This Is The Science News Essay You Want To Read

Annual Question: 

Marti Hearst

Scientists and engineers continue to make progress in the battle against the overload of confusing choices that plague modern society. In response to well-known studies from the 1990s and 2000s which found that, when presented with too many choices, people often opt to choose nothing at all; efforts in both the research and commercial worlds became focused around mining behavioral “big data.”

Now, intelligent systems can predict what people want before they want it, so rather than showing a choice of navigational options on a website and forcing the consumer to select options and choose among them, the smart app simply shows the two or three choices that are just right for that person. And, rather than scanning all of the news put forward by a reputable news outlet, readers are shown just the right article, personalized for them, so they don’t have to think about how they will stay up to date. Just the movie or video game match you want to watch at this moment appears before your eyes right as you settle into your chair, set at just the temperature you want with just the food you were craving. You don’t even have to give it a second thought! And of course, your voting choices are arrayed out for you in your favorite color scheme.

And it doesn’t stop with reading. Your vacation planning is figured out for you now as well. In the past, before Intelligent Planning, you would never have thought your dream location was a small town in Kansas, but that is indeed your top recommendation, and so of course that is where you and your loved ones will have the best time. This way the people who designed the systems won’t feel crowded in their vacation spots in Kauai.

So, the science news is all good, except for the anti-science Huxley protesters who had contrary thoughts, but that information was not in the essay you wanted to read.

This was the science news essay you wanted to read (based on essays you’ve recently read, thoughts you’ve recently had, the el grande burrito currently in your intestinal tract, and the promotion you did not get last month at work).

And this is the science news essay that I wanted to write. (AIGenerator ™)

Gentle reminder: contrary thoughts experienced during the consumption of this essay will be reported.

Date: 

[ Sun. Jan. 3. 2016 ]

Weight: 

1