Your Memories Will Be Rewritten
Your past actions are the best predictor of your future decisions. Your past—or the memory of your past—has always been immutable. What if it wasn’t? What if marketers could meddle with your memories directly, instead of trying to insert their products into your daily flow? Who would we be when our past has been hacked? When the trust you place in your friends is exploited? What implications would it have for us and society?
What if this wasn’t hypothetical?
From research in cognitive and behavioral psychology, we know how to perform inception. It’s easy. We need to understand the predictable failings of human memory and internalize its ramifications, otherwise our personal past, and hence our future, will be rewritten by the marketer. It’s your life experience, brought to you by Coca-Cola.
This was my keynote for the John Seely Brown Symposium at University of Michigan. The three previous keynote speakers were Danah Boyd, Brewster Kahle, and Lawrence Lessig. I was a bit nervous.
RT @azaaza Your Memories Will Be Rewritten | Follow @azaaza on Twitter | All blog posts
No related posts.
deb
Crazy fun basis for a near future scifi novel. :)
Andrey Shipilov
By the grammar, you should separate the mdash with spaces from each side.
Doing this—is not right.
Doing this — is right.
lmarcetic
Flash? Again? :-(
sethaurus
@Imarcetic: Actually, the video is embedded using an `iframe`. It may be rendering with flash on your device, but it’s a `video` tag on mine! :)
lmarcetic
Is your “device” an iPad, and if not, do you have a Vimeo account where you’ve chosen HTML5 (I think there is such an option there) and you’re currently logged in.
Just for the record, “my device” is a (desktop) PC running exclusively free software, and I’ve tested this in 3 different browsers.
Why do I have to use Firebug and search to see these videos?
Bala Thiruppanambakkam
Aza,
Excellent – really enjoyed your presentation and thought process that goes along with it. Only thing I would differ is with first of your 3 conditions.
I think 1st should be Reinforcement rather than social demand. Whats your take?
Bala Thiruppanambakkam
softwarecandy
Aza, your keynote made headlines all over the world, including the New York Times… We twitted about this as well.
f055
Man… Have you *read* the „1984”?
Robert
I have … and this scary slogan came to my mind:
“Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past”.
*shudder*
Debayan Gupta
You’re absolutely right about the web add thing – I visited a website _once_ just to check something out – and they’ve been spamming me with ads for over 4 days now..
wholesale beads
what is this all about? someting related to what?
diyason
Such a behavior style, usually in the suppression of emotions like love that leads to great happiness, ” said Understanding The Tin Man (Tin Man of the Understanding), William July, author of the book, adding: “He was accustomed to show more emotion, mental and sexual tendencies. ”
sumomax
rca ieftin
Is difficult to apply this theory in reality. I think the memories are almost impossible to be rewritten.
žogi
Designing the new[scientific] religion
pellet mill manufacturer
Who would we be when our past has been hacked? When the trust you place in your friends is exploited? What implications would it have for us and society?
Baseball Hats
moring everyone
have a nice day
şahinnparadisegelenekselramazancoşkusu
a privacy workshop that brought together some of the world’s leading thinkers in online privacy. People from the FT
eclbags
excellent!so amazing
emailing
I think past is past. If we are smart then we need to learn from our mistakes, but to bring up to front the past? I do not agree, i think it’s not good for anyone.
florarie
Why live in the past? I think we need to learn from our mistakes and think more to the present. We forgot to live in the present. I think that now we think more and more to the day of tomorrow.
Asics Schuhe
Asics Schuhe ist die beste Laufschuhe,Beste Verarbeitungen, hochwertige Materialen und ein unverwechselbares Design machen Asics Schuhe zum Liebhaber vieler Schuhfans, denn sie sind auch für den Alltag perfekt einsetzbar!
精力剤
’ve chosen HTML5 (I think there is such an option there) and you’re currently logged in.
Just for the record, “my device” is a (desktop) PC running exclusively free sof
ティファニー
ティファニー
威哥王
When the trust you place in your friends is exploited? What implications would it have for us and society?
巨人倍増
“my device” is a (desktop) PC running exclusively free software, and I’ve tested this in 3 different browsers.
レビトラ
“Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past”.
direk film izle
We hope to enabasdle businesses to highlight the qualities that make their locations stand out through professional, high-quality imagery.”
pellet mill cooler
Is your “device” an iPad, and if not, do you have a Vimeo account where you’ve chosen HTML5 (I think there is such an option there) and you’re currently logged in.