Pokemon go is only the beginning. In a few years, we’ll have to worry about our eyeglasses crashing.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Pokemon go is only the beginning. In a few years, we’ll have to worry about our eyeglasses crashing.
That was actually kind of disturbing
If I had to deal with that intrusive crap constantly, I’d…no, just no.
People worry about the strangest shit.
Just take the damn glasses off!
“I’m sorry, Dave. I can’t do that.”
Fuck that for a game of soldiers.
Prepare for a future where multinational corporations will accuse people who use adblocks or refuse to wear those stupid glasses, of being thieves.
What @gijoel said.
Plus, the daily hyper stimulation. It freaks me out already today.
Black Mirror did this far better in the White Christmas episode.
Myers should give the series another chance. Those first few episodes were weak.
clearly an example, extrapolated to the point of absurdity, yet still, alot of those features could be very useful augmentations. Popup ads would be an annoyance but probably blockers would be implemented very quickl. Like overlaying navigation arrows to provide the optimal route to a new destination. And automatic translations when spoken to in a foreign language.
Can’t help but be the buzzkill, not all that popular at social gatherings. I try to always see the silver lining in every raincloud.
tldr; these glasses AR are overloaded, trim it back for reasonable utility.
The Microsoft videos for Hololens are just as nightmarish, and they’re trying to advertise.
Not so different from browsing the Internet with AdBlock off.
And I already hate most of the push notifications my phone tries to shove at me.
fiction writers have already done this
William Gibson
John Varley
This looks like a nightmare.
chigau @13:
Shadowrun
I also thought of Rainbows End by Vernor Vince
This pretty much matches the nightmarish image I had after reading David Brin’s Existence. Despite heavy filtering garish crap would bother you wherever you went. No. Thank. You.
The only good thing I saw in this mess: the glasses actually show you which side of the sidewalk you ought to use. But I’d settle for an app that yells at people who stand in the middle of an escalator and won’t let anyone past.
Hideous!
It reminds me of something I read recently. The current generation of 20’s and below was alleged to be the first generation in the history of the world that knows less about technology than the previous generation. That is certainly hyperbole but the point is interesting to ponder: does the current generation have an unhealthy weighting of sophisticated users (with no or little idea how the technology works) compared to the 30s-60s who are building the technology?
Who knows?
I’ve actually really been looking forward to practical AR. it’s always been way cooler than VR in my opinion, plus the useful applications are staggering.
Hell, in an era where we’re dealing with police violence where their body cams get “dislodged” right before they murder someone, equipping essentially everyone with a body cam that isn’t obvious when you are filming will make the tech worthwhile on its own.
I’m pretty meh about this, apart from the giant cat. I’d like a giant cat on every corner. When it gets too annoying, you can always strike back by doing this sort of thing: http://xkcd.org/1705/
Since others have mentioned books, a good one is Daemon by Daniel Suarez.
(The sequel, alas, not-so-much)
I was wondering how Pokemon Go would look with Google glasses… you may need some form of glove to replicate the throwing motion however.
“Some of your technology may be out of date, which means this video won’t play properly. Please install Flash or upgrade your browser.”
Seems apropos.
OK, that video creeped me out. I wonder if there’s an ad block…
Using Adblock would probably violate the terms of service.
@25 komarov
I disagree. The device seller doesn’t necessarily have the same interest as the people advertising on the device, like with smartphones and Ad Blockers (or browsers and Ad Blockers). I’d expect Ad Blockers to be among the most popular forms of apps for AR headware, along with different kinds of “skins” to overlay what you’re looking at.
The video reminded me of the futuristic movie Minority Report, where advertisements geared to the individual consumer’s interests constantly followed Tom Cruise around– even while he was running for his life. It would drive me crazy. I already stopped getting gas at a local station which has those annoying automatic “Welcome! Milk is on sale here!” messages which start up unexpectedly at some random point while you’re getting gas. You have to punch the right button to stop it. Other buttons just make it louder or longer. No. Just no.
