Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A 33-Year-Old NPR Story Convinced Me Google Glass Will Stop Looking So Dorky

onthemedia.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 206 posts

Re: A 33-Year-Old NPR Story Convinced Me Google Glass Will Stop Looking So Dorky

#81

Post by baby »

zacinbusiness wrote: post #29
baby wrote: post #14

Actually, I still find big headphones weird. I bought one myself so I started finding them okay, and there are a lot of people wearing them now that it doesn't look so silly anymore. Makes me think about this as well: "Annette Kellerman promoted women’s right to wear a one-piece bathing suit like this circa 1907… She was arrested for indecency" http://i.imgur.com/3aFSWSg.jpg

I used to only wear earbuds simply because they were more portable. More recently, though, I've begun wearing a full-size set (Bowers and Wilkins P3) because I was tired of my music sounding "small." The difference is amazing and I'll never go back.

I remember a time when even earbuds would make me uncomfortable because I found it weird wearing them in public. Things have changed...

Re: A 33-Year-Old NPR Story Convinced Me Google Glass Will Stop Looking So Dorky

#82

Post by TacticalCoder »

resu_nimda wrote: post #44

I am actually pretty shocked at the responses here on HN, of all places. Not because, as technologists we should all automatically love any new technology, but because, as technologists we should have perspective on its inexorable march. How many times have we laughed at definitive statements, pontificating on this or that newfangled thing, that were proven to be wildly off-the-mark only a few years later? How many t…

I don't disagree with what you say but you wrote:

"Similarly, privacy is going away,..."

Privacy is definitely going away in the public space. But I'm not so sure privacy in, well, the private space is going away.

We may even see a movement --heck, it may even get a name one of these days-- for apartments and houses built in a way that some rooms get a "100% no intrusive technology inside" treatment.

For example you may have an intelligent fridge (so that it can send spam as already happened and why not be part of a botnet mining bitcoins), intelligent TV which can report your mood to advertizers, etc. but have, say, a bathroom with no intelligent lightswitches (because even lightswitches will surely have NSA-friendly webcams and microphones), with no WiFi and just a "detector" at the door ringing a bell in case you try to enter with a smartphone / smartglasses / whatever.

Same for the bathroom and the toilets.

I don't know about you, but as long as the state isn't forcing me to have a webcam and a microphone in my bedroom and in my bathroom, I'll still have privacy there.

I see more and more people now putting a little piece of post-it on the webcam of their laptop (e.g. MacBook, on which there's no physical slider to obscure the cam).

In other words: as long as I'm still a free man, I get to decide where, on my private property, I do still have privacy.

And I invite you in ten years in my property and you'll tell me if the NSA can switch on a webcam and a microphone in my bedroom or not ; )

Re: A 33-Year-Old NPR Story Convinced Me Google Glass Will Stop Looking So Dorky

#83

Post by doktrin »

tzs wrote: post #48
doktrin wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I disagree that people will become comfortable with Google Glass - the primary negative reaction is the voyeuristic-rejection of having a camera always pointed at you (that may or may not be recording). A core assumption of this argument is that people won't eventually become accustomed to the idea of being recorded consistently, often without their knowledge or consent. I can't see why that would be the case. Vide…

> Video surveillance is nigh-ubiquitous in London, and this appears to be both accepted and tolerated. Closer to home (US), I was probably recorded on camera 10-12 times today alone - anywhere from office buildings, retail stores, gas stations, etc. Are any of those London cameras, or the dozen cameras you suspect record you in the US, in public restrooms?

Instead of asking a rhetorical question with an implied conclusion, it might be worth addressing the actual argument.

You're implying that there is a certain threshold past which society will not tolerate its actions being potentially recorded.

That may be the case, but I haven't heard it argued convincingly.

If we are to take any lessons from history, it is that accepted social norms are subject to radical change. What was once utterly unthinkable has in many cases become hum-drum or even the social norm.

Why should this (glass) be the hard line in the sand that human civilization draws?

Re: A 33-Year-Old NPR Story Convinced Me Google Glass Will Stop Looking So Dorky

#84

Post by baby »

aresant wrote: post #6

I disagree that people will become comfortable with Google Glass - the primary negative reaction is the voyeuristic-rejection of having a camera always pointed at you (that may or may not be recording). To which the analogy vs. headphones is not relevant. I anticipate, however, that Google (or somebody) will find a way to make this product largely invisible to anybody but the wearer in the near term future. Through m…

> the primary negative reaction is the voyeuristic-rejection of having a camera always pointed at you

What about people with cameras on their smartphones? Every time you see someone on the phone or playing with their phone and their camera is pointing at you, there is a chance they're filming/taking pictures of you.

