Autocomplete Futures
A visual speculation of a potential future everyday in that predictive models reach into the nooks and crannies of our personal lives.
In recent years, personal data collection has reached a new level.
Wherever we go and whatever we do – the interactions with our phones and their applications creates precise and detailed personal data trails.
The implications are stunning: We will be the last ever generation whose life has not been recorded in its entirety.
Due to recent advances in algorithmic analyses, start-ups and other “life records” companies see increasingly business opportunities in predicting our next moves, upcoming shopping decisions, and the people we choose to spend time with.
For a prime example, look no further than Amazon.com’s anticipatory shipping, which leaves warehouse stocking decisions to predictive algorithms based on real-time purchasing data.
Today's most popular behaviors
What will be some of the behavioral implications of predictive modelling entering our everyday lives?
Against this background, Autocomplete Futures explores our future role as end users through a selection of scenarios that highlight the role played by such prediction models not only for big corporations, but as seamless parts of our everyday routine.
Popular topics of conversation
The project explores a number of questions that determine our interactions with the digital environment:
If we become authors of our own personal ‘data stories’ – while remaining subject to our own predictions – what does this mean for our actual interactions and decisions?
When we accumulate more and more knowledge on our next moves, how does this awareness impact our immediate futures?
By having more predictability around our own behaviors, will this make us less predictable by potentially objecting to what we are likely to do?
Facebook Timeline Autocomplete feature
Autocomplete Futures investigates these everyday “predictive futures” through a series of vignettes that explore different prediction scenarios – and our potential roles as their protagonists.
