There are times I fear I have become a luddite.
I used to be an adapter - new things came on the market and I jumped at them. I was already for the next big thing.
Now I can't figure out how to use last week's next big thing let alone contemplate the digital tool of today!
Today two snippets of news made me wonder where this is all going . . .
It sounds like something out of a science fiction novel, but the New York Times is reporting that Google is developing a pair of electronic glasses that can stream information directly to the eyes of its user in real time, via a heads-up display. Everything can be streamed from the glasses directly to the web in real time.
Great. I am never going to the change room again!
Then came the news of a new facebook app developed by an Israeli company that will allow facebook to announce your own death when it happens. It is bad enough that I have learned about relatives dying by a facebook post but my own death????
This free new Facebook app called If I Die allows users to pass along a written post, a video or both after their physical bodies have slipped the bonds of Earth.
The posts are not immediate; Facebook isn’t that plugged in to us – yet. Instead, your pre-programmed announcement hits your wall after three designated Facebook friends have confirmed that you have indeed gone on.
The set up for If I Die has three steps: downloading the app to your Facebook profile, creating a text or video messages, and picking which three of your Facebook friends will act as “trustees.”
The app’s website says the posthumous communiques might include “your life story, a secret you haven’t shared before or even a will.”
Clearly the app has no idea of who I am. Should I everavail myself of the 'If I Die' app you can bet that my final comments will be the tirade of certain individuals that I have more or less kept in check for years awaiting the large lottery win and a live microphone in front of 100s of people.
But really, who needs glasses that stream everything you're seeing onto the web or the web into your brain? Who really needs to control the message that will be send out on facebook, of all things, upon their death.
Wouldn't it be a blast if all of the research and development cash that goes into creating these things went into something useful . . . like a cure cancer . . . new food sources . . . or the secret appeal of Stephen Harper?
A bit Rod Sterling (showing my age) I'd say but it truly is the age of information at your 'fingertips' or rather through your cornea! In a few years it will all seem archaic. PS: I had a workstudy student who asked me what the machine stored for years in the corner was (a typewriter).
Posted by: menehune | February 23, 2012 at 08:01 AM
Yup, Rod Sterling , indeed.
I'm amazed at how technology has advanced int eh past 10 years and can only wonder where it will be in 5!
Posted by: JDeQ | February 25, 2012 at 05:44 PM