I was drawn to Sonia’s speculative futures task because she was prompted to think of a health device that encouraged a sense of optimism and promise for a future society. She created the HealthLink app which “allows the algorithm to locate available medical professionals as well as store and house safely patient medical information so patients always have access to their own important data regardless of which medical professional they see.” This is a really promising medical application that allows users to stay on top of their health and directly convey their health data and information to healthcare professionals. There is no doubt, that a tool like this could certainly improve the lives of many, particularly individuals with chronic or serious health conditions that need to consult several health care practitioners at once. 

I think Sonia almost essentially did the utopian version of my dystopian speculative futures. I refer to a health app that uses biological monitoring to allow users to keep track of their data, until the data becomes public and analyzed by complex algorithms – but not for the better. The key difference here is that in the future, it’s assumed that the data remains private and is treated with care and caution. Whereas, in my narrative, the data becomes publicly available. 

This makes me think about the degree to which we trust large tech conglomerates to make ethical decisions with our personal data and information. I think the question I beg to ask with my narrative is, what would the world look like if we had no privacy? What if the most intimate details of our bodily functions were available to others? If our health data is available for our doctors, then they can make educated decisions about our health and support our needs. But if that data is provided elsewhere, to perhaps insurance companies for instance, then that information can be used against us. The comparison of our two narratives demonstrates how important it is to ensure that our data and information are seen and used by the right people.