Posted on 11/30/2008 2:05:43 PM PST by neverdem
HARRISON BROWN, an 18-year-old freshman majoring in mathematics at M.I.T., didn’t need to do complex calculations to figure out he liked this deal: in exchange for letting researchers track his every move, he receives a free smartphone.
Now, when he dials another student, researchers know. When he sends an e-mail or text message, they also know. When he listens to music, they know the song. Every moment he has his Windows Mobile smartphone with him, they know where he is, and who’s nearby.
Mr. Brown and about 100 other students living in Random Hall at M.I.T. have agreed to swap their privacy for smartphones that generate digital trails to be beamed to a central computer. Beyond individual actions, the devices capture a moving picture of the dorm’s social network.
The students’ data is but a bubble in a vast sea of digital information being recorded by an ever thicker web of sensors, from phones to GPS units to the tags in office ID badges, that capture our movements and interactions. Coupled with information already gathered from sources like Web surfing and credit cards, the data is the basis for an emerging field called collective intelligence.
Propelled by new technologies and the Internet’s steady incursion into every nook and cranny of life, collective intelligence offers powerful capabilities, from improving the efficiency of advertising to giving community groups new ways to organize.
But even its practitioners acknowledge that, if misused, collective intelligence tools could create an Orwellian future on a level Big Brother could only dream of...
--snip--
“For most of human history, people have lived in small tribes where everything they did was known by everyone they knew,” Dr. Malone said. “In some sense we’re becoming a global village. Privacy may turn out to have become an anomaly.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
This guy didn’t see Ed TV I’ll bet.
It says the group dynamic was more successful.
Did they accomplish the task?
“But even its practitioners acknowledge that, if misused, collective intelligence tools could create an Orwellian future on a level Big Brother could only dream of... “
How much you want to bet the RATs will be pushing these on people in a few years, leaving out the “trading freedom” part?
Goes to show that book smarts and survival smarts are not the same thing.
Thought you might like.
Some geeks will do anything for a free cell phone.
MIT students generally have very high IQs - their ability to translate that to real life skills is highly variable.
I’ve had a number work for me - a few are really, really great - most have significant trouble getting past their high opinion of themselves, and too little practical experience as workers to be useful contributors. Their communications skills (writing and speaking) also tend to be weaker than the graduates of the state universities that have worked for me.
I am married to one of the few great ones.
The stories he tells about some of his classmates are sidesplittingly funny.
Hell, Just chip ‘em, tag ‘em to the money supply, disallow what you want and get it over with ...
As news, like economic indicators, are typically not real-time...and if you don’t think there are programs that track and relate and associate EVERYTHING you do right now, you are fooling yourself.
They can predict patterns of behavior by purchases, phone calls, digital TV channels watched, websites surfed, transportation used...GPS...tolls...anything with electronic interface, including cameras with face recognition (see Las Vegas, subways, etc.). Don’t forget the thousands of intersection cameras that record every license plate that cruises by...
I have a friend that datamines for a living and has 100 computers working day and night gathering data for his business (legal poker site analytics). He is a small guy...
If you think the FBI/CIA/NSA doesn’t already track this, you are in denial.
Or "Enemy of the State" either...
I confess, I haven't seen it. Is that the one with Will Smith? I like him. He looks and acts a lot like my son.
Depends on what he planned to do with it. Most people don’t generate any remotely interesting data most of the time. I might give them the same deal, of course after the first month when the thing didn’t even get turned on (unless my twice a year “crap I wish I had a cellphone” usually related to a flat bike tire occurred that month) they probably would have kicked me out of the study. But if you really don’t care what they find out about you what the hell.
>> could create an Orwellian future on a level Big Brother could only dream of ...
Ha, too late for dreams.
The Minimal Impact of a Big Hypertension Study
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
The guy at the top that became much less active by Day 7 had come up with the answer on Day 2, wrote the report on Day 3, sending copies to the others to sign off on; and then he moved on to new tasks.
At that point, he was cut out of the loop as the others took the next several days to forge their social linkages, talk sports, and trade email jokes, until the last possible acceotable time to submit the report.
For being an seen as a non-team player, a loner, and obvious social dynamic misfit, he was fired the next day, and the company hasn't missed him at all. Tasks are still accomplished (mostly) on time, and the social dynamics are spectacular.
Not quite sure what that means... In my 30 years in IT, I look for effective. I leave "spectacular" for HR types.
YMMV.
But, if those other guys on that chart are networking up a storm, back slapping is up 30%, and productivity hasn't dropped (never mind that it is only 29% of optimal...they don't teach that concept to HR types) then HR finds things SPECTACULAR!
Why? Because it “proves” HR’s latest ‘New Improvement To Production, Interaction, Commitment, & Kinetics [NIT-PICK] Program” is working.
Yep, thats the one. It also has Gene Hackman. Great movie with great action and worth renting. One of Wil Smith's better movies.
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