Embracing uncertainty in a world of big data predictions

We live in a world in which we’re increasingly looking for control, for certainty.

Before we leave the house we can check the weather, check the tube lines, check shared calendars, check our route, check how tall our favourite celebrity is. When we get in we can check how far we’ve walked, how much we’ve spent to the penny, check how much electricity our homes have used, check if that surprisingly short celebrity has tweeted.

We can use that information to predict and change our behaviour. We’ll carry an umbrella if it’s raining. We’ll change our routes. We’ll text a friend to say we’re running late. Peer at the screen a little closer the next time we’re in the cinema. We’ll schedule in an extra gym session. We’ll save a little harder. We’ll make sure we turn the bathroom light off. We’ll log off Twitter.

All of those actions make complete sense. We’re measuring more and more personally so that we can make what we think are better choices.

But we’re also being measured on a much bigger scale, by other people. Companies are measuring how we behave online and in the ‘real world’. They’re using their measurements to predict those choices the choices we’ll make next and influence them.

This can be with our best interests at heart or be guided by their bottom lines.

Either way, I hope we can all agree that we’re (in the biggest sense) striving for certainty, understandably. As a self-confessed control freak, I, more than most people, get it. I live for routine and having solid ground beneath my feet.

But the more I learn, the more I want to fight for uncertainty in my life where I can, where it makes sense.

All the good stuff in life happens when we’re uncertain. Scientific discoveries come through testing uncertain hypotheses. Friendships and relationships come from taking the leap of faith that we can trust in someone else, even if we’re uncertain that it will become something. Narratives rely on uncertainty in order to drive the action. We find love, adventure, and the stories we tell in uncertainty.

So in this world where we are being encouraged to seek out certainty, and it’s becoming easier to do so, we have to make the active choice to embrace uncertainty and seek it out.

I want to be surprised, to be moved, to be engaged by the world as I move through it. Don’t you?

If you do, here are a few of the small changes I’m trying out as a starting place for bringing more uncertainty into my life. These really are a starting place, I want to start to work on more speculative design to jump without looking more in the future, but I’m a reforming control freak so let’s try baby steps together, alright?

 

Discuss first google later

One small rule I’ve implemented with my boyfriend, and I’m starting to bring into other relationships is not to google something in the middle of a conversation. It’s okay if you don’t have the answer to why baked beans are still called baked beans even if they’re not baked anymore. The discussion that ensues about how we label things, about the changes to food production, about that great beans on toast recipe your friend tried out on the weekend are just as valuable as having the ‘right’ answer. Speculate together and I promise you’ll find connections you didn’t expect and realise as much about each other as beans.

 

Follow the path not citymappered

Walk outside of your regular route and just amble for a bit if you have time. You might find a hidden gem. Sure you could have googled it, but there’s a romance in stumbling over a cute cafe or a pang of pride when you make a find something great on your own.

 

Get sucked by stories in not spoilers

Don’t over think it, over googled it, over watch the trailer for it just give that book/film/series the benefit of the doubt and watch it. Believe in the magic the writers are trying to make and go with it. Suspend your disbelief for just an hour or two. This has the added benefit of not having to spend forever having to try to find something to watch while you eat, not being able to decide and silently eating your now cooling soup.

 

Trust don’t just tweet

I have to admit this is the one I’m worst at, but I want to try to put my trust in (IRL) people a little more and take the baby step of trying to make friends. Who knows if they’ll have any similar interests? Who knows if it will work out? Who knows if they want to deal with my weird self? Who knows if I’ll meet another human being again? Not me, but that’s the point. Also I need to find more hermits so that I can establish my anchorite community. Step one, saying hi to everyone in my anthropology class.

 

Yes and… not just okay

Rather than just accepting things as they are, build on them. I’ve used that old improv classic “yes and..” here but it could easily be “yes because” or “yes but why not?” in this scenario. Put your ideas out there and speculatively make your own future. Embrace what could be.

Natalie