speculations

Dispatch from an advertising future #112

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/24/1008882/facebook-ai-test-benchmark-people-break-adversarial/ He’d told her he had a job with “a big tech company”. She was so proud. He’d spent three years in his room: in lectures, tutorials, ‘socialising’ or whatever students did. She had wondered if the fees had been worth it. But now he had a job. She’d heard… Read the rest

Dispatch from an advertising future #111

https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/24/21454872/amazon-ring-always-home-cam-flying-drone-ad-demo The profiles were nearly complete. The different dimensions were in place. Shopping JDoe was catalogued. Consuming JDoe was captured. Emotional JDoe was measured. Moving JDoe was tracked. There was no need to worry about the JDoe office space as there had been in The Before. The JDoe home space… Read the rest

Dispatches from an advertising future #110

https://www.engadget.com/oldest-computer-manual-zuse-z4-161214346.html It had been a themepark for a long time. Students came on fieldtrips and marvelled at the rows of desktop computers, giggled at the printers and looked puzzled at the meeting rooms. The guide was programmed as a Don Draper-style CD, from The Before. He talked about pitches and… Read the rest

Dispatches from an advertising future #109

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/09/traders-set-to-don-virtual-reality-headsets-in-their-home-offices/ He’d always been slightly envious of them, their corner of the office. It was just more… fun. They had paper, lots of it. Doodles and post-it notes with half-written jokes or quotes. Their screens always looked better too, their software exciting. And then there were the gadgets and games.… Read the rest

Dispatches from an advertising future #108

https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2020/09/22/amazon-launches-luxury-store-will-luxury-brands-buy-it We’ve spent a long time being exclusive. We’re careful not to say anything about ‘The Public’, but they know and we know, we’re different. Well we all knew. Now? It was bad enough when management embraced ‘social media’ – the very name! I bit my tongue. Then they ignored… Read the rest

Dispatches from an advertising future #107

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/18/1008559/letter-writing-lockdown-loneliness-get-out-the-vote/ I imagine them opening it. You’ve seen feeds of them waiting by their new letterbox for my papergram to arrive: expectant, delighted. Sometimes they rip them open, sometimes they take endless time. I can almost feel it when I’m writing. Of course I’ve always had their profile to work… Read the rest

Dispatch from an advertising future #106

https://adage.com/article/digital/heres-what-facebooks-new-future-facing-ar-glasses-look/2281271 She liked offending people. No, that’s wrong: she liked that she could offend people. No, that’s not fair either: she liked that she could inadvertently offend people. She liked accidents and mistakes, social failures. She liked clumsily saying the wrong thing or making some faux pas. It was part… Read the rest

Dispatches from an advertising future #105

https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/15/researchers-ready-world-first-vision-restoration-device-for-human-clinical-trials/?guccounter=1 It was his birthday. They remembered the doctor, five years ago. He’d be able to see, she said. The operation was simple and free. The sponsored Glimpses (™) were not invasive, she told them. The Reith act meant they had to “educate, inform or entertain”. And, she said, she… Read the rest

Dispatch from an advertising future #104

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/09/facebook-leak-reveals-oculus-quest-2-as-a-4k-standalone-vr-headset/ Of course The Retros wanted them. They’d pay whatever to complete their collection, to have another thing to get working for their Boot-Up parties. But they didn’t need them. They had Visuals: invisible or stylised, designed to fit with their image. They could flip in and out with a… Read the rest

Dispatch from an advertising future #103

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/09/ai-ruined-chess-now-its-making-the-game-beautiful-again/ They called me the “ugly duckling”. They were the ones people wanted to see. “It’s a revolution, a whole new world,” the press marvelled. There were documentaries and of course awards. I knew they were the next big thing when commentators used the word “dangerous”. They were perfection. And… Read the rest