The folks at Dentsu London and BERG took the time to make a video series on what they’ve dubbed Incidental Media — the future of what our world of screens could potentially look like with constant, yet extraordinarily subtle, streams of information being processed in many ways.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of the whole series was their visual investigation into the idea of non-forced engagement. Though information and activity are everywhere in their world, screens seem to have been relegated to an ambient back seat — instead of needing to seek out information, it is omnipresent. They imagine a world where clocks scroll Foursquare checkins and people listen to the news on the radio while a visual manifestation quietly scrolls alongside it — each unobtrusive to daily human activity. Unrealistic, maybe, but they’ve painted a vision for the future that manages to be both constantly plugged in and totally serene.

When I first watched the short, I immediately thought of our own immediate future: Google TV. Shortly after it was announced, Mark Cuban wrote a post on his blog about the biggest oversight Google had potentially made on the final frontier: the assumption that, like mobile and desktops, TV is a screen to be revolutionized with active interaction. For Cuban, TV’s sole purpose is to cure boredom without demanding any real interaction from the person watching.

Much like his, my own user habits are that of total disengagement. With the exception of a handful of specific shows I watch with purpose, I generally watch TV to consciously disengage from the constant searching, web browsing, YouTube watching and email checking that consumes an average day. Most of us have already become internet puppies, endlessly binging on media so long as it’s in a shiny bowl. The webifying of the living room just feels inorganic — an added connection and demand for interaction I decidedly don’t want or need.

The world Dentsu and BERG explored was one of such lovely balance, illustrating the potential for a digital world where people — and the simplicity of non-digital daily life — really can coexist with the constant stream of information, without us devolving into Shitzus in the process.