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>"at some point in the 2020s, we will get breakthrough augmented reality glasses that will redefine our relationship with technology." Constant video surveilla

>"at some point in the 2020s, we will get breakthrough augmented reality glasses that will redefine our relationship with technology." Constant video surveillance, direct-to-eyes on-glass advertising, targeted advertising beamed on every approved spot, interests profiling via retina movements/focus and God knows what else will undoubtedly come about if AR glasses become "cool" and ubiquitous like mobile phones. Maybe we'll be able to see one another's social points, as earned on the Facebook Ubiquity Platform for All Things Interaction, when gazing upon one another? Maybe we'll be able to haze filter out those naughties who haven't earned enough, or have had points taken away for naughty behaviour like posting against the "community guidelines"? Maybe we'll be able to use image recognition + the voter records to put an angel or devil next to the people we agree/disagree with politically? How novel would that be? And talk about a time saver! Who wants to even acknowledge those who don't vote in line with our party!? But seriously though, what options do those of us have to not be part of this dystopian fucking nightmare that the tech elite have in store for us? Save up and try to buy a hut near their fallout shelters in NZ under the hopes that they won't shit where they hide?

jophde 7y ago
Personally I have been moved to only use a desktop computer with Linux on it and switched to a Go Flip 3 dumb phone. It's helped my sanity quite a bit. I'm convinced tech peaked in 90s and the desktop dream was the best one.
- polycaster 7y ago
  Enthused by your comment I visited the vendor's website just to be greeted with: "GO FLIP 3, with KaiOS 2.5, comes with Google Assistant to help you get things done like book appointments, make phone calls, and find answers on the go using just your voice." [1] Resistance is futile. [1] https://us.alcatelmobile.com/alcatel-go-flip-3/ https://us.alcatelmobile.com/alcatel-go-flip-3/
  - jophde 7y ago
    Yea I know... sadly its the best option right now.
seanmcdirmid 7y ago
Huh, I just want my heads up life display because...why not? Maybe I won’t trust Facebook to give it to me, but if the tech becomes good enough, I’m definitely going to embrace it. Is it really a dystopian future? We’ve adjusted to the telegraph, camera, telephone, radio, TV, cell phone, smart phone and...why are AR glasses going to be the tech to bring society down?
- dpq 7y ago
  I think the parent is worried about the possible mandatory ubiquity of AR devices more than anything. As long as skipping a tech is socially acceptable and does not impose impractical costs (try living without interacting with a computer or a phone in a big city for a month and see how well it goes), AR vendors will have to have consumers interests in mind. As soon as AR becomes pragmatically unavoidable, vendors can and will exploit their leverage to impose additional costs on consumers to their own benefit, because opting out of AR will be even worse than swallowing it whole (welcome to game theory).
  - LadyCailin 7y ago
    This is true of all technology advances. See electricity, motorized vehicles, phones, email (or the earlier form, the telegraph), more generally the internet and computers. You can’t ride your horse everywhere anymore, if you want to contact a company, you can probably still write them a letter, but if it’s urgent, you’re going to want to call or email them. Technology changes things, whether you like it or not, and unfortunately you just have to get over that. Society doesn’t function the same as in the 1800’s, and that’s ok.
- godelski 7y ago
