Thread: Google Glass

Well it's certainly a great piece of marketing. Microsoft also did a film about glass recently; they ended up painting a sterile dystopian nightmare.

I think on the whole this is just a tool and so can't be intrinsically good or bad... it depends on how it's used. The worry of course is that people become increasingly disconnected from the real world. This does seem to be increasingly the case already in modern culture... communicating via text rather than speech or physical meeting; spending way too much time on soulless activities on social media sites rather than actual social activity; a very low attention span, with more people than ever wrapped up in manufactured media and products and not experiencing the world around them.

This is true. We're becoming increasingly insane.

I tend to use these products for useful things though. The first thing I thought was being able to use it as an overlay GPS, augmented road signs and speed signs, highlighted roads for difficult bends, hazard alerts, traffic management etc.

I assume there's many people who will just continue to become more and more disconnected from reality and this advertisement is a good example of how to use this technology in a non constructive way. But I would hope those people would still use it for useful things too.

I used Draw Something on my iPod for about a week before I just got tired of it.
I've stopped using facebook too. It really does just take a change in perspective.
I'm not sure if it's possible to enlighten most people on this matter though.

Eh, seems like it would be a pain in the glass to control.

Also, focusing your eyes on something THAT close can hurt.

Saw this earlier, it's quite interesting. I would definitely try it out, although I feel like I can already do most things I want on my phone.

Originally Posted by Indeed

Eh, seems like it would be a pain in the glass to control.

Also, focusing your eyes on something THAT close can hurt.

With a bit of clever lens play, that shouldn't be a problem I reckon.

I posted something like this in lounge. I don't really see a problem with this except that it would obviously be a distraction while driving like any other phone.

I look forward to seeing how it turns out.

soooo, that shit is in your glasses?

Its humans that are flawed. People will always figure out how to make cool stuff and its up to people to use them responsibly. I think this could be so awesome, especially combined with good enough technology to read our thoughts to understand basic commands. Walking around town talking to our selves instead of other people wouldn't do anything good for our sanity. Although neither would never having to talk with our mouths either.

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

soooo, that shit is in your glasses?

I don't see how people can say that is anything but badass. That is just cool and awesome, and is all positives as far as I am concerned.

I also don't see how people can say talking to people on the phone, or the internet doesn't count as talking to people. Just because you don't see someone in person doesn't mean that person doesn't exist or isn't real. Who are you to judge what social activities count or don't count? Whether you see a person in person or not the connection you make and your interactions are still real.

As for driving and stuff, I believe they do have windshields like that, that enhance your vision and make driving more safe. So this technology can definitely help people in multiple ways. My only concern is price, and how long it will take to be affordable for everyone.

I say bring on all the cool technology of the future that will make our lives easier and more pleasant. There is no reason to resist it!

So everyone walks around talking to themselves? This would annoy the shit out of me, I already hate people talking on their bluetooth headsets because I can never tell if they are talking to me or not. This just takes it to a whole new level. Sure, the concept is cool for convenience, but this is just proof that people are getting lazier and lazier and becoming more reliant on technology to do everything for them.

Originally Posted by nina

So everyone walks around talking to themselves? This would annoy the shit out of me, I already hate people talking on their bluetooth headsets because I can never tell if they are talking to me or not. This just takes it to a whole new level. Sure, the concept is cool for convenience, but this is just proof that people are getting lazier and lazier and becoming more reliant on technology to do everything for them.

Imagine a train full of corporate businessmen/women wearing this gadget. Mass confusion. lol. If everyone had their phone up to their ear continuously, it would similarly amuse me - but we don't, the phone mostly stays in our pocket. And that's the problem with this, it seems to become a part of your general wear; once it's on, it looks like you keep it on.

Though so long as technology doesn't inevitably lead to the idea behind the film Surrogates, where people remain isolated indoors and choose to interact with each other through idealised robot versions of themselves, I think we might be fine. Nonetheless, MMORPGs essentially do that, and so does conversing a lot on forums rather than in real life - we are, for the most part, just avatars. ^_^

*points to signature quote
V

They are not being lazier they are being smarter. So much time per day is wasted doing pointless stuff, so if you can do things faster and easier, it just makes sense.

Originally Posted by nina

So everyone walks around talking to themselves? This would annoy the shit out of me, I already hate people talking on their bluetooth headsets because I can never tell if they are talking to me or not. This just takes it to a whole new level. Sure, the concept is cool for convenience, but this is just proof that people are getting lazier and lazier and becoming more reliant on technology to do everything for them.

Is it really laziness? Maybe you just need your hands free whilst you talk? If it's an option between having to hold your hand to your ear and not having to hold your hand to your ear, the latter is kind of an obvious win. I don't see how raising your arm slightly counts as 'not lazy'; if you use a phone at all, you have already made the major decision to be lazy; you're not physically travelling to meet the person. The only use of putting your hand to your ear is as a social signal, but it should be pretty easy to implement some kind of signal on the device that tells other people if you're using it.

Originally Posted by Alric

I also don't see how people can say talking to people on the phone, or the internet doesn't count as talking to people. Just because you don't see someone in person doesn't mean that person doesn't exist or isn't real. Who are you to judge what social activities count or don't count? Whether you see a person in person or not the connection you make and your interactions are still real.

