I am making a future prediction, illustrated by two future facts that will become common/indispensables in my lifetime. My prediction is related to the need to retain our private space in a world of accelerating density.

The first future fact is that the development/miniaturisation/integration of personal communication devices will produce within the next few years a range of in-ear noise canceling headsets similar to today’s bluetooth headsets. These will consist of two wireless in-ear headphones that incorporate noise canceling technologies similar to what have become so popular recently for in-flight headphones such as what are produced by Bose and other manufacturers.

Noise Canceling Headphones

These headsets will connect to our phone/music player/personal computer/whatever and integrate everything that we need to hear into one lightweight package. This is a no-brainer, obviously this will happen and soon. The development of these headsets will be driven by a massive rise in ambient noise that surrounds our daily life – traffic, crowds, machinery. Massive noise will make life without these headsets an unbearable medical threat. Several noise-related disorders and illnesses will become commonplace and both civic and militant groups will emerge to fight the noise that will overwhelm our world.

The result will be that we all will wear these headsets while at work, going about our business. The headsets will obviously be integrated with each of our personal area networks(PANs) meaning that they will be able to connect to other people’s headset when the two PANs intersect.
The interesting part of the integration of PANs and noise cancelling technologies is that this means that we will configure our headsets to block unwanted noises such as traffic while still allowing us to hear conversations around us. We will also configure these headsets with zones. Some examples of these zones include an office zone which will block all ambient noise but still allow us to hear all the conversations going on around us. A second zone, the social zone, will block the same ambient noise but still let us hear music (in bars and clubs) but will lower the volume of the conversations around us. Having to listen to other peoples’ conversations will become a choice, voyeuristic only. The social zone will still let us hear conversations from people who we let our PANs recognise as friends as normal. A third zone is the public zone which will block out all sound (including other peoples’ voices) except for those people who we let our PANs recognise as friends. We’ll also configure these zones to be tied to locations, i.e. when I enter my office building, switch to the office zone, when I go out to lunch switch to public and so forth.
I also predict that, shortly following noise canceling technologies, further developments will allow us to not only block incoming sound, but also the outgoing sound of our voices. The reason for this is because we would want our headsets to enable us to, at the press of a button, have private conversations with friends without those around us being able to hear it.

London Noise Map

Imagine what this means. Firstly, if you are walking down the, inevitably overcrowded, street and someone who you don’t know comes up to you you will be able to choose to ignore their voice totally. Their mouths will move but you won’t have to listen to shit. Poor people who cannot afford these headsets will permanently be begging strangers to allow them to talk to them. If only a future technology could block out the sight of a beggars as well – a perfect life.
Stroll down the street, someone comes up to you and starts spouting some bullshit about repentance, your headset’s friendly, customisable computerised voice says ‘Unknown person speaking. Do you want to listen?’

The second future fact in support of my prediction leads on from the future fact that due to the effects of Climate Change[1] even middle class families will entirely encapsulate their houses in climate controlled biodomes. Imagine your home and garden secure from the blazing sun and ravaging winds. With BioLife HomeDomes© you will be free to choose a cool mountain forest, a mild tropical sanctuary or, for the wealthy, a crisp winter wonderland; all at the press of a button.

For every home a Biodome

While these biodomes will initially be designed to protect a house and garden from the horrors of a weather system gone wild a major selling feature will become their noise canceling properties. I recently moved house to a much quieter neighbourhood than where I lived before and the effect on my quality of life has been marked. I sleep better, I can quietly sit still for longer. I read the newspaper more slowly, more thoroughly.
Within years the noise level of congested multi-leveled[2] 24-hour-a-day highways will make life in anything other than the most retreating exurbs unbearable. The solution will be provided by biodomes that enclose our houses entirely. Of course these will be fitted with discreet sound systems that produce soothing ambients sounds throughout your climate-perfect garden – a gentle babbling brook, birds in trees, the soft sound of the ocean. You will have all of this while keeping the ear-bleeding horrors of the unstoppable noise outside at bay.

Here is my prediction; noise cancellation – together with weather protection – will within years become the most important technology to own. What a dreadful thought.

[1] I don’t want to call it Global Warming since I suspect that this is too mild a term. Global Totally Fucked-up-Weather is more suitable. Floods, drought, cold, heat, wind, dust, mud, steam.
[2] Something that tremendously impressed me about Austin, Texas is their future minded approach to interstate highways in urban areas. Huge four-lane-either-way motherfucker highways that are stacked up to three levels on top of one another in sweeping flyovers five or ten stories tall.

Time flies when you’re having fun.
Or just when the world is swallowing you whole.

I’m fascinated by the brain[1]; its origin, its work and its deterioration.
More than anything I’m fascinated by its ability[2] to observe itself.
Right now I’m observing a phenomenon related to the plasticity of time in the brain; I’m madly accelerating towards each year’s end.
It’s almost May, soon it will be July and then it will be October – each year accelerates.

July will be October -

It turns out that this sense of acceleration that overwhelms me is very real.

The brain has two distinct time keeping modes: a Circadian rhythm (aka the body clock) and a momentary perception of time passing.
From what I’ve read, these are intertwined and are both controlled by the Suprachiasmatic nucleus. However, they function separately.
The body’s circadian rhythm is relatively fixed[3], but it seems that our perception of time and the real time in which our senses operate is changeable.
The Suprachiasmatic nucleus controls these independently, separating our body’s concept of time, from that of our conscious mind.

