Roughly two Millennia ago, settlers atop the high plateau of Masada, in the Judean Desert, saw the approach and intended siege by the Romans. The largest ramp in human history was erected before their eyes to breech the fortress. Imagine the experience of watching one’s slow but inevitable overtaking by legions of warriors. Followed by the conqueror’s worldview being instilled unavoidably.
When the Romans finally succeeded and surmounted the peak, they found a surprise.
If you’re not familiar with the event, feel free to Google it.
Which brings us to the point of this post, that soon, this very search function will be at the tip of your nose. Soon, merely your word and eye-blink will be enough to summon and shoot data right into your brain, as well as seeding the cloud with your digital footprints. All brought by the Unitary forces of Empire. Google is but one of its faces and forms.
We’ve seen the ramping up, the app-titude in which we’ve been prepared. Are we ready for the onslaught? Is this a good and glorious thing, or another gambit of would-be despots?
The Verge Link here.
The Roman “conqueror's worldview being instilled unavoidably”
Unencumbered, the human mind is one of the most amazing of evolutionary products of all mammalian developments. Nevertheless, it is a mixed bag, as you all know, of the proverbial “good and bad.”
To give you an idea of how the “corporate mind” works, Google is one of the best examples.
The primary technology needed to implant and integrate bio-chips into the human brain already exists. Instead of the ability “to summon and shoot data right into your brain” the chips will interact with the brain.
These computer chips would interact with the human mind, not only like the Google “Glasses,” but, would be far more advanced, last longer, more easily upgraded, use upgrades less often and have less built-in obsolescence.
Like all technologies researched and developed, someone has to pay for the end product (and its upgrades). Hence, an “economy in a marketplace” grows up around the Google Glasses (Microsoft Windows, etc. comes to mind).
Currently, this Google technology is generally an external adjunct to a person’s body. You wear them as you would regular glasses. The Earth’s resources and material needed to mine, manufacture, package, and distribute to bring these “Glasses” to point-of-sale means we have another product on our hands that will join the cycle of purchase power and discard power. It is an economic wasteful syndrome that is most notably “human.”
Google knows that the bio-chips are on the way. Google also knows that a corporate enterprise would make less profit from the bio-chips because they will take much less resources to bring to market and will equal far less profit.
Like the oil syndrome, which has replacement energy technologies “now,” Google Glasses is a fat cow of profits to be made before their technology is replaced by the cheaper, more efficient bio-chips.
Like the Roman “conqueror’s worldview being instilled unavoidably” corporate power has its financial and mindbending claws in us humes and they ain’t gonna let go.
Ah, humans. Can’t live with and can’t live without them.
Perhaps
Perhaps when the corporations storm through the glass they, too, will find a surprise.
The old saying may need to be updated. “Boys don’t make passes at girls who wear glasses to check for messages every few minutes”
It will be interesting to see where else corporations will want to place devices. Moore’s law would show that the technology of the glasses will lead to other much smaller, more powerful devices within a couple of years.
It may be that the next apps help us remember to be human.
Headroom
I’m curious, is anyone eager to have ‘the glass’, and make that part of your daily habit?
Or, anyone feel this is too close for comfort,, and will, in a manner of speaking, stand with the Masadans.
Metaphor of Masada
Behind the rebellion atop the Masada plateau beside the Judaean Desert, roughly 40 years after one of the more prominent of the itinerant rebbe preachers was crucified, roughly 900 Jews made their last stand against the Romans. After the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem several years before, the groundwork for the Diaspora resulted in the Jews being scattered away from their homeland, not to return again until 1948.
Technology is like a ruling class because it reigns over our lives and dictates to us that which makes “that part of your daily habit” what it is. And, in a very real sense, there is no turning back.
If you wish to preserve your past traditions and lifestyles, you must “stand with the Masadans.”
But, should you accept this new technology, know that as with all things of an unknown advanced destination what lies ahead may not necessarily be in your best interest.
The Floating World
Years ago, I was fortunate to get the chance to hike up to the top of Masada. Before the climb, the stage was set by a swim in the Dead Sea, which is nearby. With a saline density so great, not only does nothing live in the water, it is near impossible to get your head submerged, the buoyancy is that extreme, and otherworldly. So, to follow the soak and sublime suspension with a climb to a place of ultimate resolve, in a land of layered and endless enigmas, leaves an indelible impression.
Now, decades later, what lingers most is not the view, or the ruins, or even the symbolism- but the idea that there are things in life, absurd as it may sound, more precious than living.
Google Glasses Banned?
“It was banned from beaches after people snuck photos of female sunbathers. It was outlawed from the Washington Monument. It struck fear in the hearts of those who valued privacy.
No, I’m not talking about Google Glass — those were reactions to the first Kodak cameras in the late 1800s.”
Read more: http://ideas.time.com/2013/05/22/fears-of-google-glass-are-unfounded/