With all the talk about Siri, Apple's new voice activated personal assistant, I couldn't help but wonder how long it will be before some cutting edge App developer launches a variant that delivers a CEO in your pocket.

After all how hard could it be to create a lexicon of CEO conversations to power the CEOBot? or, should that be, the AEI (Artificial Executive Intelligence)?

Anyway I thought I'd explore the idea to see what it might reveal.

We'll call our AEI Steve because the name and its variants appears to be popular among past and present CEO's in the smart phone space at the moment. Plus we'll assume you have the ability to select a personality or better still randomise the potential responses.

Now we'll try a simple question like: "Steve what's our innovation strategy?"

Here is a sample of 12 possible responses extracted from the conversations of well known American CEO and Management Gurus:

"We're going to ...
Think Different
move fast and break things
ignore the screams
give our people permission to think outside the box
think big!
do things that are compelling
burn the lifeboats
inspire our people to push the boundaries
innovate faster than the competition
see change as an opportunity and not a threat
shun the incremental and go for the quantum leap
unleash the energy and potential of our people"
and so it goes...

Upgrade to the more advanced AEI personality and you may get back responses like:

"We are going to inspire our people to push the boundaries by burning the lifeboats" or "We are going to unleash the energy and potential of our people when we give our people permission to think outside the box and think big!" or "We are going to innovate faster than the competition by do(ing) things that are compelling. We need to shun the incremental and go for the quantum leap and you can only do that when you move fast and break things"

Of course there is no reason why you couldn't apply this technology to the rest of the C Suite and then you would have the quintessential global corporate conversationalist.

Then who knows, perhaps you could even apply the economics of Analog Dollar = Digital Pennies to the C Suite and offer it as software as a service for disgruntled shareholders? or better still couple the global corporate conversationalist with a techno engine or a hip hop sythn to provide the backing track and you'd have the Black Eyed Peas of the corporate world...

Ultimately though that isn't really the point I am trying to make.

The point is the language of innovation, management and leadership today is a commodity in the same way that shampoo, hair spray and conditioner are commodities. It just comes down to product positioning and branding. Or, more accurately, it's not so much what you say but how you choose to say it that counts. Not so much tapping into the zeitgeist more the Dadarisation of the zeitgeist.

This in turn is what makes Twitter so interesting as an expression of our global culture... be it business or otherwise.

As you watch the passing parade of insights and commentary you quickly discover that deep and meaningful is never going to be found in 140 characters.

All it can ever be at best is conversations conducted in slogans. If deep and meaningful does exist in the Twitterverse then it will be found in the pattern analysis of the Twitter zeitgeist and even here the risk is that the sum value of all that activity can be best expressed as a stream of slogans distilled from the planet's cumulative conversation.

Perhaps the fact that Twitter not only exists but thrives probably tells us more about the depth and value of our collective thinking than it does about our ability to share and grow from being engaged in the experience? Many commentator describe Twitter as an echo chamber. Perhaps a more apt description is that of a world akin to the wire hell of the Matrix (as illustrated in the movie of the same name). An electronic never dream world where people shout slogans at one another in the hope of making a much deeper connection.

As I have said before when media is reduced to just data then pattern navigation and analysis is all that is left.

At the highest level (all noise no signal) if enough people shout Gaga. It will be Gaga. If enough people shout Obama it will be Obama. But just for a fleeting moment. Then the next chorus emerges from the crowdsong. This is reality of the hive mind that Lanier eludes to.

The reality is Social Media (Twitter after all is only the distilled essence of this machine made social experience) has the potential to become a new form of purgatory. An all consuming media experience that leaves you always on. Always connected. Always with your finger firmly on the pulse, engrossed in the excitement of the media moment. Social and/or Cultural “Crack” for the eyeballs and now the ears.

A virtualised, timeless experience where there is no beginning middle and end. Just the never ending moment. Fleeting and in retrospect not worth remembering. A passing parade of shadows masquerading as meaning... (See This excerpt from the 1980’s Italian remake of Disney’s Fantasia: Allegro Non Troppo to see a visualisation of what I mean http://vimeo.com/23841509)

... and yet wasn't this the subtext of the Matrix movie? To ultimately comprehend and benefit from this veritable Alice in Wonderland of 24/7 global social connectivity. To ultimately understand life, to experience life, to live life, you had to disconnect from the medium?

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