Last night I was so unprepared (no socks; summer-weight quilt) for the temperature drop that I had to put my laptop on my feet to get to sleep. It had me thinking this would be a good example of the real-world utility of digital tech to give luddites who criticize my Internet-dependence.

The painfully common rhetorical question I get about my Twittering or streaming of my life’s details is “What is the point?” followed instantly with an explanation of why they don’t do it: because their life “isn’t interesting enough.”

The passive-aggressive implication here is that I am an arrogant turd who thinks my everyday life is interesting enough to feverishly microblog about. It is hard to intervene in this logic. But let me try.

Google changed the world with an algorithm. It works so well because it a mutually beneficial relationship. Not a symbiotic relationship, but that’s another story. Each of us adds to the Google brain every time we use it to search something. We add valuable data. Google logs the details of this exchange—including our IP address—and keeps it for 9 months. Google has changed how we understand knowledge and even now, with this hyperlinked blog post, the algorithm and I are using each other to enrich our projects.

Using Twitter, Friendfeed, 12seconds.tv, seesmic, or any lifestreaming service is not and has never been about feeling arrogantly self-important. These services collect data. Discussion about this data ranges from abusive frenzies over privacy to paeans for the socialnet’s ability to return us to historically lost modes of pre-industrial social interaction. 

If it isn’t just navel gazing, then what, exactly, is the ultimate point of all of this data production. containing everyday life minutiae?

We are working, compiling valuable data while we wait. What are we waiting for? Isn’t it obvious?


We are all waiting for a bigger algorithm. A denser, more comprehensive model than what Google changed the Internet with. I am quite ready to stop telling my computer what I am doing, and preparing to have it know what I want, what I need and when—all better than I know myself. Once the algorithm has been created that can make proper use of all my data, I will have the ultimate life assistant, freeing me of the tedious tasks of life so I can focus on my creativity. Oh, and FUN.

So, Mr. Lazy Anti-Lifestreamer, get to work! And, forget private school and tutors. You want successful and brilliantly creative offspring? Then get your baby Twittering and lifestreaming. Think of all their data that will otherwise be lost!

Tags: algorithm, artificial intelligence, friendfeed, google algorithm, seesmic, Twitter

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Posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 2:57 pm. Follow comments through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comment or trackback.