Technology Designs for One – Web3
Web3 is on its way, I don’t want to go into the definitions or logic behind it, but I do want to pass comment on the direction things are heading because it is complicated. Essentially, if we are not careful, we will only design technology for one person at a time.
It seems obvious, but think about it, we have one device that currently is the king of all, our mobile phone, it is ours personally and we tend not to share it, even our children have their own mobiles. This means one account, One Amazon, One Facebook, One Google Maps.
The future
But translate a bit further to the electric car, it will connect to One Mobile Device, presumably the Driver, but what then happens to his partner, children, friends and family. Can they choose their own Music from their own Spotify Account? Can they set the ambient temperature on their side of the car, can they even make a phone call if the number isn’t in the Drivers contact list.
Cars are quite easy, the tech will cope with multiple connections and they are big and expensive enough for manufacturers to warrant the additional expense.
But your toaster and kettle? It was put to me this way recently when the government came up with the idea of giving every electricity bill payer £200 in October 2022 and then asking for repayment of £40 for the following 5 years. What happens in Student Digs? 5 students live together, they get their £200 discount, but then they separate the following year, do all 5 have to repay £40 each for 5 years? That sounds like a scam to me.
But the same applies to the kettle and toaster, can they be controlled by multiple Mobiles for each member of the household. At present not, at least our Internet-enabled Alexa Kettle requires a single Amazon account, the one on the Alexa. While Amazon can ‘share’ some account features with more than 1 person. it’s all pretty messy.
Lights – the same thing… we have a few bulbs dotted about the house, they connect to my phone because no one else in the house can be bothered, besides which I do not think they can be controlled by more than one phone.
Did I mention the brand new Tumble Dryer that is internet enabled and uses NFC technology to ‘I’m not sure what‘? It can only connect to one phone and it is probably sexist to suggest that it is connected to my wife’s.
Roll Back a While
Technology was not always like this. The Internet in particular was born out of the desire for things to be shared. It was open and available to all. We make websites, guess what – anyone can read them, anyone can learn from them.
But keep rolling back, we didn’t build cars for a single person. I suspect modern designers seriously question why so many cars are designed with room for 5 people when it would be considerably more economic to just have cars for one person.
Houses, in fact, oddly, the more important they were the more people they fitted in, the bigger the house the better. Today we have a chronic housing shortage, but no one is willing to live together, we all need to heat and have 5 rooms each.
Is this about Sharing?
Has something happened that we no longer want to share in the Western 1st World? If we head to any less developed corner of the world we see people coming together, sharing and being part of their communities.
Where tech has been allowed to thrive and dominate, via the Mobile, we are seeing increasing that ‘community’ means joining your local Gym, Sharing means going to the Cinema. Forgive the rant, but a perfectly affluent neighbour gave notice about a lunch party they wanted to hold. I knew their dining room was perfectly big enough to accommodate and suggested people would be delighted with such an invitation, but they were horrified, there was no way anyone was going to venture into their house. No, this lunch was to be arranged in the local pub.
Web3 and Tech need to learn
This is what I think web3 needs to be about. It needs to be about society and community, accepting all and bringing people together. We need to be able to share our Spotify, Netflix, Amazon accounts. Cars, Home Tech and Gadgets need to be Household items, not personal items.
We should be able to add our Children to Parents Social Media accounts and full share Accounts with partners. One account per ‘unit’ should be normal and not individual and it should cost no extra.
We don’t pay the electricity company based on our personal consumption, we base it on a household.
I think all this will come, this is not really a whinge, it’s a look at the future of Web3, people can talk about Blockchain and Crypto Currencies, but really the next evolution of the Internet should be about how it serves people.
All we have to do is decide if we’re going to serve one person at a time.