The future of…

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The future of air

March 02

Air used to be just stuff that we breathed. It might be a little polluted now and then and certainly was flooded by light, radio and sound, but basically it was air. But it is becoming digital, or rather the space that the air occupies is becoming digital. For years now we have had accurate satellite based positioning systems, and can work out where we are to within a few metres almost anywhere on the planet that we can see three or more of the satellites. With mobile networks, the level of accuracy has improved a little, and soon we will have more accuracy again with a new satellite system. Add to this the likelihood of urban and building positioning systems, we should know where our terminal is to within a metre or better, perhaps eventually to within millimetres. This is the platform on which digitisation is based. If we know where we are, we can call up relevant information and messages.

A new system being trialled now allows people to leave messages for other people at a certain location. The person only receives that message when they go there. So people can leave recommendations about a restaurant, leave a personal guided tour for a visiting friend, or just leave reminders for themselves to do something next time they pass by. Tourist authorities can provide local information to tourists according to their declared interests. The system designers are now wresting with the enormous problem of managing such a system to avoid misuse by would be spammers and other abusers. I really hope they succeed – the potential benefits are huge, but the last thing we need is to be bombarded by junk messages and endless adverts as we walk down the high street.

But suppose they are only partly successful. Some of the uses and abuses are very interesting. Such a system could be used to police gangland territories with digital pheromones. When people from an opposing gang enter an area they could automatically be warned off by the local gangsters. Or other digital pheromones could be used to make romantic pursuits more interesting. With a little more technical ability, police could be tracked and criminals warned whether they are in danger of being caught. Burglars could sell messages to each other warning of threats at particular houses and charging for precise paths to escape local video cameras. We could keep track of our friends, seeing whether they are in the area for potential lunch, but we need to ensure that people can’t build detailed pictures of our behaviour and become cyber-stalkers. And increasingly we need to protect against identity theft. Of course, simple defaults would be that people don’t have access to such data unless we give them permission. But many of these future services will run on sophisticated operating systems on complex machines that are both likely to contain security holes that can be exploited by virus writers and hackers alike, if current systems are anything to go by. We could have an automate doorbell send automated messages to travelling salespeople, asking for their ID, telling them not to call, and if they do, they could then be bombarded by junk messages, or we could leave messages for other passers by warning them about their company. We could subscribe to consumer services that list the various problems we might have in a certain shop as we enter, detailed down to each and every aisle. Imagine the next time you have been treated unfairly by a shop if you could leave a message at the shop, even that checkout, warning other shoppers. You could even leave messages that keep ringing the assistant with a repeated complaint every time another group member walks past. Imagine the fun of getting your own back, or the terror if you are the victim.

Legitimate shops will make good use of digital air too. Since you will probably have a loyalty card with a chip in it, they will know who you are, where you are, and your entire personal profile. They can bombard you with personalised context-adjusted adverts as you walk around. Or if they want to keep your custom, they could give you an attractive virtual personal shopper assistant on your mobile, that takes you on an optimised route for what you need and books you a slot at the checkout just in time, while introducing you to other shoppers who you would probably like to meet.

But we will also have a digital bubble around us, linking our portable gadgets together, and linking to other friendly equipment and services in the vicinity. Signalling between these bubbles will open a host of new applications. We can signal our profile to anyone listening, with electronic filters making sure that people only get the data we want. In spite of the obvious commercial uses, I suspect that the most widespread uses will be social, helping us keep track of our friends while helping us make new ones. Business networking could be greatly facilitated, with new contacts being granted automatic access to files that we are willing to share with them. Since the full context of our meeting can be easily recorded, we need never again forget where it was we met someone, what we discussed, or what we agreed.