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It's interesting to imagine what a distant future would look like where everyone wears these things. For example, if every vehicle on the roads were either a se

It's interesting to imagine what a distant future would look like where everyone wears these things. For example, if every vehicle on the roads were either a self-driving car or was driven by a driver using AR, we could get rid of traditional road signs. Imagine speed limits that dynamically change based on time of day or traffic conditions, streets that dynamically switch between being one-way or two-way, etc. I think the chances of that happening in my lifetime are vanishingly slim, but it's still a fun thought experiment.

goatlover 9y ago
Can't digital signs accomplish that? And if you're not driving the car, then the car can get notified of the changes without there needing to be a human visible sign. I have a hard time believing the long-term future is everybody wearing something over their eyes. Seems like the better alternative is just to make the environment smarter. That or implants.
- lemoncucumber 9y ago
  Sure, but you could even e.g. dynamically change the number of lanes and their direction, which would be much harder to do smoothly with physical signs and lane markings. Roads could become wide unmarked surfaces of pavement where everything is dynamic. When smartphones went from having small screens and physical buttons to iPhone-style blank slates for any content, they got a lot more powerful and people came up with lots of innovative uses for them. You could imagine the same thing happening with my example of roads when it becomes essentially free to test new ideas for how traffic should flow, etc. But again, this is all just a thought experiment. I don't expect it to actually happen.
alasdair_ 9y ago
>Imagine speed limits that dynamically change based on time of day or traffic conditions, streets that dynamically switch between being one-way or two-way, etc. Seattle already has both of these things using dynamic signage.

goatlover 9y ago

Can't digital signs accomplish that? And if you're not driving the car, then the car can get notified of the changes without there needing to be a human visible sign. I have a hard time believing the long-term future is everybody wearing something over their eyes. Seems like the better alternative is just to make the environment smarter. That or implants.

lemoncucumber 9y ago
Sure, but you could even e.g. dynamically change the number of lanes and their direction, which would be much harder to do smoothly with physical signs and lane markings. Roads could become wide unmarked surfaces of pavement where everything is dynamic. When smartphones went from having small screens and physical buttons to iPhone-style blank slates for any content, they got a lot more powerful and people came up with lots of innovative uses for them. You could imagine the same thing happening with my example of roads when it becomes essentially free to test new ideas for how traffic should flow, etc. But again, this is all just a thought experiment. I don't expect it to actually happen.

alasdair_ 9y ago

>Imagine speed limits that dynamically change based on time of day or traffic conditions, streets that dynamically switch between being one-way or two-way, etc. Seattle already has both of these things using dynamic signage.