Research is showing that a variety of factors influence the functioning of this tiny instrument to the extent where time really, physically, perceptually speeds up.The most common such influence is age[4].
My grandparents have many times mentioned that the days pass really quickly, even though they are retired and spend all of them sitting in different chairs humming to themselves.
Remember how long a school term was in primary school? A week took fucking forever to pass, never mind an entire term!
Your Suprachiasmatic nucleus is accelerating. The world really is moving faster.

Acceleration -

Here’s a fascinating experiment that shows the real plasticity of not only our perception of time, but of the rate of our brains’ internal clocks.

Psychologist Dr David Eagleman, [...] asked volunteer Jesse Kallus to perform a terrifying backwards free-fall of 33 metres.
If the [theory was] correct, Jesse’s perception of time would be slowed by the terrifying experience.[...]
Dr Eagleman came up with a cunning device: the “perceptual chronometer”, a wristwatch-like device which flicked blindingly fast between two LED screens.
Normally the flicker would be so fast Jesse could only see a blur. But if time slowed down for him, he might be able to discern the two different screens and read a random number on one of them.
All Jesse had to do was jump, and read. As he ascended the 33ft metal cage no-one seemed to believe this curious experiment might work.
When Jesse landed, he noted he had seen “98″. [...] In fact the number was 96. Not quite spot-on, but the two numbers look very similar on a digital screen.
Further jumps got similar results – all suggesting that time did seem to slow down for Jesse during the jump.

Whether or not the science of this experiment is sound, we cannot deny the evolutionary imperitive for this in the brain.
When we are not under threat and simply need to operate efficiently under rote conditions (performing a repetitive piece of work, walking far etc.) the brain can safely speed up time, thereby reducing the energy that it consumes in processing events in real time.
But when reaction time is crucial (e.g. in dangerous situations) the brain’s clock speeds up, processing more information, consuming more energy, slowing down time.

Of course, none of this helps me to catch a hold of the days that zoom past the foot of our bed.

[1] Not just the human brain. Sure, it is the most complex we know of, but even the common house fly’s brain is radical. The house fly’s optimised neural wiring gives it a reaction time of one 50th of a second, twelve times faster than a human’s.
[2] At least in humans
[3] Michel Siffre spent 2 months in a cave in 1962 foregoing any means of telling time – his circadian rhythm remained relatively in tact, but his ability to measure the passing of time (guessing what time it was) was totally lost.
[4] There are numerous scholarly articles on this topic – but they don’t make for good reading so I won’t cite any.

Everyone’s favourite protest artist, Banksy, takes a serious look at surveillance in his work. Most of the images below are his.
I remember reading and hearing about the level of surveillance in London for some time[1], but only when I visited the city last year did I fully appreciate just how extensive the network of cameras in the city centre is.

To tell the truth I wasn’t reelly surprised by the pervasiveness of these devices in London; sobered, yes – but not surprised[2].
Government surveilence isn’t new and systems like Carnivore and Echelon now come close to rivalling the Wal-Mart data warehouse(ha ha).
The cameras deployed throughout zones 1 and 2 might be a concern from a privacy point of view, but they’re not the real looming danger.

As always, Banksy sees the reality.

Banksy – Monolith

Everything2 says that a surveillance culture is ‘a cultural climate featuring the normalization of constant surveillance by agencies public and/or private’.
It’s a good definition and identifies the major players in this present/future drama, but it’s not so much the ‘constant surveillance’ or the ‘agencies’ that is of interest, it’s the ‘normalization’.

Banksy – What are you looking at?

The normalisation of being recorded.

Here’s my prediction; in the coming years we’ll see the rise of a surveillance culture that is held to be normal and positive and is driven by consumers (not agencies). This culture will take its place alongside celebrity, lifestyle, millenial, globalisation and genX cultures as defining a generation and a time when it became normal to be recorded.

Banksy – Surveillance Pirates

The coming surveillance culture will be sold to the public in the same way that lifestyle culture has been sold; by framing it as a positive action that each of us takes toward improving our quality of life.
Never mind fighting international terrorism – wouldn’t you want the peace of mind of knowing where your children are?

Childcare centers across the nation hear “thank you” everyday from Moms and Dads who take advantage of the value and convenience of KinderCam.

KinderCam is the industry leader in childcare viewing systems, and our state-of-the-art camera systems allows parents an effective way to see their child from home or work.

Kindercam

AT LEAST YOU KNOW WHERE THEY ARE
When children are playing, they are not always paying attention to the time, where they are or the dangers around them. As a parent you are not always in a position to keep a close eye on your child and where they may be playing. This can leave parents with a feeling of unease and discomfort.

Children need to have a sense of independency and trust from their parents in order to grow into responsible individuals. By taking advantage of the GPS technology within i-Kids, parents can now keep a close eye on their children.

i-Kids

Surveillance culture is not something that will be forced on us by Patriot act wielding suits or riot gear wearing grunts – we’ll build this Panopticon ourselves with cute and colourful devices that let us watch our homes, cars, family, pets and plants.

But this horror futurescape doesn’t upset me[3] because it is nothing more than humanity’s next babel – religious fanaticism, facism, consumerism – for eons we’ve been building our own cages in a romanticised image of our beautiful world.
This doesn’t bother me – it’s a natural reality.
There are other things related to privacy that really scare me – but we’ll get there.

Banksy – England Pastoral

[1] The last statistic I heard is that the average London tourist is photographed in the region of 300 times a day.
[2] At some point I’ll slap down some wurds on my take on information gathering vs. privacy.
[3] As much as some other things do

Update: here’s a another one – Spot.