Question Technology

A few days ago, a tuned-in reader (his name rhymes with Bessie Trumbiner) alerted us to this important development in the all too inevitable march toward the Singularity.



The fascinating development in this particular technology (other than the fact that it makes so much sense as the next step) is that it physically mediates the external environment of the user. Instead of a consulting tool, the computer becomes a lens to augment (or, more frighteningly, judge) the world. The scene in which the inventor uses the device to project the Amazon.com (see, private company) rating on a potential book purchase just highlighted the various ways the technological "lens" could be hijacked to give highly biased or advertisement-based information.

I found myself especially horrified by the attitude of the presenter, who is wholly consumed by the desire to give humans "relevant information" to help them make "the right decision" in every situation. At the end, she jokes casually about brain implants.

Which begs the question: Has our frenzied accumulation of information become more burdensome than useful?