My head's on vibrate for you...

The reason that Feed disturbs me so much is that should a feed actually happen we will all be complicit in its existence. We blithely surf the net, fill out online forms, make purchases that are leaving trackable breadcrumbs that lead directly back to us. Interactivity and collaboration are beautiful concepts...if they are voluntarily and freely participated in. The dark underbelly of the convenience and connectivity that we have is that we are not always active participants in the process. Somewhere in the back of our heads we know that information is being collected about our tastes and habits, but we enjoy Amazon telling us what we might like too much to question it. And it is exactly this kind of seemingly innocuous passivity that could lead us not to question the concept of a feed. Especially if Paris Hilton or some other rich and "famous" person gets one first. There was a time when only the crazy rich had things like $1000 handbags and $500 sunglasses. Now, our society makes it seem like things like that are not just fantasy items, but things that you should strive to get. Value isn't determined by the actual merits of an item, but by who else has one and how good the marketing on a product is. Can't you see a company developing a feed and using product placement and a compelling marketing message, aimed directly at us through information collected about us from the web to convince us to implant their feed? I think Britney Spears might be beta testing one right now, in fact.

Think about the digital divide that would take place in the wake of this kind of technology. It's one thing to buy a cheaply produced knock off TV or computer--if it malfunctions, you're out some money, but nothing tragic will happen to you. Now wire that same device into your brain...you are not just putting your finances at risk, but your health and potentially your life. The consequences are horrible to contemplate.

I'm sure you could argue that people would draw the line at "implanting" technology in their bodies, but cosmetic surgery is de rigeur nowadays, often in the face of very real health risks. What's to stop our search for status and perfection from heading that far north?