by Carlos Cuevas

1) Jesse Schell’s presentation about the future of technology was surprisingly disturbing. A lot of the topics he discussed are highly plausible. Disposable technology is becoming increasingly popular because components are decreasing in price. If a point system were ever developed and became mainstream, a point system between everyday activities such as brushing your teeth and going to work would most definitely arise. Schell does a fantastic job at describing how companies, like Google, would exploit this system as a mass survey. Currently, you can do surveys for points and in exchange for those points, you can get gift cards for Amazon or Starbucks. It’s already here, it’s just not to the point where it’s in your face all the time, masked as a “game.”

2) City screens, present and future, are discrete dominating factors in our lives. Commercial screens influence our every decision, whether it’s to drink Coke or Pepsi, buy an iPad or Nexus 7, or watch American Horror Story or The Walking Dead. To big businesses, profit, no matter the circumstance, is the highest priority. The potential to exploit city screens beyond classic billboards is their dream. Hopefully, upon creation of future city screens, they adhere to the artists and designers of the world like the BIX installation in Austria and not Wall Street. Even if it’s just to display visual data. Using the information gathered from a real world point system could open the door to even more data art as opposed to generating gross revenue.

3) Gaming comes into play with the idea of a point system. Jesse Schell goes into detail about the possibilities of the “game of life.” You can rack up points for almost anything and in return you get… more points than the next guy, similar to Xbox Achievements or PlayStation Trophies. They’re worthless. Unless, however, they can be used for purposes outside of mass surveys. Schell goes on to describe a way to incorporate bonuses into your earnings if you, for example, drink a Dr. Pepper 5 days in a row, or choose to walk instead of drive to work. These points could be used to get coupons or even cash back in generous cases. Jane McConigal’s TED talk shed some light on an interesting point that tied with Jesse Schell. If we’re being constantly monitored, won’t we be more inclined to be better people? If gaming were taken outside of the consoles and plugged into the real world, society as a whole would change dramatically. Not only would we be more aware of our choices, but we would strive to make better ones.