Taste Bud

A day before we had set up our studio “ HOW-DU-I-NO the future” we had received an e-mail holding one statement ‘stories from the future’. To which I wondered why stories, why not a concept or a problem why a story? Why not follow the design process of choosing a problem, iterating, concept generation, user testing and blah blah.

What is it that stories give you more ? What is that stories help you with? How do you think of one (one of the biggest questions I had). Probably the answer might come along as we create one.

DAY 1 — I went with three phrases “Hunger Evaluator” , “Can devices Breed” , “Shoes (simply because I am obsessed with it)”. Now what? What do I do with these. How do I create scenerios?

Pick an emotion ! Use an LED to exhibit.- said someone post lunch. I picked up -ANGER

Use that LED or set of LEDs as a prop and build your story using those phrases.

Well it took me till another day to comprehend what actually was supposed to be done.

Day 2- So I began with my first story : Story of a hunger companion. Imagine a ball which wakes up with you every morning directs you to the kitchen tells you what your body needs today, tells you what to eat at an restaurant, makes you healthy, keeps you nourished. But is it really all about health, is food just about nutrition. TASTE.

What if you walk into a restaurant and instead of a menu you get a bowl of tastes they are capable of serving and you just have to put your taste bud and let it order so as to what you wish to eat, what your tastebuds desire for. Or suppose you are on a date and donot want to argue about what to order and what not to, just let your taste buds in, let them talk while you talk to your date and let the order be served. Each time is a surprise, isn’t it?

“What if your taste bud was capable of telling you if the person you went out for a date with shared similar tastes as your (or didn’t) in other aspects?” said Shashank.

A Broader Scenario

Now what if this sensation could be taken to a level further. “Lets imagine a broader scenario now- imagine setting a picnic with your family?” said Jon or what if your dog had preferences so as to what he wants to eat and could communicate using taste bud. More applications. Taste bud for music. Taste bud for after-taste. Taste buds for preview of taste/ food.

• Can you predict the unpredictability of you liking a book, should I be predicting that.
• Would I be restricting myself from even reading it eventually. Am I putting a filter to what I should be taking in? Is that what I want the ethics of my AI to be?
• Am I restricting the scope of new discoveries.
• What if it was capable of remembering things, picking up what you liked more, what if it was a evaluator of your taste based on your trials and errors.

Asked myself “ What is it that I like about my story so far”

My story so far has been revolving around ball and food (simply explaining how hungry I am all the time).

• I like the physicality of my story. I like the fact that its a personalised taste bud. I like the fact that its not on your phone anymore. Its outside. Its with you.
• Your AI carries your personality. Your taste, not just in food.

Untasteful

“In 2021 when we thought life would get easier, it has only gotten harder. We thought with the rise of the Internet of things humans would become far more efficient. Everywhere I went I had to set every device to my liking. Imagine! I use around 200 devices in a day. This got me thinking what if I were to carry my taste in a simple AI that would handle the tedious task of programming each and every device I come in contact with. This is the simple Idea of “TasteBud”. Its simple, efficient and fun !………………………

Thats great! Thats really great. I simply love the Idea and cant wait to get my hands on one of these guys. When we come back we will hear more from the genius behind the product of the year. Stay tuned.”

That was a radio Interview from 2021. Gosh it seems like a lifetime ago. I was handsome, young, smart and incredibly…… foolish. TasteBud was a revolution. Before the end of the year almost everyone was carrying around one in their pockets. It won all the awards. My face was on every paper and magazine. It made me rich. Filthy Rich.

I don’t know when it exactly it all went to dogs. I mean I can’t pinpoint one exact event. It started with the dating sites. They soon realised they could use the data from one persons TasteBud to manipulate her/him. Setting up people was far more easier now. It was happening right under our noses and we ignored it, did nothing. Soon, it elevated. AI’s of corrupt people began to live on their tastes, they personalised to their actions and began doing the things their masters would. It became simpler for AI’s to influence other AI’s and form a union.

People bullying people, was something world had seen. But nobody had witnessed AI’s bullying AI’s. AI’s stole data from other AI. And this data was very different from what hackers were used to. It was far more personal. They realised by controlling the AI they had found a way to in fact control the human!

This is when we finally woke up and started to deal with the situation. It took us a while before we realised it had gone way out of our hands. It had spread underground. Under our noses. The AI’s had set up a global network.They knew everything about everyone. Politicians, Celebrities, Businessmen, your Postman. And they were selling the data to the highest bidder. And you can guess what happened next. What the data provided you with was a persons preferences yes. But also their routine. Imagine you knew the routine of a very important person. And the routine of his/her family. And the routine of his/her body-gaurds. Different countries were secretly buying data of people they wanted removed and had them removed. Business men had other businessmen removed from the narrative. People were dying because of what we had created.

By the time people realised what was to blame it was too late. Today the TasteBud is dead. A ban was passed and the production facilities were closed. Our databases were wiped. They caught few guys behind this. But the main guys had escaped. Perhaps off somewhere enjoying their spoils.

I have an interview today. I haven’t given one in years. Not since the court hearing in 2034. I am old, weak and tired now. I have seen an empire rise and fall and with it the world.