My Manifesto. Ben Fisher, Founder CEO of Magic Co
Ultimately, the power of voice is that it is not text, no matter how it is used — whether in person to person communication or to control a machine. I started MagicCo to help take advantage of these changes and funded Talk to Computer to help talk about the changes — at least the news and opinion on the subject. MagicCo has been very successful, almost entering the Inc. 500 list (#563) in 3 years of its operation and is a recognized industry leader. Talk to Computer is still getting going but has gotten some great interviews with Wally Brill, Head of Google’s Design Advocacy, and the THREAD group which is building the next generation protocols for the IoT systems.
Books are great but essentially how I see the internet is people creating books of themselves and then sharing those books with others, who share their own books. And that is how we are supposed to interact. And of course that would not work. It’s an inefficient way to communicate if you are interested in having a conversation.
Hence, the terrible attacks on other people on social media — particularly Facebook and Twitter which are the biggest offenders — which as a medium is akin to people throwing books at each other. Chat was never supposed to mimic actually human conversation or interaction. It’s interaction 1.0. It’s cavemen in BC times writing on a wall and then putting pictures up. Multiply that by the grouping effects that organizations like Craig Newmark’s PEN are working on and the ‘wall’ can become a public white board and discussion. It sounds cool — but essentially you have cavemen communicating on cavemen levels and then multiplying that communication by a billion people. Hence, they can not communicate. And that’s the state of our current world and that’s the fights you see on social media. It’s not nuanced — and the primitive Twitter 120 characters if you don’t think that prevents nuance then I have something to sell you.
It has to end but oddly people can’t stop using it. Some do. But Twitter is still growing and so is Facebook. I don’t know why this is but I think it is because Twitter is not really about conversing with others, it’s about expressing yourself. And it’s the easiest way to do that to the most people. And Facebook too.
The structure of these platforms, their logic from that structure, and the fact its textual is actually preventing communication and understanding.
Cavemen wrote on walls too with texts and pictures(literally Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter’s main products). The internet is basically at 1.0 levels. Time for something new.
Voice and why it works.
Contact me on my Twitter here or at ben@magiccollc.com