Can you ID those pictures for me?

Aug 24, 2024

- What can I say… life’s good. I never thought I would finally have time to play games all night once I’m old and retired. What can I do for you?

- Good news! Our wedding album and experiences are finally online. We’d love to share them with friends and family, but we don’t want to end up with an album full of synthetic people or have it filtered out online as non-ID’d content.

- Really? Is it a real thing?

- For most legal systems, self-identification was the easiest way to sort out all the mess with AI-generated misinformation, deepfakes, rage content, and whatnot. Until you grant consent, the camera records you as a fictional, synthetic person.

- Not very useful for wedding albums. Isn’t this a lot of work?

- That’s the underlying psychological reason for the success of consent metadata. All around the planet people can’t get enough of themselves. We love ourselves so much that IDing all new pictures of “me” is a new favourite activity for many. Some people have even started wearing content ID badges that allow cameras to pick their signals and automate most of the ID’ing process.

- What about famous people, like actors or politicians?

- Usually, an image management team does all the work for them…

- And only ID pictures where they look great? What a waste.

- Can you ID those pictures for me? I just reshared the link to our wedding space.

- Ok. Just tell me what I need to do.

- Log in, take a look, and…

- It’s loooaaadiiing. My connection has been spotty all day. How are things? Do you still personalise browsers for work?

- Custom personal interfaces, not just browsers. With all the connected gadgets and software, sticking to one company or standard has become impossible, so the market has evolved towards personal interfaces. But generally speaking, my work is the same.

- Custom interfaces. I see… Should I have one? Will it get me more headshots or monster kills? Could my spiritual competitive animal use an extra advantage?

- I'm not sure. I specialise in interfaces for people working or living with large amounts of data, such as finance, manufacturing, or healthcare researchers.

- That’s working, but who are people living with large amounts of data?

- Mainly patients who live with chronic conditions. Sooner or later, their medical records become huge, and most people try to collect or measure everything they can because that may help their doctors identify or qualify them for some experimental therapies one day.

- And how’s your bee-man?

- Buzzing! His research seems more promising every week. Spending our honeymoon studying bees from all over the world is a blessing. We’re in Greece now, and…

He interrupts her loudly.

- OK! I'm in. Look at those sweethearts! You look so happy and in the moment. I’m going to VR it later. You know what? Your ceremony was fantastic and all that jazz, but your wedding favours… Dear me. I danced at parties big and small, but those were the best wedding favours we ever got. This honey was spectacular, and I’m sad we only got a tiny jar. Are you sure you don’t have a secret stash somewhere? I won’t tell anyone. I promise.

- I’m sorry. That honey was synthesised for our wedding as an experiment to reconstruct how honey could taste if ancient bees from around the world lived in a single colony.

- I can only imagine what those bees ate back then, but that was a blast. Your ultra honey was the best wedding favour ever. What exactly is your bee-man’s job title?

- He is a bioinformatician studying how bees' lifestyle and environment affect the taste of honey.

- I’m so happy you ditched that gastroenterologist you dated earlier. I've designed game assets my whole life, but I don’t even want to imagine your wedding favours if you two had stuck together.

She chuckles in disbelief.

- Wow grandpa! I need to write this one down. This will be my new all-time favourite joke of yours.

An ostentatiously official ping announces processed authentication.

- All right. All my consents are up and running. What was your previous favourite?

- I got it written down somewhere.

- Call me once you’ve found it. I’m dying to know.

- I will. Love you.

- I love you, too.

Hello Practical Futurists,

Welcome back from the future, where your consent extends to content, and retired gamers finally have time to play through their game library.

Let's dive into our weekly workout, where we use futures thinking and product sci-fi to build a future-proof mindset.

Start with this quote for extra inspiration.

“Anything you dream is fiction, and anything you accomplish is science, the whole history of mankind is nothing but science fiction. ”

Ray Bradbury

As always, we begin by connecting the story to your personal life to make it more relatable.

Personal life reflection prompts

Do you have an offline security phrase or an equivalent of a “potato test” that you and your loved ones have agreed to use in suspicious situations?
If you could taste one food as it tasted a long time ago, what would it be? For me, it would be a T-rex steak inspired by this story.
How comfortable would you feel using AI features to enhance how you record significant life events? What is the one thing that could make you feel better about it?
Would being automatically anonymised into a fictional synthetic person in pictures and movies you didn’t consent to be visible in, and then reverting to yourself only after granting consent, make you feel more comfortable when seeing someone filming you in a public space?

Nice work!

We’re now ready to switch to the context of the industry, organisation, team, service, or product you’re working with.

Professional life reflection prompts

In what 2 ways can cheap access to unlimited generative content force introducing operational changes in your industry?
As a leader, what unique trait can you name that makes each of your team members unmistakable?
As we are all becoming lifelong learners, in what 2 ways has technology limited your professional growth and development?
What would be the easiest type of word combination to memorise for you if your security department asked you to create secret passphrases with your counterparts in other departments? For me, it would be a combination of colours, animals, and capitals.
What 2 operational challenges might pop out when an interdisciplinary team starts working together, especially when integrating expertise new to the organisation?