We got used to it. Things change so fast. It's not because right now we're thinking about privacy that we'll still think about it tomorrow.

Re: A 33-Year-Old NPR Story Convinced Me Google Glass Will Stop Looking So Dorky

#85

Post by adamnemecek »

mwfunk wrote: post #61
adamnemecek wrote: post #3

> It causes people to isolate themselves from their experience, the contact with nature - sort of, a neo-existential prelude to doom. Mmm, yes. Shallow and pedantic.

What's pedantic in that quote?

It's a quote.

Re: A 33-Year-Old NPR Story Convinced Me Google Glass Will Stop Looking So Dorky

#86

Post by MetaCosm »

aresant wrote: post #6

I disagree that people will become comfortable with Google Glass - the primary negative reaction is the voyeuristic-rejection of having a camera always pointed at you (that may or may not be recording). To which the analogy vs. headphones is not relevant. I anticipate, however, that Google (or somebody) will find a way to make this product largely invisible to anybody but the wearer in the near term future. Through m…

> I disagree that people will become comfortable with Google Glass - the primary negative reaction is the voyeuristic-rejection of having a camera always pointed at you (that may or may not be recording).

When personal cameras first came on the scene -- the newspapers tried to inflame hysteria -- ANYONE COULD TAKE PICTURES OF ANYONE! There were pushes for regulation, banning, and people where ATTACKED for using cameras in public. Google for "Kodak Fiends" and "The Camerist and the Squaw" -- these were the old version of "Glassholes".

Society creates social norms to deal with this stuff. See again camera phones... a lesser for of "Kodak Fiends" trended in the press, then we adapted, and now no one even worries about it. It will happens for Google Glass over time, history tells the tale.

Re: A 33-Year-Old NPR Story Convinced Me Google Glass Will Stop Looking So Dorky

#88

Post by honestcoyote »

sillysaurus2 wrote: post #40
aresant wrote: post #6

I disagree that people will become comfortable with Google Glass - the primary negative reaction is the voyeuristic-rejection of having a camera always pointed at you (that may or may not be recording). To which the analogy vs. headphones is not relevant. I anticipate, however, that Google (or somebody) will find a way to make this product largely invisible to anybody but the wearer in the near term future. Through m…

the primary negative reaction is the voyeuristic-rejection of having a camera always pointed at you (that may or may not be recording) Google should put an LED light on Glass that turns on whenever it's recording, just like MacBooks.

People are funny. Probably most do not want to be recorded without their permission, but many of them will think of situations when they want to be the one silently recording. And some of those situations would actually be valid, recording cops for example.

So, unless there is a law, I can't see forced LED for recordings. If Google tries, then one of the most popular apps for Glass will be a hack which deactivates the light.

Re: A 33-Year-Old NPR Story Convinced Me Google Glass Will Stop Looking So Dorky

#89

Post by resu_nimda »

wpietri wrote: post #65
resu_nimda wrote: post #44

I am actually pretty shocked at the responses here on HN, of all places. Not because, as technologists we should all automatically love any new technology, but because, as technologists we should have perspective on its inexorable march. How many times have we laughed at definitive statements, pontificating on this or that newfangled thing, that were proven to be wildly off-the-mark only a few years later? How many t…

Might I suggest putting money down? http://longbets.org/ I built the site ten years ago, and the Long Now Foundation has plenty of other things going on, so I'm pretty confident that this will do for your 10-year bet. If you find a challenger, I'm glad to help you two negotiate a testable prediction and get the bet up on the site.

I actually thought of that site after I posted.

In hindsight I was unnecessarily...cavalier...but I would be willing to work something out.

Re: A 33-Year-Old NPR Story Convinced Me Google Glass Will Stop Looking So Dorky

#90

Post by resu_nimda »

hobs wrote: post #47
resu_nimda wrote: post #44

I am actually pretty shocked at the responses here on HN, of all places. Not because, as technologists we should all automatically love any new technology, but because, as technologists we should have perspective on its inexorable march. How many times have we laughed at definitive statements, pontificating on this or that newfangled thing, that were proven to be wildly off-the-mark only a few years later? How many t…

I agree with you on everything except the privacy part, as people grow older they guard their privacy much more than as a youth. I think it will be like everything with technology, we will be more the same, and more different. People might share some information freely as a bird that we would be horrified at, but I don't think the intrinsic need for privacy will leave society on some level (for a host of reasons). Ma…

I agree, I probably should have qualified with "in public", there will be some areas of relative privacy. There will still be a security community; people who are skilled and need true privacy will be able to find it, bit I think they will be a small minority. Already many people are sharing from inside the sphere - data, media, text, etc.
Post reply on HN