How Smart is your phone?

After reading Oren Frank’s thought provoking article, Goodbye, Smart Phone; Hello Predictive Context Device, regarding how smart phones could possibly come to play a more judgmental role in our modern lives,  I had a back and forth with a friend and this is what she had to say:

Her: I mean, do we want our phones to be that involved in helping us out? Personal assistants are nice and all, but don’t we want to feel like we still have free will? That we will check out the apps WE choose to help organize our lives? Not the other way around. In his hypothetical example, his phone knew that he had been eating too much Italian food, so it suggested a falafel joint. Well, maybe the phone should have figured that he really liked Italian, so it should have provided him another Italian restaurant. I don’t need my phone judging my taste in carryout.

But that being said, there’s always that weird line between the convenience of a new technology and the Orwellian surveillance it could create. Like, it’s so easy to use EZPass, but now we’re willfully giving information over to the state about where our cars have been. In every battle we’ve had like this, technology has always won because it makes our lives easier. Maybe apps for the phone will be just one of those privacy issues we won’t care about because it improves our lives so much. I just wonder where the line will be drawn…whenever it does get drawn.

Don’t get me wrong — I’d love to see developers look at ways to synthesize the data we willfully give our phones in a smart way. But isn’t there something here that makes you say “Hey, what if I don’t want my phone telling me what to do?”

And my response, albeit to play the contrarian, was to continue the debate:

Me: I have to say, at the end of the day it is up to the user, the arguably still more intelligent one of the two, to use his tool to his advantage when it seems to suit him and to table it when it does not. I have no issue with hitting the power button and/or ignoring “noise” from my devices if i am aware of its obtuse infringement on my ability to make judgements about my own life. I see this as just another convenience which some will welcome, others will not and others still might be blind sided by, and for that last group, i do pity them slightly. But it is their own damn fault for not keeping things in perspective, not the fault of the device, technology, society or any other external force one might try to apply to the situation to argue the negatives of such a tech mobile revolution. BTW, you can always leave your EZ pass at home and get in the cash only lane on the highway. Your choice, your time, your world…paint it how you like it!

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The truth is, as with most predictions about the future, particularly when it comes to predictions about future technologies that are based on today’s known quantities, we often miss the mark in terms of how this new technology will actually evolve but we are dead right about the fact that it will evolve. Predictive technology, artificial intelligence, adaptive learning, call it what you like, is a natural outgrowth of our quest to improve upon those systems, once we have created a strong foundation, and to a degree  have mastered the basic application of that particular system.  Cellular technology and wireless communication is something we have done very well. We are certainly at a point where the systems should be moving into the realm of adopting sophisticated ways of parsing, aggregating and collating the data we are constantly feeding these mobile devices to come up with conclusions we did not in fact initiate with a direct command.  What conclusions we direct our smart devices to contemplate have yet to be determined, but with the advent of smart phones being ubiquotous and companies investing massive amounts of resources into location based marketing, activities, applications, it is a reasonable conclusion to draw that these devices will soon seek to intuit where we are going, what we intend to do when we get there, and in the “scariest” scenario, know what we really want to do, when in truth, we may not have even thought about it until our device alerts us to the possibility.

Imagine a scenario where Mr. Jackson, a very busy person, who has a million obligations a day, naturally uses his smart phone as a day planner among other things such as a web mobile device, contact book and of course, a phone. And let’s assume today is a particularly exhaustive day that will begin with an early morning board meeting and should, if everything goes as planned, end with him arriving in London by 8 am (London time) for a meeting with the CEO of the company.

In the morning, his phone alerts him to his 8 am board meeting, which he is on time for and prepared for. His phone had allowed him to download and send spreadsheets to the office ahead of his arrival so his assistant could print out the packets and have them waiting for him when he arrived. He also used his phone to make a few calls on his commute into the city, including one to his friend who he has lunch plans with (time is set but location is still TBD), as well as a call to Best Buy, which is around the corner from his office, regarding an electric razor he would like to return and wanted to know if he would need a reciept to return it. After his meeting concludes, he recieves an email reply sent to his phone from his friend stating that he will be near 42nd and 7th ave at the agreed time for lunch, and all he needs to know is where they will be eating. Mr. Jackson also recieves a reply from Best Buy stating that he would not need a reciept if he had proof of purchase, such as a credit card statement or the warranty receipt he recieved at the point of purchase when he signed up for it using his email address the other day.

Fast forward to 15 minutes before he is supposed to meet his friend for lunch, and he has yet to figure out a place to eat (he has been too busy with office related issues to look up and or call any place to make reservations), so he engages his phone to go on adaptive mode and try to square away the rest of the day for him. With in minutes the phone has identified a place both he and his friend might like to eat at, in the area and time they need it, and it automatically sends a text to his friend letting him know that Mr. Jackson will be at said restaurant at said time, reservations are under Mr. Jackson for 2. As Mr. Jackson is hurrying to the restaurant, his phone was able to find for him and alert him to by way of name and placement on his mobile friendly map, calculating that he would be able to get there in time for the reservation, he is alerted by his phone that it has retireved the warranty email for the Best Buy gift as well as the credit card statement and all he has to do is present this info to the clerk at Best Buy to get his refund. Additionally, he should plan to be at the Best Buy by 1:30 in order to keep the rest of his daily schedule intact. So that means lunch would have to conclude before or by 1:15pm, and a reminder alarm has been set.

Fast forward to right after leaving Best Buy, with refund in hand, phone alerts Mr. Jackson to the fact that his flight will be leaving at 8 pm tonight from JFK and he needs to be on his way by 5:30 to make it in time for the flight. The phone also alerts him that there is traffic on the Van Wyck so he should instruct the taxi cabdriver to try a different route, if he wants to be on time. The phone then also offers a possible ride comapnion to split the taxi cost out to JFK. A CabCorner user has plugged in a ride that is leaving from near Mr. Jackson’s office at a certain time that fits the ride requirements and that companion will be at the Starbucks on the corner at 4:45. The phone asks Mr. Jackson if he would like to go ahead and have that ride arranged for him as well as take advantage of the CabCorner sponsered 2 for 1 coffee deal that would have a cup of joe paid for and waiting for him at the Starbucks at 4:45, the time he is expected to meet his companion. Mr. Jackson clicks yes to both, puts the phone back in his pocket and is back in the office by 2pm with 2.5 hrs to complete his final report before heading out to the airport for his 8pm flight.

Needless to say, a hectic day was easily managed with help from a logistical whiz, his smart phone, and given all the data it was able to pull together and organize, it was able to anticipate where Mr. Jackson might need assistance in executing his plans for the day. Of course, it was up to Mr. Jackson to initiate the aid from his phone but once he did, he was probably pleased he did, because by 9pm, he was eating fillet mignon, sipping a Carlsberg, comfortably situated in his Business Class seat (which he was able to snag, moving up from Coach to Business Class because his phone had alerted him to the upgrade option on his way to the airport due to a passenger cancellation) and here he was, on his way to meet the boss in London. A full day, managed to the fullest!