yafflings

the uncanny internet

Yesterday, Blogging the Singularity mentioned this wikipedia article on the uncanny valley, a theory of emotional aversion to technology that imitates human behavior. Fear of technology inspires countless movie plots of robots mimicking humans, learning from our behavior and then choosing to correct it. While these may someday be valid fears, the fears in the valley we face today are a different can of worms.

The speed of the social web is quickly creating an uncanny internet- familiar ideas in unfamiliar ways, resulting in a general feeling of uneasiness. A lot of this fear lies in misunderstanding- facebook users not understanding where the data of Beacon came from, and how it caused their purchases to show on their profiles. But could the untimely end of Beacon have been prevented if we had jumped the uncanny valley? The concept of purchasing on the internet and discussing amongst friends is not a foreign one; it was the opt-out nature of Beacon that scandalized users and moreover confused them. The onslaught of social media advertising is moving at a slower pace to introduce users to hyper-targeted advertising, with the aspiration of resurfacing Beacon eventually, but are the users ready?

This is new territory.

The real problem becomes carrying users in the rapid evolution of technology. The explosion of the social web will be an incredible opportunity for the internet, if the users partake. So how to get users past the uncanny valley? Information. Much of the misunderstanding comes from the application of ancient concepts of data transfer to modern technology- Grandpa doesn’t understand how I synced his address book so fast, because Grandpa grew up with a typewriter. While this is an overgeneralization, most users do not understand how data moves on the internet, and are thus mistrustful of sharing private information. With mass media’s projections of stalkers, hackers, data leaks, and government spying, who would store their information in the cloud comfortably?

So here’s my solution: answer the question “how?” Explain how it moves, how it works, and more importantly what it means for them. They feel safer knowing their data is stored in bits on an obscure machine that no one ever looks at. It seems simple, but most users don’t know that. Everyone wants to protect themselves from prying eyes. The person who shades their hand while they type their PIN at the ATM needs to grasp data encryption and how to protect themselves on the web, in a simple way.

Joseph Smarr once said in conversation “A user will always trade security for convenience.” This shouldn’t be the case. Security and convenience should go hand in hand, as should usability and understanding. Nobody really needs to look at the code, but they should understand a general idea of where their data is stored, who truly has access, and how they can move it to their advantage, not their provider’s.

Ultimately, it becomes a question of the robot taking over the human. The science-fiction author Orson Scott Card suggested a being that lived among the intranet and was wiser than us all; the idea definitely exists. But if we could quash this idea, and explain protection and security to a user, (through a simple question-mark/light-box/explanation user interface), maybe we can create that familiarity and understanding. As we quell the fears of the internet taking over and technology getting too close to overcoming humans themselves, we can line ourselves up to overcome the uncanny valley. This could accelerate the development of technology and increase adoption, making the truly powerful resources of the internet more accessible, and ridding the concept of the uncanny internet.