The future of emotions: Emotions at your service!
In the last post, I presented trends and emerging issues that help to shape this scenario: a diegetic business (a fictional narrative of a company), Emotional Layer Cake, Co.
Specific categories of influence include: biometrics, emojis, Internet of Things, Emotional AI, affective computing, Generation Z, evolving gender, surveillance capitalism
Each scenario starts with the 3-horizons plot. H1 represents where we are currently. It may include elements of the future. H2 suggests a transitional scenario. While H3 is the most far-reaching vision: what might the year 2047 look like? The x-axis represents time, while the y-axis represents how well a given technology fits within the needs of a certain time.
Scenario 1 | Emotions at your service!
Focus: Technology, Identity, Values
In the 16th century, it was fashionable to send your lover a peeled apple that had been tucked into your armpit for a few days. In the 20th and early 21st centuries, the greeting card has been the dominant form of conveying sentiments, yet social media is positioned to overtake these means. How might we convey sentiments in the future?
Presently, the business of sending emotions is doing well, but struggling to find a good fit for the future (Horizon 1). Companies such as Hallmark, American Greetings make strong revenues, but have not been profitable transferring the print experience to the online, on-demand and custom market.
Fun fact about greeting cards: while they represent a simple, “old” technology of ink on paper, people keep greeting cards from their loved ones for decades or even eternity. Cards are not just cards, they are memory lockets.
But even with these long-lasting attachments, the greeting card market is contracting by 5–9% per year due to encroaching social media platforms, a more casual and provocative customer and anemic retail channels.
One of the primary reasons that people enjoy receiving and giving sentiments, is that it provides them with a moment of emotional surprise. The Flirtbot (Horizon 2) combines the comfort of an established relationship with the ease of technology to introduce novelty into your device driven communication. Because this transitional technology is based on and evolves out of you and your partner’s language, it feels natural.
Flirtbot represents the next milestone for AI to achieve. “Evolutionary science has shown that, for humans, flirting is a key test of emotional and social intelligence. It assesses exactly the capacities that AI researchers are trying to endow machines with: the ability to generate feelings in others, and to understand context and subtext — or the difference between what a person wants and what a person says.”
Give the Gift of Sentiment
For Horizon 3, the future of sending sentiments moves beyond the moment and provides multiple micro-moments of positive or contextually appropriate emotional hits. The absence of trees has forced the price of old fashioned greeting cards into the stratosphere: it’s a gift only the .01% can afford in 2047. But the Emotional Layer Cake Company will provide low-middle and high-income earners an array of emotional enhancements to give to oneself, or to the one or many you love.
Small, Medium & Large Sentiments
Fully sensual emojis will be a great way to kick off a flirtation. Moving beyond the static cuteness of the past, they will have a scent based on your pheromones or a chosen scent for the object of your affection. They will have sound. They will be three-dimensional, yet lightweight; the texture of a refined cheese puff. They will taste amazing while you and your lover simultaneously experience them melting in your mouths — even if you’re not in the same city.
You’ll know when your bae received the emoji when you feel the sensation of the peach glide across your tongue. If you’re in a hurry, Emotional Layer Cake Co., can suggest emoji packages based on biometric data based on your biometric data.
A step up from the sensual emojis are the embedded romantic facilitators that encourage and brainstorm with you to cultivate the relationship you are in or seeking: long-term monogamy, polyamory, and anywhere along the spectrum. The romFACs (romantic facilitators) become part of your HVAC system, so there is no visual interruption to your space; just call on them when you need them to help you plan date night with your husbands or to help you pick out the most appropriate sex toys for your new lover. Because ELC has sensors throughout the world, no matter who your lover is or how many there are, ELC will know exactly what elements will make their day or night with you.
Another component of ELC’s offerings is the Emotional Fight Club (EFC). This is a safe space designed to practice all types of emotions, flirtations or sexual pitches. Since there is very little space between ourselves and our technology, some of us forget how to be empathetic or show emotions.
The EFC is a place to limber up your deep limbic system. It can also be a gift to give to friends so they can try out things they might have been too afraid to experiment with IRL. Think the Missionary position is too old-school? Take it for a virtual ride at EFC. Is that fetish unspeakably taboo? There’s no shame at EFC, so you’re safe to explore the bounds of your emotional imagination. EFC constantly tracks your vitals, so if you’ve chosen an emotional adventure that really isn’t right for you, they will gently bring you out of the simulation.
The ultimate offering from ELC is the emotional fixers, or romFACs. They go beyond helping you create a moment or an evening. RomFACs are with you whenever you need them. They listen to the nature of your voice, the temperature of your sweat, the pulse of your heart, the diameter of your pupil. For instance, they might suggest alternate paths if they see you’re headed towards some emotional turmoil either with yourself, or with the important people in your life. Because they understand you so completely, they know when it’s good to just keep quiet. They don’t want to run your life, just optimize it. If they see that you really need a good cry to release some tension, they won’t say a thing while you’re watching Bambi.
Alternatively, the fixers might suggest that you wait until next week to ask for a raise because you’re not in an optimal mood. By using the biometrics of intent, the fixers can predict your behavior before you act on it. Emotional fixers have various settings. If you like a collaborative environment, a small team of fixers can be programmed. Or if you prefer a one-on-one approach, or a series of model emotional and/or romantic guides such as the 2047 version of Maya Angelou or James Bond, that level of customization and variety is available.
The Emotional Layer Cake Company represents the future of sending, receiving sentiments or managing, testing, cultivating and strengthening our emotional and romantic life. It might seem contradictory to employ technology to imbue our lives with more emotion, but it might just be an unexpected bridge to new ways of feeling.