  > why are AR glasses going to be the tech to bring society down? The people that are against it are more of the position that it isn't the technology, but those that control it. As techies it is easy to see all the benefits and not think of the downsides. We are a niche group after all, but that is easy to forget (especially if you live in SV). As techies we use ad blockers and have tracking blockers. But as we've seen with this wave of tech, our data is valuable and highly sought after. There are campaign after campaign to make us believe that it isn't worth much while the largest companies in the world thrive on it and the most dystopian societies embrace it and quote Goebbels. Every technology has benefits and drawbacks. The issue is can we mitigate the drawbacks while being able to take advantage of the technology? With forethought this is certainty and historically true (though historically it has been because we reigned technology in). But when we have companies offering to do social credit (not just China btw) and literally comparing themselves to Black Mirror and saying they'll do that, but in a good way? I for one am ready to pump the breaks a bit and be more cautious as we take this turn. It isn't Luddite mentality, but more that we should resolve issues with security and the control of technology as we move forward. The current top comment is mentioning decentralized systems, homomorphic encryption, mesh network, etc. It isn't anti-tech, but maybe we should focus on privacy first before we give away something that people have had all throughout history and the lack of has been showing to cause social problems.
rapnie 7y ago
Ah, you mean this future: Keiichi Matsuda http://hyper-reality.co/ http://hyper-reality.co/ (or https://youtube.com/watch?v=YJg02ivYzSs https://youtube.com/watch?v=YJg02ivYzSs )
- eclipxe 7y ago
  Yes, I can't wait for that future. It looks amazing. Not being sarcastic either, I want this future.
  - feanaro 7y ago
    I'm confused... Have you watched the video?
    - eclipxe 7y ago
      Yes, I have watched the video, all the way to the reset in the end.
      - feanaro 7y ago
        Why do you want this? I'm asking genuinely.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- jotm 7y ago
  Jesus, I can barely manage Reddit, Imgur and HN... that stuff looks right out of a nightmare. But it does seem like the most likely human conclusion to schedule/task/todo/interests lists.
- jcims 7y ago
  My youngest would love that future. Left to her own devices she'd have the TV going, phone going, laptop going, listening to music with one ear while creating critter number six in sculpey.
meowface 7y ago
As long as it isn't an advertising company (like Google or Facebook) producing it, I'd definitely try it. Hopefully Valve will make a good one.
gcpwnd 7y ago
The AR section was the funniest. I think China is more likely to build powerful products here than anyone else, the question is whether they see a need or not. IMHO AR requires a revolution in lots of other areas to be useful for the wide masses.
try_again 7y ago
It's exactly like the premise for Black Mirror episode "Nosedive"!
neodymiumphish 7y ago
First off, if it's overwhelming or if it goes overboard, people just won't use it, so your example of advertisements on every surface and excessive tracking of what users are looking at and doing at all times will likely either not happen or occur but never be demonstrated in any practicable, user-facing way. Second, even with Facebook owning Oculus and investing heavily into its success (rightly so, by the way, the Oculus hardware is phenomenal), they're only successful because other software developers have made such great use of their systems. In some cases, Facebook has bought the successful software/companies involves (Beat Saber...), but it'll take a long time before they establish both a top-tier VR hardware and software footholds.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
Facebook will implement the worst possible version of Whuffie? Ugh. Imagining that future makes me want to live in a cave even more than the modern web does.
heyflyguy 7y ago
This read alot to me like the 1950s "kitchen of the future" advertisements that used to be in magazines. Our perception of the future is our present projected into our imagination. Humans prove to stay human, connected to nature and the world without being human-digital cyborgs. I spend alot of time trying to envisage what I think the information aggregation "tool" of the future is/will be. A watch? Glasses? An AI assistant chip in our earlobe? Whoever thinks of that will be an interesting fellow.
derangedHorse 7y ago
I don’t know why you think those technologies will show up in a new platform and dominate our society. We could make analogs to those things now and they either haven’t been implemented (because we have the sense to not let it be popular) or are not in a form to ruin our lives (yet) — audio surveillance, web tracking for ads, haptic feedbacks for mobile devices to tell us when someone “undesirable” is in our presence, etc

