A Virtual World

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Sometimes when I talk with my husband about what things were like when we were kids there's a major difference when we get to middle school and high school. We're only four years apart but we run into the age of the computer and realize that there probably is a pretty good explanation for why I'm just a little bit better with them than him. I remember taking my first typing classes around third grade. Having to turn in typed papers in middle school and just about everything having to be typed by some point in high school. He didn't turn in his first typed paper until college. He can barely remember ever taking a typing class and his favorite stories are of ICQ {the first ever AIM - only in Canada, my friends} and the "wee-ooh" sound it made whenever one of his friends would write to him.

Now every household has multiple computers. I'm writing this blog post on my MacBook Pro while Matt is downstairs watching Alcatraz on his own MacBook. Our iPod Touch is on the night stand next to me and our new iPad 2 sitting on the kitchen table. {We're an Apple family if you can't tell.} Matt also has a Blackberry which can do just about as much as our computers and I have a Kindle to read any book I want as quick as the click of a button. I love these things. Don't get me wrong. Traveling with 20+ books is not an option for us, not having Skype and email readily available for friends and family back home would make traveling so much harder. Heck, I wouldn't have a job if I didn't have some of these things. Even having our computers for the TV we miss from back home has been a Godsend. Technology is helpful, fun, necessary, and makes life a whole lot easier. But I think we've gone too far...

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This morning I read an article from The New York Times called Behind the Google Goggles, Virtual Reality. If you couldn't tell, Google is working on some virtual reality glasses that can be worn anywhere and everywhere, with lenses that act as computer screens projecting images right in front of you. They're saying things like "It will look very strange to onlookers when people are wearing these glasses. You obviously won't see what they can from behind the glasses. As a result, you will see bizarre body language as people duck and dodge around virtual things."  The glasses will have motion sensors, and a GPS. Even a camera and inputs and outputs for audio.

Basically Google is giving everyone an excuse to live outside of the real world. To live in their virtual reality 24/7 if that's what they choose to do. Human interaction? Who needs it? Let's meet for a coffee and plays Sims and have our characters meet for a coffee too. Oh and in case you were missing it, let's throw an advertisement for Russian porn in there while we're at it. Because that's also what you're going to get from these glasses. Advertisements. Whenever your new Google glasses want to throw them at you.

What's cool? They use the example of you standing at a landmark, gathering information from your new glasses. Cool. Actually, let me pull out my iPhone, Blackberry, or Android phone and Google some info myself. Whew. That was easy. Best part? I did that without having to put on ridiculous glasses and tune out the rest of the world for awhile until I found exactly what I was looking for. Oh yeah, and my friends aren't pissed at me for being such a loner.

You know that face recognition technology that Facebook has been using as of late to tag your photos for you? Well, your new Google glasses could have that same sort of system, allowing them to "recognize" someone's face even if you don't. How about another excuse for never having to really get to know a person? I'll just have my handy dandy computer here recognize you, tell me who we know in common, determine where it is we could have come in contact with each other before, and then tell me your name, where you live, who you work for, and what you were doing back in 2008 (because you just updated Facebook to Timeline and I can see that now). Seriously. I could have just said, "Hey, you look familiar. I'm Erin." Then you say, "Oh yeah, Erin! I met you at Cindy Lou's party last summer. I'm Patty, Patty Mayonnaise." That was much easier. {Also because then I know that my friend Doug, who wears his underwear outside of his shorts and his belt around his head, has a major crush on you.}

So you see, I'm not a fan of your new glasses, Google. And when you decide you're going to turn everyone into a robot, I'm going underground.

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