The age of context, or the age of isolation.

Context is the future for you and your environment, like it or not.  You can’t opt out. Context-is-Everything2

The world is now a context engine revving up for the big data race.   What will you discover and perceive will be more about you than you anyone thought possible just a few short years ago.  A new interactive world explored and informed in real time with real people.  The question is, will you see it the same way?

Armed with powerful contextual information whole new worlds and opportunities will be presented to you, the contextual subject.   You now live interactively as the environment get more and more sensors and cameras.  Content will shift into subtle containment of your tastes and preferences.  All your preferences and experiences will be contextualized.  Working for you, known and unknown, with or without your consent.  Context providers will be a new class of companies.  They will provide relevant context those who pay for it.  You will see things dozens of times in subtle ways that you can’t imagine today.  They messages will be based on you and the context you are in.  What you have not provided directly will be inferred from your actions woven into a cohesive experience that will both attempt to serve and enslave you.  You don’t have to wear a single device, the world will know you are there and tailor it self to you through embedded devices.  What you provide directly will only build contextual accuracy.

Is context going to be a prison bringing more isolation than opportunity?  Could it be used to control you?    What is reality beyond our perceptions anyway?  Are people from Missouri more at risk given they are shown only what is contextually provided to them?  As our environment becomes the context of our interactions, we are risk of being both isolated and controlled in a contextual prison.  The good news is, we can change that.

If this reality is one of a few possible outcomes, let me provide a solution.  Tools can provide us unparalleled freedom and opportunity if we open it up and demand the access we deserve.

 I propose contextual profile sharing “CPS”

Contextual profile sharing “CPS” allows us to link up with others and experience their context.  See what they see or share what they want to share.  Perceive what they perceive sharing contextual inputs and offer comparisons between them.  Think of it like a social context Diff statement.   Here is an example:  What does Jack and Jane see when fetching that pail of water?

First, they each follow a gender contextual storyline.  Or at least a gender preference taken from books and movies they prefer.

Jane might be given facts like this:

Women’s horticultural group success

A successful horticultural enterprise established by 20 young Eritrean mothers is earning each of them close to 20,000 Nakfa (€1,000) each a year. 

The members of Mihyaw horticultural group have used the funds to rebuilt homes, educate children, buy oxen and other livestock, and have invested in furniture, clean water, farm buildings, and a wide range of other household improvements.

 Jack sees information like this:Jack sees information like this:

Historically, the ǃKung lived in semi-permanent camps of about 10–30 people usually located around a water body. Once the water and resources around the village were depleted, the band would relocate to a more resource-rich area. They lived a hunting and gathering lifestyle with the men responsible for providing meat, making tools, and maintaining a supply of poison-tipped arrows and spears. The women provided most of the food by spending between two and three days per week foraging for roots, nuts and berries in the Kalahari Desert.[1]

Jane might see information about the well productivity and availability of the well during seasons.  Jack might see his medical recommendation not to even climb the hill due to high blood pressure.

What would happen if halfway up the hill, Jack and Jane could swap context?  What if they could simply share that context and show the difference of presented and relevant data.  Remember, some of this data may be holograph placed along the way for them to see, not just attached to their person.  How could they share the experience and command the change?   Of course, they may not want to share some personal context and the data.  Maybe Jack does not want to share his blood pressure stats with Jane today, which was advising him to turn back and not even try to climb the hill.

When the environment starts to shift and change dynamically based on our contextual awareness and presence, so will our perceptions and decisions.   How we choose to interact and share real world experiences will be intertwined with the virtual reality presented to us in a contextual feedback loop.  This has the chance of becoming a visual and sensory prison if we can’t share views.  It sounds so simple today.  Opt out, and you will be safe from context.  Discuss what you see and what they other party sees, no problem.  Not so.  In the age of context the world will be every more dynamic and tailored to you.  You might not be able to describe the details, or worse yet, determine what is different enough.  Which brings this risk.

If we can’t validate our contextual input, we are in danger of both being controlled by honest marketing sources, evil crackers, and governments.  We should be watchful for anyone or group that wishes to control our context and content without oversight.  As context is decentralized so must our controls be.  The worst risk would be from context / content crackers or hackers that make subtle changes in our experience and reality in almost imperceptible ways.   Only by having open CPS tools and standard will we truly be able to check and cross check our reality and insure the power of context is used for good.

The future is bright.  Empowering context will change the way we see and interact with our world.  We need new tools that are vastly beyond privacy and computers.  We need Context Profile Sharing tools today!

Image Credit: Link

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