An internal video from search giant Google that has surfaced online shows a vision for how the company would like to use user data in new ways. According to Google, the video has nothing to do with services that are now available or that are in the planning.
In the video, Google presents the collective data of users as a ‘data ledger’. That ledger should use its own knowledge to make its own designs that it expects the user to find beautiful or fun, and to produce them with, for example, 3D printers.
Also, that data ledger should suggest several goals and if the user has chosen one, show which options the user should choose to achieve that goal. For example, users could choose ‘healthier food’, after which Google recommends the healthiest products in an online store.
The nine-minute video draws heavily on biological theories, including the theory that genes use humans as carriers to replicate. The bundling of data from users, collected via all kinds of devices, fulfills the role of genes, with data using people as a carrier and way to spread.
It follows from that theory that Google should strive to use data in other ways. The video titled The Selfish Ledger comes from the head of design at X, a research division at Google, writes The Verge. The video is from 2016.
Google responds that the video was made to shock. “This is a thought experiment by the design team from years ago that uses a technique called ‘speculative design’. That is to explore uncomfortable ideas and concepts to provoke discussion and debate. It is not related to current or future Products.”