Cool
By accident, I came across a video today.
It has left me wondering if somehow I have entered into a strange parallel universe.
The video is all about Google Glass.
Now Google Glass to me is the ultimate invention that is trying to find a purpose. Or is society really heading towards a horrifying future where we have to live in some virtual world? Are there people out there who are so desperate for attention and affection that they have to be permanently plugged into Twitter and Facebook every waking moment?
The video is all about the potential uses for this Glass thing. I didn't watch it the full way through because my time would honestly be better spent engraving the Lord's Prayer on my eyeballs with a hot needle. What I did see of it tells me that apparently Google Glass is "cool". It is so "cool" that the presenter uses the word like confetti at a wedding. Surprisingly I only heard "awesome" once.
At one stage he talks about walking in the mountains over in Germany. I don't know if he thinks we all do this on a regular basis, but then as I said, he lives in an alternate universe where maybe walking in the German mountains is a daily occurrence? Anyway, on this imaginary walk he comes across a warning sign which shows a figure falling head first off a cliff. The sign is a red triangle so to you or me it's a warning sign that obviously means there is a danger of falling. The presenter however interprets the sign as something "cool". "That looks like so much fun" says he. "I wanna do that". But Google Glass does a translation of the warning sign and tells him that it means "danger". So he happily implies that Google Glass has saved his life. Now in my universe anyone who is too thick to recognise a warning sign, and even worse has to rely on the Interweb to tell him deserves to fall off a cliff, thereby proving Darwin's theories.
I had a look around to see if these Glass things are on sale. They are. And the cheapest I could find cost $2,300, rising to well over $3,000. Even worse, you then have to buy an "invitation code" to use the fucking thing. And therein lies the great paradox of Google Glass – presumably you have to be fairly intelligent to amass two to three thousand in spare cash, yet you have to be really fucking dumb to buy the thing.
If there is anyone out there who has forty or so minutes to waste [never to be recaptured], I'll include the video.
If nothing else, it gives us a brief look at this other universe, which is inhabited apparently by Homo Nerdus.
I like the term homonerdus, it really does fit the bill.
I stop counting people missing their floor in the elevator just playing with their iphone. I can only imagine what will happen to them when they are in a virtual fantasy – that will be fun to watch.
Are people going to wear these damn things while driving? Presumably they will for directions and the like? And they think mobile phones are dangerous behind the wheel…….
I certainly do not have 4 minutes let alone 40 to waste on anything to do with Google.
I take it you won't be lashing out $3,000 then? A snip at the price.
all that and a fadora too, couldn't get past the intro pic
The fedora is probably the sanest part. You're not missing much.
WTF is all that about?
All I can get out of it is that he must live in a fridge (to keep cool) . He is talking to very rich people if Glass costs thousands of bucks. That is as far as I got as my hearing is getting worse by the day and he began to sound like a quacking duck….(there are two words you could have fun with.)
If there is someone out there who could explain this Glass thing in a coupie of sentences of plain talk I would be most grateful. 'till then I will just fill it with whisky and sip
Rod..
As far as I can gather [and someone can correct me if I'm wrong], it's a pair of spectacles which have a built in computer which is connected to the Interweb. The lens then permanently displays a screen in front of one eye. You control it by talking to it which is going to lead to some pretty odd encounters in the streets?
Oh, and did I mention that it's cool? Apparently?
Two comments: "A snip" suggests losing a vital part of anatomy for incredibly stupid social or religious reasons.
Years ago, talking to yourself in the street was seen as a major sign of madness.
Am I really that old?
I have lost count of the number of times I have asked someone if they were talking to me, only to realise they had one of those fucking Bluetooth earpiece thingies. When they start tlking to their spectacles, life will really become interesting! I suppose it's better than them talking to their testicles though?
I can't believe that. I thought you made that story with the cliff sign up. Surely you made it up. Nobody could be that dumb. So I started watching and now I can't believe it.
I realise that there is a vague possibility that this langer intended it as some kind of a joke, but I can't be sure about that. In any case, this is the example they decided to use in a presentation? Really? Either a lame, pathetic attempt at a joke or an ultimate proof that all those people should be left on this mountain path without their precious moronic gadget.
I had to turn the video off after that, as one more "cool" would make me vomit. I don't want to be cool, ever.
I think he was quite serious about that sign. You have to remember that Homo Nerdus measures success by the number of his followers on Twitter and the pinnacle of his life's achievement is to have a YouTube video go "viral". These people honestly do live on a planet that is totally detached from reality.
Incidentally, I turned off the video at the same spot. I can only take so much excitement at my stage in life.