users’ habits, preferences and behaviours and
tech that constructs a behavioural model of
an individual with Google user data and
detects when that user makes ‘errors’. If these
technologies come to pass, they will provide
data of a quality and kind that the global
brain has never before seen.
But what does Google want with it? Why
do they want to model us, and therefore predict
our behaviour, in such incredible detail? So far,
their singular purpose seems to be to know us
as well as possible in order to advertise more
effectively. The better they understand us,
the better able they’ll be to manipulate us into
making purchases. And what’s wrong with
that? After all, they offer a nice trade-off in
the form of excellent and mostly free Google
services (this article is being written on Google
Docs and will be sent to the editor via Gmail)
we get to use in return.
But this arrangement might not prove to be
so simple. According to Stevens, problems
may arise in the form of potential conflicts
of interest in Google’s relationship with
governments. Simply put, Google want
to be able to behave as they wish with as
little regulation as possible. Meanwhile,
governments, as the Edward Snowden
revelations of 2013 revealed, dearly
desire Google’s luxuriant data.
When governments and businesses want
what each other has, history shows that
we’re in a place of danger.
“Our research shows that Google works
hard to maintain a cozy relationship with
governments and has in many cases received
major victories from regulators,” adds Stevens.
“Google argues that the services it provides
to governments are a public good, but the
company’s ‘assistance’ makes it very hard for
governments to effectively regulate them.”
Right now, as happy Android users can attest,
Google’s currently shallow and early stage
predictive tech can be a delight. It still feels
marvellous when you awake, before leaving for
the airport, to find your flight details andboarding pass have magically appeared on
your phone, alongside all the relevant traffic
information. And, indeed, it’s important to
not take a solely dystopian view of where
our clairvoyant future is going to take us.health
Some of the advances currently being
developed in health are truly fantastic. We’re
already living in a world of Fitbit and Apple
Watch, in which sophisticated on-body
monitors log all sorts of information about
our wellbeing.
A team lead by Michael Snyder at Stanford
University in California has been carrying
out studies on people wearing smartwatches.
Logging their readings, and actual health,
regularly over a two-year period, they found
the watches would often detect their users
falling ill before the users themselves had any
idea something was wrong. Heart rates wouldMEN OF THE YEAR 2017 GQ.COM.AU 209