Through the Looking Glass: Part 2

Last week I talked about Google Glass and how excited I am that this sort of futuristic technology is finally arriving.  I understand the fallacy of the slippery slope, but please follow along while I do a little brainstorming on what possible effects the infant field of Augmented Reality will have on our future.

The Near Future (5 – 10 years)

Already begun.

Although Google Glass is the first type of this tech that might actually make it to market, it is certainly not the only product like this coming to market.  The commercial demand for AR technology (once its easily affordable) is going to be huge.  It’s hard to imagine not having a smartphone these days once you’ve had one for a few months.  Having access to the internet in your pocket is such a tremendous asset to simply moving around in our society that suddenly severing that connection feels as though you have been isolated and thrust back in time a century.  I imagine when products like the Google Glass arrive, they’ll replace those smartphones.  Suddenly as you move about your daily business, you will be in constant ready contact with everyone you know, or possibly have ever met.  Every single problem you encounter on a given day becomes solvable by parallel processing instead of serial with minimal effort on your part.  Versions two or three will probably require zero effort on your part.  Get a flat tire?  Just look at your tire, AAA is on the way.  See an accident?  Emergency help is on the way.  See a job posting?  Get a list of people you know looking for work that have a skill-set for that job.

Why would this revolutionize human culture?  If you think about it, people have three basic “values” that they offer to others – what they know, what they can do, and who they are.  AR can completely eliminate the first of those categories completely.  Everyone is going to have access to “know” everything that everyone in humankind has ever known.  Interacting with people will now be much more based on personality and behavior than on knowledge.  We will also be able to make even faster and more thorough progress than ever before.  Progress is based on building upon the previous foundation of knowledge, so not only will knowledge be accessible easily to everyone, it will intelligently PRESENT itself to you.

The first few generations will simply have extremely convenient features like driving guides, photos and videos, and easy communication with friends.  Following soon after that will be artistic digital overlays of physical surfaces.  My assumption is that people will be decorated with digital tattoos that move, buildings can be made to look like forests or waterfalls, and any number of other aesthetic replacements.  Of course, it’s not all going to be sunshine and roses.

I foresee some pretty insidious uses for AR technology, even in the first generations. Advertising is going to be fucking HORRIBLE.  It’s going to be everywhere, and is going to require a whole new set of laws to deal with.  Unfortunately, if we legislate AR devices like we’ve been legislating for smart phones, those laws are going to specify that we can’t install software to block advertisements.  We’ll see how that shakes down in the future, but it’s going to be a fight.

Our Kids’ Problems (20 – 40 years)

Law enforcement and national security are also going to be some of the first areas this tech is rolled into, and it’s going to be rough figuring how THAT is going to work.  Imagine a camera catching you jaywalk across a street.  Your name and face goes into a database, and the next time a cop walks past you, they issue you a ticket.  That’s if we don’t just automate ticketing misdemeanors altogether, like traffic cameras.  I imagine once you’ve committed a crime, you will NEVER be able to erase that in a post AR world.  If you move, police could get a rap sheet just by walking past you.  Our safety crazy society already makes it difficult for people pay their debt to society, so it’s going to be even tougher to become a reformed criminal than it ever was. Possibly to the point that many people who might change could simply remain criminals, as there could be no other option for them.

It’s very easy to imagine that a world where all crimes are immediately spotted and police can recognize criminals on sight will be a safer world.  I mean, if you think about it, letting less people get away with crime is a good thing, right?  Theoretically, yes.  However, that only applies if our LAWS actually make sense.  Our federal and state laws are so byzantine at times that it’s impossible to tell if you’ve actually broken a law.  You can’t possibly hope to memorize every legal code that applies to every area you visit.  Ever broken the speed limit, jay walked, defaced a dollar bill, or rounded while doing your taxes?  You’re screwed.  We’re already running into this problem today with the amount of video surveillance that goes on.  AR could multiply that to the point where people will be on camera virtually any time they leave their house.  In our effort to be “tough on crime”, we almost never repeal laws, only add more.  It’s going to take some very serious thought on how to restructure our legal system to avoid legislating ourselves out of existence.

The Not So Bright Future (50-100 years)

via http://digitalxdefiant.deviantart.com/

If we look farther into the future, and we make the assumption of the worst, the possibilities are  frightening.  With AR technology, we could literally be able to CHOOSE the world we live in.  Don’t like what someone says?  Put them on a ban list, you could never see them again, only a floating X where they’d be.  While this seems like a nice feature to deal with jerks on the bus, it has some extraordinarily dangerous ramifications.  We have a lot of trouble dealing with people we disagree with – it’s one of the things that keeps Congress in a deadlock.  As time goes on, the media and politicians encourage us to be less and less reasonable toward the other side of arguments.  They encourage WINNING at all costs, instead of reasonable compromise.  When people could simply blot out other people they disagree with, we stop having meaningful dialogue.  Without being exposed to new ideas and new people, we stagnate, and our culture just slowly eats itself.  Progress forward in the United States happens in the melting pot.  Without being able to interact with people we disagree with, we’re not going to be cooking that pot at all – just trying to eat a bunch of shitty raw ingredients.

And even further beyond that, what happens when we begin to take the CHOICE of banning people out of the hands of individuals?  In fifty years, AR will probably be delivered to us through a chip in our eye or brain.  That means that parents could choose what kind of world they want their children to live in, or even worse – governments can do that.  That’s my ultimate nightmare scenario – the Great Firewall of China turning into nationalities or religions enforcing not only their dictates but their very reality on the people they have power over.

So, I’m both excited and terrified of Augmented Reality.  It could be the best, worst, or borst(?) thing ever to happen.