Well, it would be if I were talking about access to the internet rather than access to Glass.
'Course, we’re all assholes for being here in the first place, too.
This is a minor point, but… crucifix is considered a wearable technology?
1 Like
Well, the Google brand is something of a lightning-rod (I’m captain obvious in my day job) and no doubt amps up the bias when this piece of wearable tech is discussed. The Glass(es) themselves are obvious, different and representative of change (with all the unknowns of said change) and a portion of any population of humans is not going to be cool with that.
So I get the vitriol. I think it is unreasonable, but I get it.
I’d much rather have a conversation about ubiquitous personal augmented reality and how humans beings will have their rights defined and protected in this new frontier.
Yeah? Well… Ok. You’re not wrong.
1 Like
Other eyewear is available to make you look “cool”.
I’m not enamored of Google or Glass, but I liked this post less than either of those things, sir.
The CW article was p.shite, too, though I suspect we’d agree about that.
1 Like
Well, I guess that makes Steve Mann the biggest asshole on the planet, then.
I guess I get it: I remember people going around in public talking LOUDLY on their cellphones. Back in the 90s, when I was working retail, we had this one asshole lady who would talk on the phone the entire time she was shopping, and she made no secret that she was on her phone. That might sound weird, but it’s the Midwest and cell phones might have been common in some areas but not here.
But then, there were other people who had their phones, would use them, and they weren’t assholes about it. But they got treated like assholes, because of the assholes.
Nowadays there are homeless guys walking around here with smartphones. I have no idea how that happens.
And I have a feeling that the average BoingBoing response would be different if it was Apple Glass…
1 Like
Remember when the iPad came out?
Remember the jokes? My favorite:
“Q: What’s 9” long and completely satisfies a c██?
A: An iPad!"
I mean, let’s face it, the iPad was pretty much a $600 web browser when it launched. I know this because I have one that work sent me. It was every bit as unnecessary, overpriced and predominantly used in public by assholes as Glass is now.
But it wasn’t long before the mockery and hatred subsided. Mark F either forgets that, or he didn’t perceive it at the time because he was part of the excited brand-loyal crowd in the reality distortion field. (Me, I’m writing this on a brand new Mac, but I suffer from a mental disorder known as lack of any brand loyalty.)
Personally, I think it’ll take a bit longer than a tablet for Glass to become an accepted item. The appeal is rather niche. But there are definitely many work situations where I’d want one; if I gave business presentations on a regular basis, I’d be lining up to get one.
Twas ever thus. If you want to know what features your car will have in 5-10 years, look at the latest Mercedes S Class.
1 Like
I think the problem most people have with GG is not the technology itself, but the social implications of the technology. Remember that the first pager users, the first cell phone users, the first texters were all assholes too. And now we have defined how their use will be acceptable in society. It’s not ok to text and drive, talking on the phone while doing a meatspace transaction is not ok, and if you still use a pager, just go answer the call, don’t tell everyone first that it’s your pager. Now we have to figure out what acceptable behavior for the GG is. Until then, some of the users will still be seen as Gholes.
In fact there are agencies which collect retired cellphones for donation to homeless folks. One of the things that makes being homeless such a trap is that you have no contact point; even if you convince someone to interview you for a job, they can’t sent you a letter telling you to come in for a second interview or that you were accepted. And until recently they couldn’t phone you either. Giving down-on-their-luck folks cellphones with a prepaid-type account solves that problem.
Upgrading to smartphone could give them access to the web and email as well, while dodging some of the messaging fees (stand outside a store with free wifi)… and smartphones have been out long enough that the early and/or basic ones are starting to appear moderately cheap on the used market. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if things are moving in that direction.
Finally, remember that most homeless folks once had homes, and may have purchased the smartphone before becoming homeless. Given the reasons above, I can see why pawning it might be worth much less to them than holding onto it.
5 Likes
How dare you point out our own privilege! We are here doing worthy things that justify our unconscious privilege!
2 Likes
i don’t know. it seems to me that if you’re wound up about GG being an invasion of your privacy, it says a whole lot more about you than it does about GG.
1 Like
I thought it was about 20 years ago.
No, I actually had a pretty fantastic childhood. I had parents that encouraged my interest, good friends who were curious people, and was in an unusually liberal and opened minded high school where the usual cliche trapping of popularity were minimal (we didn’t even have a football team). Once you get past that, you pretty much choose your friends, where you live, who you hang out with, so college and adult working life have also been pretty fantastic because I choose to live in thriving open minded, liberal, and intellectual hotspots and hang with similarly weird, open minded, and liberal folks with a large variety of interests.
You seem to think that it is normal to be terrified of being a little weird or having non-boring interest, so I guess you got the shit kicked out of you and conformed pretty quickly when you were a kid? My condolences. I hope you get over it, because it sounds really fucking boring.
2 Likes
I’d pay $150 to become a glasshole, but not $1500. The utility vs price point is not right yet
No, quite the opposite. I was just responding to the level of seething rage expressed in your previous post. Nice to see you have other modes of discourse to deploy as well, and to hear that you had a nice upbringing. Bully for you, as they say in other contexts.
There is no seething rage there, just a pretty clear expression of why I find the “glasshole” reaction to anyone with obvious technology on their face to be anti-nerd douchebag bigotry, and why it is stupid. If you have an actual substantive comment about something I actually said, instead of a flaccid ad-hominem attack, maybe you should make it?
Don’t judge the early adopters! We’ll all be wearing them some day.
We will have no choice.
3 Likes
because they could just as easily be wearing a buttonhole camera that you’d never even notice.
I first read that as “butthole” camera. And, it put an entirely different spin on your post considering all the assholes involved.
2 Likes
Yah, I don’t get it, especially when BoingBoing collectively lost their minds when Steve Mann was attacked in a McDonald’s for his cyborg gear. I wonder how many of those people quietly cheered when a woman was attacked in SF for wearing glass.
Back to Mann, well, shit, if a person is an asshole for being one of the privileged few for having new tech, Mann had it in the late 90s, which (as I said above) I guess makes him one of the biggest assholes on the goddamned planet. So it makes me scratch my head when I do a Google search for “site:boingboing.net steve mann” and see how utterly breathless BB has been for Mann and tech enhancement for more than a decade.
What the hell, man, is it already too mainstream for y’all?
2 Likes
