I like to think that this new mindset, that technology is meant to make our lives easier, all started during the industrial revolution, when newly invented machines started to essentially replace people. Today, machines, robots, and new technologies don't only replace people but alter their real world experience altogether. What were once mediocre ideas of new technologies in movies and films are now real and functioning and in our own homes. For example, the idea of interactive holograms has been featured in movies ever since I can remember. It was always an idea but today it is no longer just an idea. It is the real thing.
Microsoft recently released news of their new HoloLens, a holographic computing headset. With this new headset, Microsoft aims to seamlessly connect our digital lives with our personal lives by creating a whole new world, through a set of glasses. On their website, http://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us, it says, "When you change the way you see the world, you change the world you see." There is no attempt to hide the fact that this new gadget is supposed to alter our real world experiences. And while some may deem this new device revolutionary, I like to think otherwise.
The truth is, we don't really need this. I feel like the smarter technology gets, the dumber we become. While, yes, there are technologies that simply make things more convenient, there are many more that aim to facilitate everything we do. We rely too much on these gadgets that make our lives easier. We have become sedentary. We have become a race of people, who for the majority, don't do anything without the use of technology. Some people no longer read books, they'd rather skim through web articles. Some people don't even know what a chalkboard feels like.
We are revolutionizing the technological world and in the same way altering our experiences as human beings. Maybe I am wrong, maybe I am right, but I think that some technologies are doing more harm than they are doing good and this new Microsoft HoloLens might be one of them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRQv74J7oSk
ReplyDeleteWhile I see where you're coming from, I think these technologies can also be used in ways to improve our understanding of specific topics, and of the world around us.
Plus, watch that video and tell me you didn't geek out, even a little bit.
Ah. One of the sweetest moments over winter break was when Google announced that Glass was dead, for now. Really, I rolled it around my mouth like the finest wine. Oh, perfection. Sweet, sweet perfection. Here was a technology harkening from science fiction, come to solve so many of the problems that we wished to get rid of. But the majority of us didn't want it. Glass was ugly as sin, like something perched on our nerdy brother's nose as he gobbled twelve inches of a Jimmy Johns sub at the dinner table, with all the family looking on in horror. And the people called users "Glassholes." Turns out few of us wanted to be recorded at the bar by someone else's eyepiece. And, so, it was beautiful schadenfreude when Google Glass crashed upon the shoals of non-interest.
ReplyDeleteI have the same feelings and questions about this HoloLens you've pointed out, Yonaida. I share Adam's sense that this technology might have applications in SOME spaces. Could it be used as a Radical Rapid Prototyping Environment? (I made that up. Does capitalizing the terms give some sense of weight?) But the video Adam posted seems to posit the end user as a general one. How many of us want to walk around the kitchen with things jumping out at them?
One pretty thing I've heard is that the cool thing in Silicon Valley is unplugging. That is, tech people keep putting out videos showing people plugged in in fancier and fancier ways, while they themselves have decided the best thing to do is tune out.
Is there irony there? Or is it just self-serving hypocrisy and opportunism?
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ReplyDeleteI agree that technology like the HoloLens is sending us farther from reality and closer to the world foreshadowed in Wall-e. While technology like this might have beneficial uses to people in development, I think it would be detrimental to the general public. Ignoring any possible health and psychological concerns, the virtual world would add another reason for people not leave their homes. In addition, seeing your own personal world at home would probably put strain on family relations.
ReplyDeleteSo, when society puts on a demand for technology that sends us further from reality it should be clear that something isn't right. However, maybe there is a generational gap; and, what we see as unnecessary will help future generations that are more comfortable with the technology do amazing things and possibly solve problems we can't.