Foresight – The future of Companionship. (how a signal matures and mutates)
Today I came across a very interesting article while scouting the net for Foresight Best Practices I found this diagram on Futuresplatform.com
This diagram wonderfully captures the stages that an Signal moves through before it becomes an accepted change in the environment. If we look around us we will find several such signals that are at various stages of maturation – some are at the level of Science fiction and some are already becoming mega trends.
I take the example of human companionship
I was watching the movie “Outside the Wire” and one of the main characters “Leo” is an Android (Half human half AI) combat officer who is a super solider that is a combination of Human feelings with Bio technology. In the movie Leo gives almost constant company to Harp who is the lead character of the story.
This idea of having a half human – half AI as a constant colleague in mission critical work is still restricted to the domain of Science Fiction.
Now consider this:
Ellie is an AI residing inside of the University of Southern California’s (USC) Institute for Creative Technologies. Her actions, motions, and speech mimic that of a real therapist, and because she is AI she does not judge and therefore a very successful therapist. You will find more details about this here
Here we have an example from the real world about human companionship in critical situations. Ellie offers psychological counselling to personnel returning from the line of active duty and returning to regular civilian life. Usually they have seen and handled extremely hostile situations of killing and death. And need very sensitive and proactive psychological assistance to help them reunite with regular civilian life and work
Ellie is an example of Artificial Intelligence which is built to read, interpret and demonstrate extreme sensitivity to people needing her service.
This technology can be categorized under Discontinuities and Emerging issues.
As a Scenario we can then contemplate societies where AI is widely used to replace Human Intervention even in “Human” critical activities like psychological counselling.
With enriched perspectives offered by Corona like epidemics we probably can imagine future societies where orphaned individuals can get adequate care and attention from Ellie like Artificial Intelligence. With some more effort we are able to visualize how a regular day for such individuals look like, what could be their needs, what could be their fears and how are they likely respond to the world around them. This can give us important insights into what such individuals might need and find useful in those scenarios. Sensitive Emotional Companionship could be one such need
From imagination we then turn around and observe what is happening in today’s reality
Here I came across a news article reported by Forbes here which narrates how Amazon is developing a wearable gadget that can detect Emotions. We already have watches which can very accurately monitor our health. In this video Rosalind Picard Founder and Director of Affective Computing, MIT, describes how gadgets of the future would talk to each other and communicate the emotional well being of the people wearing them.
All these developments would fall under “Change Drivers”
Very soon (probably in a span of 3 or 4 years or perhaps even lesser) we may have prototype devices that like smart watches of today will read our emotions and when enable can post “our true feelings and emotions” on specially adapted social media platforms and watch sights. The movie “The Circle” which depicts a very similar scenario.
Imagine that in an unknown city and after work in the early evening I feel lonely. My wearable device notices this slight change and posts this “feeling” as an emoji on specially designed social media platforms. The guest department in the hotel picks up my emotion from my social media post and immediately arranges for someone who can give me company for the evening.
Once these Gadgets start appearing as the cover photo of magazines like Vogue or Vanity Fair as a product then it is a fair indicator that the signal has entered the domain of “Trends”
There can be a huge business opportunity waiting to be uncovered here for Hotels and tourism industry as these gadgets become not just fashionable but also recommended for people who live out of their suitcases.
Hotel Chains with loyal customers will ensure that wherever you are and if you are feeling lonely or missing your friends and family, we would be there to give you company. So in this future society where emotional wearables are common hotels have transformed from we offer “comfort and luxury” to we offer “comfort in company”. From “for you” to “with you” model
As these devices catch on with business tourists or globe trotting individuals the “signal” from the Science fiction domain is now matured and become a “Megatrend”
It is interesting to note here that a signal can simultaneously inhabit the domain of Science Fiction as well as the domain of Change Driver or maybe even Trend