The software running much of our world today, from consumer apps to industrial infrastructures, is increasingly built on systems that learn and try to predict the future, our future. They’re increasingly sophisticated and profoundly different than technologies we’ve ever lived with before, and they're not particularly good in their predictions. This talk is about what we—the intended beneficiaries of these products and services—will do, and how our lives will change, as the algorithms that are supposed to understand us are on what is likely a slow learning curve.
2. Let me begin by telling youa bit about my background.I ma userexperience
designer.Iwas one ofthe first professionalWeb designers.Thisisthe navigation fora
hot sauce shoppingsite Idesigned in the spring of1994.
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17. Value nowshiftsto servicesandthe devices,software applicationsandwebsitesused
to accessit—itsavatars—become secondary.Acamera becomesa really good
appliance fortaking photosforInstagram,while a TVbecomesa nice Instagram
display that youdon’t have to log into every time,and a phone becomesa convenient
way to check yourfriends’pictureson the road.
Hardware,physical things,become simultaneouslymore specializedand devalued as
userssee “through” eachdeviceto the serviceit represents.The avatarsexist to get
bettervalue outofthe service.
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