No, there aren't any boobs in this post. I was debating if I should flat out open up with breasts to really drive the point home but I decided against it. Instead, I'll give you an anecdote; you can look up a nice pair of breasts on your own time.
Tonight was a slow night at work, slow enough to warrant me propped back on a chair watching the time pass. New shoes, feet hurting, whatever. Slow enough for me to care about my feet hurting. Door opens; there's no bell but I know the sound of warm air rushing out of the building enough to know that the door opened, and in walks two customers; a girl and her mom. The girl explains she's looking for a type of tea, and the mom is just there being her mother. College aged girl. It was a mint tea.
She had really fantastic breasts. Yes I am 21, my brain is hard wired to notice the female body. Its a small solace at work. And I thought to myself, man. I bet my coworker would love to see this. If only I could send him a picture. Oops.
I just shattered my optimism about Google Glass. All because one actually very nice customer happened to know how to display her cleavage correctly.
What am I on about? Well, think about it. A very basic male practice, and one that can be a sore spot for people, is admiring pretty women with friends. If you haven't done it at least once you are lying to yourself. Not every guy has of course, but its something that guys tend to do. Boobs are nice. We like them. Its a thing men bond over, like a good beer. There's only one thing standing in the way in the state of Constant Breast Evaluation (copyright pending). Space.
If me and anyone reading this wanted to go out to a bar, grab a beer, and check out the ladies, we're required to get up and go to the same bar. Sure, there's a camera right in my pocket. But you know what? If I pull out my smartphone, aim it at a girl's chest to snap myself a photo for my bro, I'm getting punched in the face. Hence why I don't. So if I want to show my buddy what I'm looking at, I need to have my buddy with me.
Here comes Google Glass. Actually, it could end up being just about anything with a camera that I can direct with my head. People don't pay attention to where your head is nearly as much as your hands, and I'm almost 100% positive that Google Glass will allow you to change the commands for the camera. I know somebody will make an app for that if they don't let you by default. Let's pretend, for the sake of this post, that I have Glass. I have the camera work when I cough twice in a row.
Head back to that bar. I see a girl I like, look down at her chest for maybe a second - what guy wouldn't for just one second? - and cough twice. Just clearing my throat, ma'am. Fiddle a bit with the side of the glasses, and bam. Sent a picture of a stranger's boobs to my friend, without her really being able to know about it or stop me in any way.
I have reached Nirvana. A State of Constant Breast Evaluation.
Why stop there? Let's take this a step further. I look over at a guy who left this credit card on the table. Maybe I'm sitting near the register this time. Cough three times for video. People might think I'm smoking, but I now have a video recording of a person's credit card. All without ever touching it.
When I get home, take the video off, delete it from my Glass, freeze the frames on the computer, and bam. Shouldn't be too hard to get at least 1 from a night out on the town. Hell, just a simple glance could work; I'm sure there's a means of figuring out the security code using the number given. Probably.
Point is this. What Google Glass will do is shore up the one weakness the human brain has; an imperfect memory. Want to remember EXACTLY what a person said during a conversation? Record it. What about during a fight? Someone's license plate? What a cute girl bought at a grocery store? What someone was wearing? What their bank statement was, what they were talking about on the phone, it'd all be possible if you put even a mild amount of effort in to it. Why? Because pictures are more accurate than your memory, and now there's no way to really know if a person is actively recording you.
Think, for just a second, what that does to society. You are always being recorded, whether you consented to or not. You cannot duck out of the way of the camera because everyone is wearing it. Have a bad hair day? Someone is taking a picture of it, I can promise you that.
We as a society discovered something with the internet. We realized that you can take digital goods and pirate them, and it costs you nothing and has no consequences for you as an individual. Not really. In return you can get thousands of dollars in music, movies, and games. The barrier of payment was gone.
Google Glass removes the barrier of social consequences. People don't take pictures of hot chicks all the time because its frowned upon, but what happens when everyone can take pictures all the time, and you can never tell if they are or not? Do you think you'd be able to tell exactly where they're looking? You can't even do that now, and you're lying if you think you can treat everyone wearing Google Glass like they're recording you at every moment, because you won't. People don't act like that, or Facebook would have a lot less break-up drama.
So that's the future guys. Its not pictures taken hands-free of smiling girlfriends or neat food. Its guys at bars taking pictures of tits, and early-adopters taking pictures of credit cards and checks and everything else they can look at because now their memory is perfect. And then in the same breath looking at a beautiful sky and taking a picture of the sunset to send to their brother. The big question is going to stop being "what is infringing on my privacy" and become "what is private?"
Let's just think about this for a second. Because Google Glass is going to happen, whether its good for society or not, and when it does, everything changes. Nothing is private, nothing is out of reach, nothing is your sanctuary. That's the society of tomorrow. Be ready.
I for one, will give it a toast with as many pictures of breasts as I can send to my friends.