Re: the Simpsons. In 1983 I wrote a series of radio shows where in one scene a character on the bus had a video helmet on, a "Sony HeadMan" (like a WalkMan, you know, but for your whole head), and the other riders were making fun of him. I kind of wanted something like that and still do, but it should be as light as regular eyeglasses, and it will be soon. You can get a cell phone for $50 now, where just a few years ago they were thousands of dollars, when a thousand dollars was worth five thousand now.
Today I saw a chubby Italian-looking twenty-something guy in the grocery store gesticulating just like the Cybertruck guy in the top video, and he didn't have anything at all stuck on his face. I saw him once back in the meat section, a few minutes later in the beans aisle he skipped happily past me like a big skipping schoolgirl, and when I'd paid and was leaving he was by the video rental box and the toy/claw machine, waving and pointing and goosestepping around, big smile on his face, nose in the air, and I went from /poor fellow, he's nuts or drugged/ to realizing that he must be dancing to something playing in his earbuds. This is what /dance like nobody's looking/ means. There's no shame in it, nor should there be.
Glasses-phones are a logical next step after bluetooth earpieces (that already make every user of them seem like a schizophrenic having an episode, barking instructions to faeries. Of course no-one will be allowed to get away with driving with glasses-phones on-- until they're as cheap as Zenni eyeglasses and replace them too, because they'll correct vision and also give you better, glare-free night vision and A.I. warnings of traffic and even walking hazards. And they'll diagnose you by smell and eye movements and pulse. If you're driving and you've been drinking or you're exhausted or otherwise impaired, they can warn other similarly equipped drivers away and set a cop on you. If your car is driving itself, no problem. One time years before anybody had anything more complicated than a radio or a typewriter I was on the freeway and somebody in a pickup truck came the wrong way, parting all the cars going the right way like the prow of an ocean liner. Maybe it was a song on the radio. Maybe Jesus told them to do it.
And the objection to headset computer/phones that they're creepy and might be recording everyone around them has never made sense to me. Everyone already has a phone now, and any phone you can see might be recording you. What's the big deal? Just don't pick your nose or be racist nor kick an animal nor injure yourself trying a stupid stunt on a skateboard and you're in the clear.
"no-one will be allowed to get away with driving with glasses" How? If you build them, they will drive.
"If your car is driving itself, no problem." Wrong, Very wrong, "self driving" cars can be an assist under very limited circumstances but the false promise of self driving cars by the Musk-a-tears has, is, will kill people. Not just the stupid people who bought the sales pitch, but innocents who become their victims.
First rule of robots - Don't hurt people. Somehow that was left out of the "self driving" program. xoxoxoBruce
Do they really make you feel free?
ReplyDeleteRe: the Simpsons. In 1983 I wrote a series of radio shows where in one scene a character on the bus had a video helmet on, a "Sony HeadMan" (like a WalkMan, you know, but for your whole head), and the other riders were making fun of him. I kind of wanted something like that and still do, but it should be as light as regular eyeglasses, and it will be soon. You can get a cell phone for $50 now, where just a few years ago they were thousands of dollars, when a thousand dollars was worth five thousand now.
ReplyDeleteToday I saw a chubby Italian-looking twenty-something guy in the grocery store gesticulating just like the Cybertruck guy in the top video, and he didn't have anything at all stuck on his face. I saw him once back in the meat section, a few minutes later in the beans aisle he skipped happily past me like a big skipping schoolgirl, and when I'd paid and was leaving he was by the video rental box and the toy/claw machine, waving and pointing and goosestepping around, big smile on his face, nose in the air, and I went from /poor fellow, he's nuts or drugged/ to realizing that he must be dancing to something playing in his earbuds. This is what /dance like nobody's looking/ means. There's no shame in it, nor should there be.
Glasses-phones are a logical next step after bluetooth earpieces (that already make every user of them seem like a schizophrenic having an episode, barking instructions to faeries. Of course no-one will be allowed to get away with driving with glasses-phones on-- until they're as cheap as Zenni eyeglasses and replace them too, because they'll correct vision and also give you better, glare-free night vision and A.I. warnings of traffic and even walking hazards. And they'll diagnose you by smell and eye movements and pulse. If you're driving and you've been drinking or you're exhausted or otherwise impaired, they can warn other similarly equipped drivers away and set a cop on you. If your car is driving itself, no problem. One time years before anybody had anything more complicated than a radio or a typewriter I was on the freeway and somebody in a pickup truck came the wrong way, parting all the cars going the right way like the prow of an ocean liner. Maybe it was a song on the radio. Maybe Jesus told them to do it.
And the objection to headset computer/phones that they're creepy and might be recording everyone around them has never made sense to me. Everyone already has a phone now, and any phone you can see might be recording you. What's the big deal? Just don't pick your nose or be racist nor kick an animal nor injure yourself trying a stupid stunt on a skateboard and you're in the clear.
$50 phone??
ReplyDelete"no-one will be allowed to get away with driving with glasses"
How? If you build them, they will drive.
"If your car is driving itself, no problem."
Wrong, Very wrong, "self driving" cars can be an assist under very limited circumstances but the false promise of self driving cars by the
Musk-a-tears has, is, will kill people. Not just the stupid people who bought the sales pitch, but innocents who become their victims.
First rule of robots - Don't hurt people. Somehow that was left out of
the "self driving" program.
xoxoxoBruce