Re. TED Talk Why Google Glass

 For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, here it is:

Now they’ve done it. They’re literally shoving it into our faces. We are going to become cyborgs who are powered by machines.

This video is more than product placement. If TED talked about the iPad Mini, that'd be product placement. This is promoting a new lifestyle. One where all the cheesy 80's sci fi movies come to life, us in the future, we become a weird cyborg thing and listening to the automated voices against our better judgement.

“We don’t need this”, you might say. But when the iPad was born just a couple of years ago, we all made fun of the name said "we don't need this". Look at us now. What about cell phones? In 2000, would we, in our wildest dreams, have imagined that a cell phone could replace a camera, video recorder, gaming consul, mp3 player (which weren’t even around back then), TV, and can even surf the internet – wherever you are! No, we didn’t. As a kid born in the early 90’s, I saw the changes first hand. I remember the windows DOS system, and thought it was the best thing in the entire world. I used to hold my dad’s Nokia 3210 and wonder how it can do so much. I loved that windows 98 laptop, we spent a small fortune on it too. Floppy disks, VCR, Walkman…and now fastforward to today: I hold a 32GB microSD card in my hand speechless.

I remember flipping open my first cellphone and thinking it was the coolest thing in the world. I remember when 1TB is unthinkable to purchase, and 1TB being portable is something the next generation may get around to inventing. But here we are, 10 years later, arriving in the future and staring at the second axial age in the face.

What is this Second Axial Age you ask? Well I’m quite fortunate to have the privilege of listening to Dr. Vervaeke speak at TEDxUofT this past Saturday. He explained the primary axial age to be a time in ancient Greece, when humankind first discovered thought and philosophy, math and science. These concepts completely changed human thinking for the upcoming thousands of years. And now, we are seeing a shift in our thinking yet again. With the rapid changes in the ways we communicate with each other, the ways we learn, obtain information, the way we work, the structure of society…It’s all based around the computer and the internet.

So, back to the future.

The Google glass marks the beginning of the end of this revolution. 20 years ago, we were pretty much electronics-free. We had radio, TV, maybe a Walkman. Those are used for recreational purposes, maybe some news. Not even remotely close to what we have now. But growing up right alongside technology is scary. You never know what the next big thing is, and what you were once familiar with is now null and irrelevant. Think about it. We are the last generation that would use a floppy disc or teach our grandparents how to use a computer. And eventually, there won’t be another person on earth that isn’t reliant on technology in their daily routines.

After electronics become body jewellery for us (Google Glasses, Blackberry concept phone Empathy), I hope humankind is smart or mature enough to draw a line. I like to keep electronics on the outside of my skin.

A couple of days ago, my flatmate complained to me about being stuck in traffic for 40min after the Victoria Day fireworks with no phone signal. I itched to roll my eyes and say “Oh NO, whatever shall we do” in a sarcastic voice but stopped myself. So this is what a lot of humanity has come to? A little black (or white) device that we cannot last for an hour without?

Well I feel myself draining away. My mind is ebbing away from me, my thoughts less sharp. That is what you get when you have the luxury of capturing everything yet revisiting nothing. Your days become a blur in front of a screen, as the world outside the window look duller and duller, whether that’s from the pollution or the brightness of the screen I cannot tell. Welcome to my generation. They say that only 90’s kids remember the 90’s. Yeah, we grew up with the change, we don’t take the 90’s as granted. We take the history seriously, and the future even more seriously. That’s because it's our past and future you’re talking about.