wet money

is a speculative value system where data is valued as a water exchange currency in the future scenario, when data is abundant and water is scarce

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Practise : Design & Ethics 

Timeline: 1 week

Project team: Aakash | Ranjan | Ale | Shin

Roles: Concept, narrative, digital provocatype

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During the design and ethics week, each team started off with a team color and a random technological product to examine its value in the current context and how it works with data it's collected.

Our team RED was given the

remote monitoring system to track early flood sign 

We imagined how the technology could collect enough data that it powered efficient water harvesting technology for the authorities. As a result, it gave them full water governance in a future scenario when water is scarce.

We did a general mapping to understand the stakeholders involved in such water economy. The team also went on a parallel discussion of a data-driven future and how the value of data privacy varies from one to another. Mixing both idea of water and data triggered really interesting discussions among the team, as both seem to be a necessity for basic human rights, how would they be valued against each other?

We used 3 ethical theory lenses - utilitariansm, consequentialism and moral relative to push towards 3 alternate future narrative.

The most intriguing one was the consequentialism lens where we imagined privatized water sector would deploy a service where users can freely trade their personal data in exchange for extra water supply. We mocked a demo screen of how data is being tranferred just to exchange an "equal" value amount of water.

This prompted more discussions for such scenario:

How do we live in the reality where natural resources are scarce while digital data is getting more abundant?

How does data value being evaluated?

What does it mean if the data value fluctuates according to the market demand?

Would personal data value differ based on the personal net worth?

We also mocked a water bill that reflects the monthly data traded, to provoke some reflection in our current context. How valuable is your data for the water you need?

What data would you give up in exchange for water?