Maeda's SIMPLICITY

Random Thought

There are 5 radio stations I listen to in my car on the commute to MIT. The first is NPR because sometimes I'm too happy in the morning so it helps me get depressed. The second is a Top 40 radio station so that I can hear what my kids might be listening to, and I also get a sense of what explicit (versus implicit like on NPR) corporate entities are trying to sell us. The third is a classical radio station because classical music tends to soothe me but then I tend to bore after 60 seconds of it (sorry Bach). The fourth is not really a radio station but a cassette tape I've had for 10 years of some music I dubbed of Ryuichi Sakamoto. The fifth is the 'off' position on my entire car sound system. The fifth option is the most popular one in my car.

To be more specific about actual percentages of listening, it's about 50% off-position, 20% Sakamoto, 10% NPR, 10% Top 40, and 10% classical. One time I mentioned to Sakamoto about how I listen to a cassette tape of his music that is slowly decaying (as it's been in my car for so long). Yet I still listen to it as it is dissolving in a lovely way. He subsequently sent me his entire collection of his music on CD, but I haven't had time to dub it to cassette tape as my car doesn't have a CD player. Thus I still listen to this warped tape in my car. It gives me great strength. I think it's getting better actually.

But I've been meaning to talk about the Top 40 station so let's get back on topic. Last nite on the way home I heard a commercial on my Top 40 station for the new Apple iPod Shuffle. The copy goes something like, "Plug it in and get a completely random mix of your music library. That's right, completely random!" I couldn't contain my own enthusiasm for the announcer's pitch, but then I started wondering to myself ... after Apple invented using the color white in products, has Apple now invented randomness? If I understand the marketing point correctly, you don't have to choose anymore. The computer chooses for you in a completely random way. Is that something desirable? Maybe the next big thing in mp3 players is a little slot that holds on to a coin for you to flip to help select which track you want to play next. It could also double as a place to hold your change in an easily accessible place for when you are paying a toll on the road. A tollPod?

It is difficult to determine whether we want the computer to "know" about us and give us selections (like in the Amazon.com world of suggestion engines), or for the computer to give us completely random selections (like the Apple Shuffle), or to force ourselves to plow manually through thousands of data items when making choices. Sounds like we want choice. And we need to make new choices. That's why the Media Lab is here. To imagine and realize a continually new array of options so that we will always have the option to choose. Let freedom ring (or randomize)!

An old friend and MIT alum Gerry Hornik points out the following: "Thought you might find this link interesting because it discusses the controversy surrounding the iPod in general and whether its 'random' selection really is random." By the way, there are truly earnest random number sommeliers out there with no corporate ties or connections (at least I think so) such as random.org where you have a one-stop shopping (better yet, it's free!) destination for the purest random numbers on the web.