Good Living in Mixed Reality

The development and integration of technology in our daily lives will create individuals and culture that are more social. This phenomenon has already been seen in the development and growth of venues such as Facebook and AOL Instant Messenger. I argue that these new modes of social networking have not divided us through screens, but have connected us due to the invention of “events,” accumulation of friends, and the publishing of photos. Each of these features in virtual space serve as proof of our “real life” social qualities, and therefore provide pressure to socialize in the physical world. I believe our society will grow more and more dependent on one another as a result of our constant virtual connectivity, leading to a culture that will lose a sense of independence and self. The result of this will go beyond the loss of independence, it will also inherently foster a culture which suffers from an uprise in paranoia – one that feels as though something is always present, because something always is. Symptoms have already been seen as a result of the birth of the internet, and precaution should be considered as we continue to develop and make sense of what this network is, and the implications that it’s inhabitance within our daily lives may have.

I have developed the ADT Footstep Security System (FSS) as a way to raise dialogue about this concept. Will a more technologically inhabitted society be a more paranoid one? Will we find ourselves fearing what we have never feared before? The FSS is a fictional service that tracks all movement in the user’s backyard in order to evaluate and quantify the data from the movement within the yard and display it as a layer on all media devices within the home. The system provides interesting analysis that includes the evaluation of the intention of the animal as well as the speed, and exact identification. Doing so actually inherently creates quite the dramatic soap-opera of sorts. Example: Squirrel #374840 visits the yard daily with Squirrel #575950, but today he has arrived with Raccoon #29220030!!!! OMG, DRAMA!!!