As technology changes, our values change with it. Maybe in the future, we won’t be so afraid of the thin anonymity of the internet.

The biggest problem in predicting the future isn't envisaging what technologies will emerge, it is forecasting how individuals and communities will respond to those technologies.

I often find that people treat technology as a variable, but social values as a constant. Consequently, as they peer into tomorrow, technology is examined only in terms of how it will change (and make easier) tasks, not on how it will cause social values and relationships to shift. The result: technology is reduced to being perceived as a tool, one that will conform to today's values. In truth, the reverse is what often takes place; social values change and come to reflect the technology we use.

People ask me if I'm nervous about blogging, since 20 years from now someone could dig up a post and use it to demonstrate how my thinking or values were flawed. Conversely, a friend suggested that social networks will eventually "auto-delete" photos so that any embarrassing pictures that might have ended up online will not be searchable. (Let's put aside the fact that a truly embarrassing picture will likely get copied to several places.)

These friends cannot imagine a future where your past is accessible and visible to a wider group of people. In their view, an archived personal history is anathema as it violates some basic expectations of anonymity (not to be confused with privacy) to which they are accustomed. In their minds our mistakes, misadventures, or even poor fashion choices need to be forgotten (or hidden in the vast grayness of history), lest we somehow become social pariahs.

To put it another way, this presumes that our future employers, social circles, and even society in general will punish people who've ever had a thought others disagree with or will refuse to hire someone who's ever had an embarrassing photo of themselves posted to the internet.

Really? If this is the case then the jobs of tomorrow are going to be filled by either the most conservative and/or timid people or (more troubling, but less surprising) by those best able to cover their tracks. I'm not sure either of these traits is what I want in a prospective employee. Should I hire someone who is afraid to publicly share their thoughts or push boundaries? Or worse, should I contract someone who is highly adept at covering up their mistakes? If the jobs of the future are going to require creativity, originality, and integrity why would I hire for the opposite traits?

Perhaps those whose lives are more visible online will be discriminated against. But it is also possible the inverse will be true. Those who have no online history have no discernible track record, no narrative about how their values and thinking have evolved over time. While such a history will be filled with flaws and mistakes, it will at least be open and visible, whereas those who have lived offline will have a history that is opaque and verifiable only by their own handpicked references.

If anything, I suspect the internet is going to create a society that is more honest and forgiving. We may find ourselves returning to a world of thin anonymity where it is difficult to escape the choices you've made in the past. But the result won't be a world where fewer people take risks, it will be a world that recognizes that risks are necessary and expects them.

What would such a world look like? Naturally, it is hard to imagine, because it is a world that would likely make you deeply uncomfortable (think of how hard it would have been 25 years ago to imagine a large swath of the population being comfortable with online dating). But there are perhaps microcosms we can look at.

While dysfunctional in many ways, the culture of Silicon Valley; at least in how it treats failure; may be a good example. While I've not lived in the valley, everything I've read about it suggests that it is hard to be taken seriously unless you've taken risks and have failed. Some friends say that unless you've already failed once many venture capitalists will look at you sceptically. Failure demonstrates your willingness to try – to strike out and attempt something hard.

It is also a community where it is easy to look into everyone else's past; either by searching online or simply asking around. In this regard Silicon Valley is deeply honest; people own their successes and their failures; and it is a place that, in regards to business, is forgiving. Compared to many places on the planet, past failures (depending, of course, on the nature of the error) are forgivable and even seen as a necessary rite of passage.

All this isn't to say that we should be limiting people's ability to maintain anonymity or privacy online. If someone wants their photos auto-deleted after five years, let them do it. But let us at least always preserve choice. We shouldn't architect our technology to solely conform to today's social norms, as we may discover we will be willing to make different choices in a few years.