Prologue: the Invention
A description of the electronic device that we'll all soon be wearing, a discussion of the reasons why it's going to be so popular, its uses, and the philosophical effects it holds in store for the individual and society as a whole.

Philosophical Technical

For the purpose of these essays, “the device” as I call it, is a collection of hardware and software, the culmination of millennia of technical and artistic advancements, and an ever expanding system set to understand and manipulate the way in which we experience the world around us.  It is an extra set of ears and eyes, hearing what we hear and seeing what we see, while feeding us additional sounds and images based upon what we ask of it.  It is a digital storehouse of organic memories where entire lives of information are kept and archived automatically, improving upon the limits of our own inherently forgetful minds.  Similarly, it is a way to solve many organic limitations.  Increased and augmented senses enable us to see and hear what was previously beyond our natural grasp.  
            And the best part is that it is already possible.  The challenge is just putting it together and getting people to use it.  These essays then, serve as a call to wakeup and confront the possibilities at our doorstep.  Taken in their parts but especially in their entirety, they also serve as a heavy warning.  In speaking about death for example, I've come across possibilities for the remembrance of loved ones which are as beautiful as they are frightening- and we have to keep in mind that every invention is a double edged sword.    When thinking about the future I don't imagine human resistance against an outside enemy.  I imagine our own defeat from within: the enslavement of ourselves, by ourselves.  Like an ethereal battle, there will be no concrete entity which can be fought against.  There is no mastermind behind the system.  The grip is of our own human nature on itself, by itself.  By the same qualities which originally led us out of the jungle and onto the farm, the desire to live an easier life no matter what the cost- even through the expenditure of more immediate effort- from these same gluttonous desires we will be enslaved to our pleasures and perpetual satisfaction.  This is the defeat of the conscious by the subconscious, the defeat of the conscience to the over soul, of the individual to the pacified mass.  That is, of course, if we do not take the proper means to understand and ensure otherwise.  There are as many potential benefits as there are risks. 

If, on the other hand, McLuhan’s assertion that any invention contains its effects regardless of the context or way in which it is used, then these essays will merely serve as an extended definition of what, exactly, this highly multifaceted tool really is.   

            Most importantly, it is not my invention.  Merely the countless inventions of others which I've copied and pasted together in order to study in my mind.  In doing so, I've become convinced of the similar desires in other people, both historical and otherwise, which points to the inevitability of a tool which has as many potential disadvantages as positive traits. Instead of trying to delay a creature which has the weight of thousands of years of progress behind it, I suggest we take a long hard look at its pros and cons, in order to better cultivate the former before this way of life sneaks up unannounced. 

See my collection of abstracts for a quicker look into what I'm talking about, or the complete essays for a more thorough discussion.

           

           

                       

           

 

 

           

 

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is something related, in developed by Microsoft:

"SenseCam is a wearable digital camera that is designed to take photographs passively, without user intervention, while it is being worn. Unlike a regular digital camera or a cameraphone, SenseCam does not have a viewfinder or a display that can be used to frame photos. Instead, it is fitted with a wide-angle (fish-eye) lens that maximizes its field-of-view. This ensures that nearly everything in the wearer’s view is captured by the camera, which is important because a regular wearable camera would likely produce many uninteresting images."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is an extra set of mechanical eyes and ears which record every detail of our lives while feeding us additional audio visual material, thus simultaneously recording and augmenting experience.

Each of these components are controlled through a wireless “brain” which we can imagine as something like a current cell phone, carried in the pocket to send and receive information.  

Visual:  A set of media glasses are worn.  [very ugly contemporary examples]   These come equipped with two cameras, one on either side of the face, which move in unison and record exactly what the user sees. These are further controlled through sensors on the insides of the glasses, which monitor eye movement just like those in modern digital cameras which can detect what the photographer is looking at in order to decide what to bring into focus within the shot. By having two cameras stationed on different sides of the face, the device is able to get a sense of depth, the same way our eyes do.
            For output, these glasses have displays built into the glass like a HUD.  Because they are displayed onto glass, these images layer onto the real world like transparencies in an old style projector.  The user can still see what is happening in front of him. The virtual images can be increased or decreased in intensity, allowing for more or less of “reality” to reach the user. Although this might sound far fetched, there are already working models by various companies which are soon to be marketed as the new necessary luxury.  The simplest application will be to provide a mobile full size computer screen.  These companies claim that the view is like that of a sixty inch screen viewed from ten feet away.  So we'll never be away from the internet and all of its diversions and while riding the train, we’ll be able to watch full size movies.
            But simple mobile entertainment is nothing compared to the new possibilities of ubiquitous computing and real time sight/sound manipulation, some of which can be read about below.

Audio: Worn in either ear will be something resembling the modern Bluetooth.  It is a combination microphone and headphone, which listens to everything the user says and hears, recording it, transcribing it, and archiving it in the CPU. 
            The use of microphones in both ears provides stereo hearing, enabling sound location, in the same way our real ears do.  The device will know on which side of you someone is talking by comparing the volume picked up by either microphone, for instance. Headphones in both ears provide stereo output.  This can be used to create virtual depth of non-present objects.  If the visual display is animating a virtual waterfall in your living room, these headphones would provide realistic sound that would change based upon your special relation to it. As you turned your head, the waterfall would become louder in the appropriate ear. [Click here for an entertaining* example of this type of headphone illusion] The way in which we listen to music would also be affected.  Outside sounds could be picked up by the device and literally mixed into whatever song the user is listening to as they walk down the street. I talk about some of the infinite possibilities below.  

Control: By freeing the user's hands from holding a cell phone screen, we also lose the convenience of a keyboard and other buttons.  This is a problem. To create real seamlessness, the user must be able to control this device in a very quick and unobtrusive way.  Various ideas have been proposed, but I see the least awkward solution as a pair of wirelessly linked wrist-bands, which monitor the finger, hand, and arm movements of its wearer, transmitting the results as commands to the CPU. These would work by communicating with each other and the glasses, in order to determine relative position through triangulation. They would be tight fitting enough to feel the tendons in the user's wrists, to determine finger movement.  It could tell which finger the user was using to point at something without the user actually having to wear bulky gloves undergoing surgery to install sensors under the skin.  A whole range of natural movement could be interpreted as commands. [taking a picture of something by forming a box with your hands, changing a song by snapping your fingers, etc.] Other people have already created basic versions of this.  Whatever hardware becomes popular, the important concept is for the device to detect and respond to natural human gestures in a convenient and unobtrusive way.  

Profiles:  This CPU will channel every aspect of the user's experience into some sort of quickly accessible memory.  What words we use, what articles we read, what movies we see, who we hang out with, what we eat, and even how often we shower. Anything useful or interesting.  Everything is converted into statistics, which like text files, take up almost no memory.  Indeed an entire lifetime full of conversations turned text could be stored within a single gigabyte, which can currently be fit into a space smaller than a fingernail.
            This information will be used to compile a database, just like a profile today on websites like Myspace and Netflix, however it will be an expanding profile which chronicles and eventually influences every aspect of the user's tastes, dislikes, and activities.  Profile information is not typed in. It is auto-completed while the device watches everything its user does.  This level of individual digital understanding leads to some of the most amazing and disturbing possibilities created by this new system.  I talk about them all over, but especially in my essays on food, education, conversation, and death, ranging from obvious to revolutionary, to downright twisted. This is the philosophical realm in which this machine holds such mixed potential.

Prologue -1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - Index and Short Summaries