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

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

#91

Post by kibibu »

hangonhn wrote: post #8
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…

Totally agree. I refuse to talk to anyone with one of those on. It's not only creepy but also really unfair. It also throws the whole concern of private conversations out the door. Get rid of the camera but keep the glass. Maybe then we will be more comfortable.

Pull out your smartphone and record them through it while talking

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

#93

Post by resu_nimda »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #82
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…

Haha, I have the post-it, colored with sharpie to blend in because people pointed it out and chuckled at it.

I really don't see a smartphone detector in the bathroom, but maybe you just turn it off, I don't think the bathroom is an issue. The bedroom maybe, but I would assume most smartphone owners sleep with theirs in the room, among other devices. The overall connectivity of households and their data to "the grid" is increasing rapidly. There will be some privacy, it's not a 24/7 visual feed, but the government, Google, Facebook, hackers, et al. will be doing what they do, and people will be giving it to them.

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

#94

Post by jakejake »

ozten wrote: post #25

I think looking at Bluetooth headset adoption would more informative.

I think Bluetooth is a fair comparison with the aesthetic quality of glass. The recording capability is what pushes glass into new territory though, in my opinion.

I can imagine people actually flocking to a glass wearer for attention, hoping they are being recorded and posted online just as they might flock to someone with a cellphone camera. At parties, hanging out with friends, at a club, etc. I can imagine it being a lot of fun. If I were discussing business or a stranger approached me wearing google glass, though, I would probably be hyper-aware that I was possibly being recorded.

I can also imagine plenty of scenarios where google glass would make people extremely uncomfortable to the point where you would be asked to leave (nicely or not). Which is not something that would probably ever happen with a bluetooth receiver.

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

#95

Post by jrockway »

resu_nimda wrote: post #89
wpietri wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

My long bet is that longbets will be gone in 10 years.

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

#96

Post by natch »

I took a commuter train the other day. A girl sat down next to me with her glass on as I was texting.

My texts aren't always the most private thing in the world, but I don't really want to have to give even a moment's thought to whether the person next to me on the train is recording what's on my screen.

Whether it's even feasible or not to capture adequate quality with whatever version of glass she had (old? new? super-high-res beta?) is not the point. I do not want to have to think about it.

If you have a camera on your head, and it is pointing outward all the time and potentially recording stuff like what I'm saying/doing/reading/writing, people near you are going to be uncomfortable, end of story.

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

#97

Post by stormbrew »

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 think concepts of privacy are changing a lot and what's perceived as youth being cavalier about their privacy is just a reflection of a significantly different perspective.

Mostly I think kids are much more aware (though maybe not in an entirely conscious way) of holding on to several identities of varying degrees of privacy. They're better at segregating their lives into several online identities in addition to the one they physically inhabit at school/work/in public.

Not to say they are always successful at maintaining those boundaries. Really no one could be entirely. But they are much more active about it and it's a big part of their lives.

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

#98

Post by stormbrew »

gfodor wrote: post #76
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…

A lot of people who knew the iPhone and iPad were going to be huge also think Glass is doomed for the consumer market. Sometimes the way you look matters. See: the Segway. It's a threshold. Did headphones really make you look as dorky as the Segway does to your contemporaries? Doubtful. Does Glass? I think it comes close.

And I'm sure a lot of people who thought the iphone and the ipad were incredibly stupid also think glass is incredibly stupid. And of course there are people who thought the iphone and ipad would be massive successes who think the same of glass.

Your ability to predict what amount to fashion trends in the future is not particularly related to your ability to do so in the past.

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

#99

Post by wpietri »

jrockway wrote: post #95
resu_nimda wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually thought of that site after I posted. In hindsight I was unnecessarily...cavalier...but I would be willing to work something out.

My long bet is that longbets will be gone in 10 years.

I will take that bet. Name your stakes and we will put it up on the site pronto.

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

#100

Post by nettletea »

I'd barely notice glass if it looked like that, far less prominent than bluetooth headsets or white headphones, or people clutching smartphones and bumping into each other, or just randomly standing stationary like the zombies that we've become gazing into our navals, I mean smart phones.
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