Re: [projectvrm] Is VRM an Ideologically-inspired Dead-end?

[Chris Savage < >]

On 3/19/2013 1:28 AM, Don Marti wrote:
> begin Joe Andrieu quotation of Sun, Mar 17, 2013 at 08:54:44PM -0700:
>
> > But my real point was conditional: If it turned out to be true that
> > people can't succeed with intentcasting, then it is necessarily
> > true that vendors can't succeed with tracking.
> >>Not necessarily.  Tracking could be revealing information that the user would not 
> choose to share, whether because it's too much trouble or because of the user's privacy 
> concerns.  And not all purchases are planned or mindful.  Maybe most aren't.<<
Don,

The implication of what you are saying (which may be true, but I want to 
be clear about it) is that vendors might, by tracking, be able to lead 
me to buy stuff that actually meets my needs/makes me happy, to an 
extent that, and in ways that, I would not myself be able to achieve by 
being mindful of what I buy, when.

I have been working from the assumption that an individual making 
mindful choices, empowered with adequate digital assistance regarding 
what options are available from vendors, will be the "gold standard" of 
actually getting that person what they want, given their budget 
constraints on money, time, and mental bandwidth to make decisions.

Three possibilities suggest themselves:

(1) The "Gold Standard" exists, so that the very best that vendors could 
do via tracking (in terms of meeting the person's needs/wants) is match 
what the  person would do for his/herself.

(2) In fact, vendors enabled with tracking data can do a better job of 
meeting the individual's needs/wants than the individual would be able 
to do for his/herself.  Surrender to the Borg.

(3) Vendors can induce people to buy stuff via what they learn from 
tracking -- maybe even more stuff than the people would buy in the "Gold 
Standard" scenario -- and thus make extra money by tracking, even though 
people are less happy as a result of being (in this case) manipulated 
into buying crap they don't really need or want.

So... First, are there possibilities I'm missing, and, if so, what do 
you think they are?  And, second, which do you think is likely to be 
closest to true?

Thanks,

Chris S.