Bits are scary near the end. But much of this I would be happy to see.

Wow - I am tempted to watch that again and take notes. I think that the scariest fact is that we're already here - just as Jesse points out its the medium which the points are measured will change and make it easier to track things like very single book you've read. As Brian pointed out with his comment, look at Air Miles, and all the other point systems. Before Air Miles there were Subway stamp cards and Popsicle points...

When he asks "Is it possible,that we might start acting better because we know people are watching?" I would argue that we already are, think about a college frat party. Would someone not do a naked keg stand or make out with the best friend for fear of it ending up on Facebook. Absolutely, so their behaviour is already being influenced by external sources.

The big problem in my mind with a points for everything system is A) The points would have to be universally transferable and B) Economics 101 - what happens when you flood the market with currency.

@Lucas - The thing I find fascinating right now is that we're the first generation that can track all these things like, the books we've read. Our granddaughters and grandsons could actually go and ACCESS this information and find out what kind of books we read when we were in our teens, our 20s, our 30s. Unlike our generation, that has no idea what our grandparents read unless the actual book was handed down to us.

I forgot about the Popsicle points! Oh man!

And I agree, that people are already changing their behaviours (maybe slightly) because they know everything is documented.

I don't know about points being transferred. Makes no sense to me that the points you earn for brushing your teeth an extra minute should be the same points you get if you buy 4 Big Macs in a week. Different decisions (good, bad), different types of points (positive, negative for the government but positive for McDonald's).

Obviously the points you earn have to be valuable for SOMETHING, otherwise it would be similar to flooding the market, definitely.

I got parts 1 and 3 on YouTube. Part 2 wouldn't ay on my iPhone. It was enough to get the point.

Wow. It's not unlikely, but it won't be that viral. Can I dictate my comments? Do I have free long distance to Canada? ;-) So much deep stuff to say - too much for this tiny keyboard.

@ Kevin - Yeah, you probably got the point!

I don't know - Do YOU have free long distance? Why not do a video for your comment? I'll put it up and everything!

1. I loved it, so thank you!

2. This has been around for a while: http://www.oralb.com/products/pc5000 (if you brush 30sec extra you get a smiley!)

3. I like the ideas of "points" for things that matter, like public transit, maybe try and entice people to be greener, "better" etc. But is the rest of the consumer stuff going to start driving us all nuts like foursquare, change us for the worse...? Gonna be crazy times!

@ Ian - Oh, found the price on amazon. $115?! No thanks!

@ Ian - 1. You're welcome!

2. Interesting... I might actually buy that. You know, if that page actually HAD A PRICE anywhere instead of a "Save $10 now!" pop up. WTF Oral-B?

3. I absolutely love the idea of rewarding people for being greener and healthier. I hope the consumer stuff is kind of like, opt-in, and if you aren't interested, you could block it out of your life completely or something.

Realistic in the sense that everything will know what we are doing - Microsoft themselves are moving toward that (If their technology video was any indication) and I'm sure many others are too. Companies are trying to figure us out and get us to pay attention to their messages, so of course they'd love to track our behaviour and learn what it takes to get our attention.

Wouldn't mind getting points for brushing and flossing my teeth though, my dentist would love that.

@Jon - The future of advertising strategy: data, data, data, as high as the eye can see. We're going to have more than we know what to do with.

My dentist too would love for me to be tracking points on brushing and flossing. My mouth might love it as well, haha.

I caught this a couple days ago too, and as scary as some of the potential implications are, I don't think it'll ever go quite so far as giving you points for watching the ads and so on. I think those opportunities may become yavailable to us, but it'll be about as popular as those referral schemes that give you FarmVille cash if you sign up for a credit card. Of course, there's already complementary currencies that it's well-documented people will go to great lengths for - namely Air Miles. I have oatmeal for breakfast most mornings already, and I already buy Quaker because the PC stuff is crap, but the 25 aeroplan miles in every box ensures I keep buying the stuff. In some ways it's already there, it just isn't centralized and ubiquitous.

To sum up - points for consumption, hell yes, points for consuming advertising, a bit too Orwellian. Although, I definitely think he hit on a great point with tracking/documentation of our choices being an influence for us to make better choices.

@Brian - I tend to agree with you. I don't think it'll be as Orwellian as Jesse make it out to be. The thing about the Farmville cash though? It's big. I'm going to follow up with a blog post about that. True that it's there in some way or another - I don't collect Air Miles, but you bet that I spend a lot at Shoppers for my points. And they're pretty good at influencing my purchase behaviour with point incentives.

Tracking our choices - absolutely. It holds us to a set of ideal behaviours. It forces us to acknowledge our choices in a very conscious way and in a way that could require us to share it with the world. Just like tracking food in a food diary is proven to be an effective weight loss tool as it forces us to own our eating choices, so too would a system like this force us to own all decisions we make, good and bad. I kind of look forward to that...