2016 Will Be the Year Everyone Sucks at Security, Again

Meg Neal is a generalist when it comes to the future. In editorial roles at Motherboard and Gizmodo, she's cast her gaze across a diverse and ever-evolving landscape of robots, privacy nightmares, music production, and outer space with equal attention and skepticism, all bound together with a sense of excitement about wherever the hell it'll all lead.

She was also one of the first editors to dive into one of my piles of word salad on this website (pause for crowd to go "Aw"), so when I was assigned to interview her about her predictions for 2016, I was chuffed.

Alright, now that all the sappy stuff is out of the way, here's what Meg thinks might happen over the next 365 days of utter insanity on planet Earth. The following interview was conducted over Slack.

Jordan Pearson: Describe 2015 in 15 words.
Meg Neal: Haha.

That counts as one.You have 14.
Oh boy.

12.
Does that bring it down to 12? Okay…

Five… four…Wow Meghan, this interview is a train wreck.
Lol.

You now have 3 words to describe 2015.
Space and smartphones. Boom.

That's 16 words, but I'll give it to you. What are you looking forward to in 2016? What do you think will rule?
I think it's encouraging that the world is increasingly taking climate change seriously and there are exciting developments in green tech. Like, I'd like to eventually be able to own a Tesla, though it's highly doubtful that will happen in 2016. Energy-efficient homes and better batteries and vertical farming, all that good stuff we'll see more of, and hopefully some brand new ideas. I also want high-speed rail please. Fingers crossed.

Yeah, the good stuff really does seem to be kind of continuously in development, or like it will take years of fighting through regulatory red tape and legislation to get here. Thankfully, the last few decades have paved the way for a cavalcade of shit to slide through the chutes of our political, economic, and social systems with ease. What's going to suck ass in 2016?
Hmm. This isn't a new answer but I think privacy will continue to be a problem. I think right now it's sort of a nebulous concern that Snowden helped cement in the public consciousness, which is a very good thing, but I don't think people realize the full extent of how this could impact people. We're putting shitloads of personal data in the hands of giant corporations and data brokers and at hackers' fingertips and in the coming year or two I think we'll start to see how that data is used against us, or beyond our control.

I'm writing a story now on how health info from fitness trackers can be used to raise your insurance costs—that is some dystopian shit. Or, like, how long until Facebook knows where I am and who I'm with because it's tracking my phone's location and sends me a notification that's, like, "Want to post a photo with Mike at the bowling alley you guys are at?" If it's not already.

People are always saying, "I have nothing to hide," but I think the Sony hack was a glimpse into how invasive it will feel if even seemingly innocuous things like your Google photos or emails become public info.

That's an interesting point, because I think a lot of people consider 2015 to be the hear that "hacking came home" in terms of their effects on people's personal lives, especially with regards to the Ashley Madison hack. You don't think we've learned our lesson? Do you think we'll learn it this year?
Maybe it's grim, but I think I'd answer no to both those questions.

What could happen in 2016 that would make people kind of sit up, take notice, and start taking even the most basic precautions when it comes to their privacy? Anything?
It's a good question. As a society we've historically been really reactive rather than proactive, so I think a lot of people don't take precautions seriously until they themselves or someone they know is affected, which could mean embarrassed by private info getting in the wrong hands, or if it costs them money or just reaches a level of creepiness that goes too far, though that hasn't happened yet.

Moving on to something completely different, you've been writing a bit about trends and issues surrounding music production and consumption in the digital age as of late. Any predictions on that front for 2016?
In the last few years an overarching trend has been analog nostalgia—there's obviously been a big vinyl resurgence and people opting for analog synths and gear for that "natural sound." I think looking forward the line between digital and analog will blur and machines will start to integrate aspects of both and the sound won't be so binary.

That said, I don't think vinyl nostalgia is going anywhere. Vinyl is the shit.

What do you think we'll see in terms of trends in piracy? Do you see the "nostalgia," as you say, for physical media (hell, even purchasing media) as being a powerful enough force to make piracy a less appealing option? Or is piracy kind of an intractable part of the internet, and life online, at this point?
I don't think piracy is going anywhere. Don't expect much will change on that front, to be honest.I taught my uncle how to torrent movies the other day. Piracy is mainstreaming, if anything.

As in it's moving out of its niche with younger, web-savvy people?
Yeah, you don't have to be really web savvy to pirate music and movies. Sites are making it really user-friendly. That said, if something like Spotify for movies came along… Not like Netflix, which only has crap movies, but something with a comprehensive library you can pay a reasonable monthly fee for, that could make a dent.

I would probably pay for that. Netflix is shit. Fuck "Netflix and chill." I would rather "5 GB .MKV file on my hard drive and chill." I think this is going to be the end of our interview—any final predictions for next year?
It may take more than a year for the tech to get there, but I really do think VR is going to be the next iteration of movies. 2016 is primed for the explosion of VR and the storytelling potential is only starting to be explored. Most of the content so far has been ads sponsored by companies that can afford the production costs. But once headsets proliferate and the price drops and artists have better access, we're going to see some really creative stuff. I hope!