jophde 7y ago

Personally I have been moved to only use a desktop computer with Linux on it and switched to a Go Flip 3 dumb phone. It's helped my sanity quite a bit. I'm convinced tech peaked in 90s and the desktop dream was the best one.

polycaster 7y ago
Enthused by your comment I visited the vendor's website just to be greeted with: "GO FLIP 3, with KaiOS 2.5, comes with Google Assistant to help you get things done like book appointments, make phone calls, and find answers on the go using just your voice." [1] Resistance is futile. [1] https://us.alcatelmobile.com/alcatel-go-flip-3/ https://us.alcatelmobile.com/alcatel-go-flip-3/
- jophde 7y ago
  Yea I know... sadly its the best option right now.

seanmcdirmid 7y ago

Huh, I just want my heads up life display because...why not? Maybe I won’t trust Facebook to give it to me, but if the tech becomes good enough, I’m definitely going to embrace it. Is it really a dystopian future? We’ve adjusted to the telegraph, camera, telephone, radio, TV, cell phone, smart phone and...why are AR glasses going to be the tech to bring society down?

dpq 7y ago
I think the parent is worried about the possible mandatory ubiquity of AR devices more than anything. As long as skipping a tech is socially acceptable and does not impose impractical costs (try living without interacting with a computer or a phone in a big city for a month and see how well it goes), AR vendors will have to have consumers interests in mind. As soon as AR becomes pragmatically unavoidable, vendors can and will exploit their leverage to impose additional costs on consumers to their own benefit, because opting out of AR will be even worse than swallowing it whole (welcome to game theory).
- LadyCailin 7y ago
  This is true of all technology advances. See electricity, motorized vehicles, phones, email (or the earlier form, the telegraph), more generally the internet and computers. You can’t ride your horse everywhere anymore, if you want to contact a company, you can probably still write them a letter, but if it’s urgent, you’re going to want to call or email them. Technology changes things, whether you like it or not, and unfortunately you just have to get over that. Society doesn’t function the same as in the 1800’s, and that’s ok.
godelski 7y ago
> why are AR glasses going to be the tech to bring society down? The people that are against it are more of the position that it isn't the technology, but those that control it. As techies it is easy to see all the benefits and not think of the downsides. We are a niche group after all, but that is easy to forget (especially if you live in SV). As techies we use ad blockers and have tracking blockers. But as we've seen with this wave of tech, our data is valuable and highly sought after. There are campaign after campaign to make us believe that it isn't worth much while the largest companies in the world thrive on it and the most dystopian societies embrace it and quote Goebbels. Every technology has benefits and drawbacks. The issue is can we mitigate the drawbacks while being able to take advantage of the technology? With forethought this is certainty and historically true (though historically it has been because we reigned technology in). But when we have companies offering to do social credit (not just China btw) and literally comparing themselves to Black Mirror and saying they'll do that, but in a good way? I for one am ready to pump the breaks a bit and be more cautious as we take this turn. It isn't Luddite mentality, but more that we should resolve issues with security and the control of technology as we move forward. The current top comment is mentioning decentralized systems, homomorphic encryption, mesh network, etc. It isn't anti-tech, but maybe we should focus on privacy first before we give away something that people have had all throughout history and the lack of has been showing to cause social problems.

rapnie 7y ago

Ah, you mean this future: Keiichi Matsuda http://hyper-reality.co/ http://hyper-reality.co/ (or https://youtube.com/watch?v=YJg02ivYzSs https://youtube.com/watch?v=YJg02ivYzSs )

eclipxe 7y ago
Yes, I can't wait for that future. It looks amazing. Not being sarcastic either, I want this future.
- feanaro 7y ago
  I'm confused... Have you watched the video?
  - eclipxe 7y ago
    Yes, I have watched the video, all the way to the reset in the end.
    - feanaro 7y ago
      Why do you want this? I'm asking genuinely.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
jotm 7y ago
Jesus, I can barely manage Reddit, Imgur and HN... that stuff looks right out of a nightmare. But it does seem like the most likely human conclusion to schedule/task/todo/interests lists.
jcims 7y ago
My youngest would love that future. Left to her own devices she'd have the TV going, phone going, laptop going, listening to music with one ear while creating critter number six in sculpey.

meowface 7y ago

As long as it isn't an advertising company (like Google or Facebook) producing it, I'd definitely try it. Hopefully Valve will make a good one.

gcpwnd 7y ago

The AR section was the funniest. I think China is more likely to build powerful products here than anyone else, the question is whether they see a need or not. IMHO AR requires a revolution in lots of other areas to be useful for the wide masses.

try_again 7y ago

It's exactly like the premise for Black Mirror episode "Nosedive"!

neodymiumphish 7y ago

First off, if it's overwhelming or if it goes overboard, people just won't use it, so your example of advertisements on every surface and excessive tracking of what users are looking at and doing at all times will likely either not happen or occur but never be demonstrated in any practicable, user-facing way. Second, even with Facebook owning Oculus and investing heavily into its success (rightly so, by the way, the Oculus hardware is phenomenal), they're only successful because other software developers have made such great use of their systems. In some cases, Facebook has bought the successful software/companies involves (Beat Saber...), but it'll take a long time before they establish both a top-tier VR hardware and software footholds.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago

Facebook will implement the worst possible version of Whuffie? Ugh. Imagining that future makes me want to live in a cave even more than the modern web does.

heyflyguy 7y ago

This read alot to me like the 1950s "kitchen of the future" advertisements that used to be in magazines. Our perception of the future is our present projected into our imagination. Humans prove to stay human, connected to nature and the world without being human-digital cyborgs. I spend alot of time trying to envisage what I think the information aggregation "tool" of the future is/will be. A watch? Glasses? An AI assistant chip in our earlobe? Whoever thinks of that will be an interesting fellow.

derangedHorse 7y ago

I don’t know why you think those technologies will show up in a new platform and dominate our society. We could make analogs to those things now and they either haven’t been implemented (because we have the sense to not let it be popular) or are not in a form to ruin our lives (yet) — audio surveillance, web tracking for ads, haptic feedbacks for mobile devices to tell us when someone “undesirable” is in our presence, etc