s a really cool video of a cyclist traveling (on a recumbent bike) through the city of Toronto from 2004 to 2009, creating a map comprised of experienced space.
There’s a lot of neat shit being talked about Augmented Reality – or AR – and while everyone likes to focus on the most recent and most sexy bit of techno-buzz — like a massive bionic strap-on penis that can slice bread, pick locks and negotiate middle peace treaties (and if we’re waiting on this for the middle east thing, we’re really fucked) — it’s the little advances, use and implementations (like a self-made GPS map) that will make the massive difference.
The ability to manipulate the data of our lives will help us define our lives. As our online existence overlaps with our real world existence we will find it increasingly beneficial to share with the world the details of our lives in ways we never thought possible, plausible nor desirable.
We worry about our privacy – with good cause – and at the same time there is a benefit to revealing our lives, our actions, and – yes – even our motives to the wider world.
Pretty pictures of Toronto culled from the travels of a bike are a minor thing. Add everyone’s information to that map. The levels of meaning to those pretty pictures run as deep as the oceans themselves. This ocean of information about ourselves will help us to create not just one or two or more pretty map-like pictures. It will, if we allow it, build an informational sculpture of our world, our lives, our past and our future.
Let us make the world.
In the fight against whatever tyranny may seek to own and control us, there has always been the model of The Underground. Those valiant fighters who lurk in the shadows against tyranny and inspire us all to keep up the good fight for freedom and all that is human in the world.
Fuck hiding in the shadows.
Stand up and make noise. Shine a light on your face. Leave a trail. Make a map.
Our world has been turned upside down by our emerging technologies which allow us to communicate with one another at a depth, breadth and speed that mimics our our own thoughts. The remedy to any who seek to impose control over those shared experiences is transparency and light.
Don’t hide it.
Can this revealed information be used against us? Yes – and it will. And we will use it against those who seek to intimidate and oppress. Do we need our privacy? Damn straight. And we will fight for that right even as we fight for the right eliminate secrets from the operation of our democratically elected governments. It’s not going to be simple nor easy because the enemy is – ultimately – ourselves – and we are all really just a bunch of fucked up monkeys. But that doesn’t mean we can’t figure this shit out.
Naive? Fuck yeah! And worth dying for.
So there.
Cheers.
