Seed Magazine once again triggered thoughtstreams with the ‘Rise of Roboethics’. It touches upon our yen to create increasingly human-like machines “partly as a result of a need for functional, realistic prosthetics, but also because we just seem to be attracted to the idea of making them.”
We’ve previously talked about empathy as a powerful driver of behaviour, and this trait seems to be evolving. Brand loyalty has become a function of a product’s ‘human quotient’; evangelism amplifies as products use computing to become more social. You’d be hard-pressed to find a product in history that has been endorsed with more intensity, volume, and passion than the iPhone; its community-geared AI evokes real emotion.
As products up their human quotient, our strategies to promote and persuade will need serious tweaking. Generous investments in trial and simulation will rise above mass messaging. Community builders will become our new Mad Men.