Google Glass Is Back From The Dead
The adrenaline shock sickness drops straight to the pit of your stomach and the insta-sweat starts to form on your brow. No, not news that Donnie Trump nudes have finally slithered online, rather, that you left you phone on the 07:42. Where is it? It’s all my friends’ details, it’s my bank and it’s my work and so on. Yeah. Yeah. It’s in your hand. When did we get so weak?
Phones are not just a ubiquitous part of modern society but a necessity for so much of modern life; we’ve all had the pocket tapping, handbag search frenzy at some point. It happens to me with more regularity than anything Gillian McKeith could predict, or snuffle her way through.
Good news then, that soon enough we likely won’t need them. Google Glass is back again to our collective ‘yay’ (and no one ever loses glasses). For those not au fait with the product of your future, it’s a pair of glasses that allows you to display Google powered information only you can see and generally interpret the world around you. Oh, and record anyone, anytime without them knowing. That was an especially creepy feature as (not to tar all ‘early adopters’ with the same sticky brush) we generally know the first person in the office to use wearable tech also likely knows colleagues Facebook holiday albums alphabetically (the new version has a light to say it’s recording).
This time around Google Glass is focusing on the commercial market and it makes sense. You can see why nurses, engineers and even police could make use of having a heads up display like Robocop. It’s quicker, safer and the next evolution of technology being integrated onto our bodies. Smart watches and fitness trackers abound around our office [why do they all make noises like a 90s Nintendo game though?).
The next evolution. Evolution. It’s a word that has just a little importance. Because we are still evolving and our brains, for better or worse, are getting smaller. Digital technology is opening our world and, in Glass’ case quite literally, eyes for decades.
So, how long then until we have true physically integrated technology in our bodies, and where does that lead us? Is it all a dystopian Black Mirror of eternal recording, ratings and narcissistic sharing? Or, a Shangri-la of information democracy? It’s probably somewhere in the middle – but at least I won’t leave my phone in an Uber again.