Feeding the Machine

Every morning, we feed data to the machine.

I walk out of my room and the Echo Show proximity detector sees me and changes the front of the screen. Proximity detected at [time].

Flip on the light switch. Hallway lights turned on at [time].

“Alexa, play Down By the Bay”

• Time, my voice, intent, entity. Music genre, service being used. Proximity to device when used.

Nest cam… movement detected [time] and [time].

The drive thru — app used, what was ordered, how was it paid, amount of time from order to fulfillment. GPS location.

Waze — where to, how long, route taken, acceleration, adherence to route.

We shovel data into the machine. The stoker gets paid and can use that cash as a means to buy things, improve his wellbeing. For us, it’s the likes, the improved routes to work, the better understanding by Alexa of our requests.

But let’s remember that we’re always doing the work of providing data. There is a mutualism here and we should always watch out for when the balance is out of whack and it becomes parasitism.