...obviously, but they're very diminished. The majority of this social 'interaction' is banal rubbish. Do you really think taking a photo of your sandwich is more socially valuable than actually meeting somebody for food? Or sharing a youtube link on Facebook is more valuable than watching something together? Can you really forge deep emotional connections via text messages?

The Google ad works by and large because the device is being used in a healthy way. But I don't really think the majority of people use modern social media like that.

Originally Posted by Xei

Is it really laziness? Maybe you just need your hands free whilst you talk? If it's an option between having to hold your hand to your ear and not having to hold your hand to your ear, the latter is kind of an obvious win. I don't see how raising your arm slightly counts as 'not lazy'; if you use a phone at all, you have already made the major decision to be lazy; you're not physically travelling to meet the person. The only use of putting your hand to your ear is as a social signal, but it should be pretty easy to implement some kind of signal on the device that tells other people if you're using it.

Well I'm talking more about specific things that it shows the guy using the product for. Example: walking into a bookstore and taking a moment to look up and read the signs about where a section is, or, god forbid, actually going to the information booth and asking where the book is, or any other means of figuring out, for yourself, where the book section you want is (if people don't learn to figure this stuff out on their own they are going to be lost little babies when their devices malfunction)...but with the device he just walks into the store and announces to the world what book he's looking for and it magically shows up in front of him riding a carriage of fat little floating elves with a latte...ok, not really...but, I just feel like there's something lazier about the way he is doing things. More convenient, maybe, more efficient, maybe, but lazier...in that, people need to learn to function, figure out, and find things on their own, without such a device, otherwise, what happens when it's gone? I'm talking about, for the generations to come who are raised on things such as this and become completely dependent on them. Also, brain cancer.

Also, the Internet is the Internet, that's why we call Real Life...well...Real Life.

The two things that scare me about it the most are people using it while driving, but they'll probably make it illegal too.

The other thing is how little we talk to real life people. Like the info booth thing nina mentioned. We'd rather ask a computer than a human. Maybe it's not a bad thing, but it does scare me a little. Call me old fashioned, but I miss saying howdy-do to people as I walk down the street, sit on the train, shop at the grocery store. Now, people will be looking at me through these glasses, but in a completely different world.

I agree with what Xei said, about gradual disconnection, and what MadMonkey said about being responsible with such a device. Just use it when you need to be hands-free. I wouldn't want to live in those glasses.

Originally Posted by OpheliaBlue

The two things that scare me about it the most are people using it while driving, but they'll probably make it illegal too.

What's 'driving'?

So do you do all your math by hand then? And people doing advanced math and working on building airplanes and stuff should do all their math by hand? No, of course not! People use calculators all the time.

I am a big boy, I know how to ask for directions, does that mean I should always ask people for directions, when I could just do a quick look up and find it instantly, and then not have to bother anyone?

You say we should figure out how to do the stuff by our self, but most people already know how to do it. If you know how to do it, then you don't need to 'learn' to do it the hard way. Instead you skip the work and do it the easy and more efficient way. There is no positive gain for doing things the hard way, when you have done it before and already know how to do it that way.

I would agree that there is a lot of silly stuff on the internet, but not everything is. Besides when it is so fast and easy there is a lot more of it. So realistically its like do you meet a person once a week for lunch, or do you chit chat with them for hours, a little bit each day or when something interesting happens? One isn't really better than the other, and a lot of people have online friends that are as good as friends as people you know in person.

In fact it is easier to keep online friends because they are a lot easier to meet up and talk to, than physically driving across town to meet someone.

Originally Posted by Xei

What's 'driving'?

haha! .. don't have to worry about that anymore

Alric, you're so defensive about it that you're not even paying attention to what is being said. If someone is *raised* using devices like this...then how are they going to learn these things that you say everyone already knows how to do because they learn them growing up, that makes zero sense. If a child is raised to have everything done and every question answered for them, then that child is not really learning how to be "self sufficient" are they? I envision some day in the future when, for whatever reason, their devices get switched off, everyone just stands around looking at each other, like..."uhh, what I do now?" It's really a question of how safe it will be for all of society to become so reliant on technology, that they do not know how to function without it.

Also, social skills are not learned on the internet...well, internet social skills are. But those are entirely different, and that's a completely different topic however.

Originally Posted by nina

If a child is raised to have everything done and every question answered for them, then that child is not really learning how to be "self sufficient" are they?

You know, it's gotten so bad that my boyfriend's teenage daughter won't even google answers to some of her homework questions because "it takes to long to go through read and all the results". I would have KILLED to have something like google when I was doing homework as a kid. I don't help her find it, I make her google it at least. Like yesterday, she was like "how do you draw the circulatory system of a dog?"

I said, google IMAGES

Originally Posted by Alric

So do you do all your math by hand then?

...yes.

I don't see what the relevance is anyway. You're responding to a lot of stuff I didn't say anything like. I never said technology is bad... I just said there are some concerning patterns in the way that people are using social media and technology.

I think it is a little early to be worrying about little children walking around with glasses like that. Besides, wouldn't that be more of an issue of parents buying stuff like that for little children and not really an issue with the technology itself? I mean the vast majority of people 12-100 years old can probably figure out how to ask for directions.

Also since they work on voice commands, they actually do teach you how to ask for directions, since you have to ask for directions to get them to show up on the glasses. You just have to ask a person instead of speaking to the air, not a difficult situation.

@ OB, yeah you can find anything you need just with google images, then you don't even have to bother sifting through the search results, just look at the pics, click the right one, win.