On October 20, Omnicom Media Group’s media and communication agency, PHD, organized the event “Reboot your thinking”. The panel saw an interesting mix of speakers. The main star of the event was Jason Silva, prominent host of National Geographic’s Brain Games, Kevin Gwilliams, head of digital and emerging technology at the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) and Dan Zeff, CEO of global creative content agency, Evidently.
Expect technology and humans to become even more integrated
Humans are more integrated with technology now than ever before. Yet, there’s more to come. It’s hard for humans to comprehend the idea of long-term change. This is why, when looking at the clock, we can see the seconds hand ticking and the minutes hand moving, but it’s almost impossible to see the hours hand moving, explains Dan Zeff. But think back to the time when there were no cell phones, when you had to find your way by using actual physical maps and when the Internet was something you logged into once a day – that is, after dialing up your modem and patiently waiting for your PC to start up. Today there’s Google Glass, smart home technologies, 3D printing – all of which are blurring the lines between the digital world and the real world.
Let’s be a little pragmatic
Kevin Gwilliams, who speaks of “a balanced view of the future,” presented a more pragmatic approach to technological advancements. Moore’s law, named after Gordon Moore, co-founder of the Intel Corporation, basically states that overall processing power for computers will double every two years, but Gwilliams says that just because there is exponential change, it does not mean it will continue at the same rate. Yes, the future consumer might look more robotic than human, but probably not so soon.
Don’t just focus on millennials
The millennial generation is growing and it’s rather obvious for marketers to turn their attention to it. Millenials have four basic expectations: instant gratification, a decision-free lifestyle, need for complete transparency and a seamless experience. But Gwilliams reminds everyone about the persistent growth of the older generation. Globally, the population is aging. By 2020, the adult diaper market in Japan will supersede the baby diaper market; and this is probably why Japan is turning to robotics to improve its population’s physical and mental health.
Paying for technology with privacy and growth of the ‘quantified self’
The idea of a ‘quantified self’ is basically the integration of technology into human lives in such a way that leads to more data generation. Now, this data could include pretty much everything from lifestyle indicators like eating and sleeping habits to biometric indicators like mental and physical performance, moods, heart rate and so on. As technology advances and taps into more and more user data, user privacy is inevitably compromised. Users either don’t realize how much information they are giving up and the latter’s potential use for marketers, or they’re comfortable with the return they receive. As Robert Scoble says, “we all pay for new technology with privacy”.
Fiction is greater than fact
Jason Silva admires technology for its ability to “bridge the gap between what we can imagine and what we can create”. Dan Zeff adds that fiction is a more reliable indicator of the future than fact, because it reflects the change we want to see in the world. “Art is the lie that reveals the truth,” he philosophizes.
Google might very well take over the world – and humans
Let’s look at the three of the most innovative companies mentioned at the event:
Nest: a company creating smart home products
Deepmind: an artificial intelligence company that “combines the best techniques from machine learning and systems neuroscience to build powerful general-purpose learning algorithms”.
23andMe: a genome profiling and biotechnology company that provides ancestry and health-related information
The one thing that all the three companies have in common? Google. While the former two have been bought over by Google, the latter continues to function as an independent company. But, it is interesting to note than one of 23and Me’s co-founders, Anne Wojcicki, is married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
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