In another movie about the future, Sleeper, Woody Allen’s character goes to an automated confessional to confess his sins. He is rewarded with flashing lights saying “Absolved” — and a kewpie doll! That’s probably the only time someone has gotten something of tangible value out of the Catholic Church. So that’s a real improvement.
Re: Brett (#25):
But then they might be one and the same entity and decide that you can either get the ‘whole’ experience of their services, including the horizon strobing with ads, or sod all. Option C could be a subscription fee that might also enable the customisability you mention. Or maybe you only get that with the premium package which also includes 36 seconds of free wifi a month and one tenth of a lottery ticket.
As much as I’d like to think any company trying to force that much rubbish on customers in one go would crash and burn, it probably wouldn’t. They’d just stumble a bit until they find the right balance between mind-numbing crap and usefulness, maximising their profits from both sales and ads/other nuisances. And as these devices become ever more ubiquitous and – strangely – necessary, that balance will not shift in favour of the consumer.
Yes, I know, bleak outlook etc. When the future comes marching through my door I’ll probably club it over the head, wear its fur and make a big meal of it.
I welcome our digital overlords.
Komarov @ 28:
I’ll help you club it to death. And I’m a pretty good cook.
I’m just going to hide under the bed and cheer you on, Komarov and Caine.
I don’t know, it seems like AR could be very useful and fun if it’s done right. As much as people complain about smartphones nowadays, they still use them for a lot of stuff. Having an HUD in real life to keep track of stuff like maps, health stuff, to-do lists, etc. could be really convenient.
Before AR, humans invented daydreaming to avoid dealing with pesky reality. Who needs AR to crash into stationary objects?
oh, the little luddite in me is getting unnerved.
@Bill Bucker #18:
TL;DR: The only way to not have technical knowledge is to not use technology. Anyone who seems to be contradicting this is actually arguing that the software they think is important isn’t seen that way by other people.
You can generally safely ignore this sort of ridiculous crap. It falls prey to the same issues that plague IQ tests among other things (basically the test is most likely biased against things younger people actually use). I work in IT and I did quite a bit of tech support and troubleshooting before I got to my current state where I don’t generally interact with end users directly. One thing I quickly found was that a general familiarity with how software works and how user interfaces are designed lets you leverage the knowledge of other people to great effect. People often misunderstand how much they actually know about the software they use every day. By the time they’ve used the same software for a year or two I can often help them even if I’ve never personally had any exposure to it. They think I’ve fixed it when all I’ve done is have them guide me through it until I point out an option they hadn’t tried yet.
You’re assuming the AR platforms will be built on open systems, which is far from certain at this stage. Naturally, there will be a lot of interest from corporations to build the tech as a closed system — and as we have seen with Amazon’s success with its line of eReaders (with ads) and tablets, if they’re good enough, they might succeed.
Ideally, there will be a healthy market in solutions, some more open than others, and the corporations who overdo the intrusiveness will be punished for it in loss of market share, but again, with so few companies dominating the current consumer technology, that’s by no means certain.
Bill Buckner wrote:
That is little more than a barely disguised “Millennials are so entitled and unprepared for the Real World” rant, so I wouldn’t take it that seriously. Gen Xers were all lazy slackers and unprepared for the Real World. Boomers were all drugged-up hippies and unprepared for the Real World. The latter two groups have made huge contributions to modern technology, so I’m not worried about Millennials. They’ll do fine. They might end up with less generalist knowledge than their forebears, but that’s been true of nearly every generation.
I’m so dubious on the reality of this sort of stuff. This is still so far out. Making a device the size of your glasses that fills your entire vision and can render 3D objects, scan the world, place the objects in the world accurately, and all while having a battery small enough to fit in the rim of some glasses that can last for more than an hour? All of which sell for a reasonable price? We are REALLY far out from that. Ever since Pokemon Go i’ve seen hot takes even mentioning contact lenses which is one of those really out there concepts that you could say will take 100 years or simply never. Reminds me of the people afraid of AI as if we are even remotely close with AI research. This coming from someone who owns a crazy expensive PC, a Vive, and an Oculus Rift.