The thing with the people standing in a group staring blankly into space is a vision of the future; the reality nowadays is that they're holding something and looking down at it, doing roughly the same thing, but at least you can see clearly they're doing something.

Haven't seen Glass in this country yet, but I can imagine it's something as disturbing as people talking on hands-free sets to phantom people.

Charlie Brooker, Black Mirror, Series one episode three, "The Entire History of You" is pretty good television sf version of this kind of thing.

Seconded, all 3 episodes of Black Mirror are excellent stories about an imminent future that I'm not sure we really want to come about (except for the art project ;-).

(Good news: they made three more episodes :) )

Awesome. Thanks for the update.

To be fair, I think many would be in support of the prime minister having to have sex with a pig on live TV episode.

There are 6 now!

"As I approached the line to the restroom, I took a deep sigh, thinking that I might find some respite from the hundreds of cameras strapped to people’s heads at the conference.

Yet when it was finally my turn to approach the rows of white urinals, my world came screeching to a halt. There they were, a handful of people wearing Google Glass, now standing next to me at their own urinals, peering their head from side to side, blinking or winking, as they relieved themselves."

Really? I thought it was rather silly, rhetorical to a fault. Just about every single one of those "memorable passages" had the alternate explanation of "they were doing this thing that people normally do, but they had Glass on".

There's some insight there, but the author missed it in getting so focused on zombies with glass, and people with cameras in the bathroom.

that's kind of the point...

I can quickly see Glass becoming this generations, "Are they crazy or bluetooth?"

Maybe it is a sign of us all getting old, when everybody else adopts google glasses.

They say old age is when you stop wanting to learn new things. (Well, somebody said that)

i do not believe it's a sign of anyone getting old or stopping new things, just that i think general social responsibility hasn't been catching up with emerging technologies and Googlers / early adopters could do well in publicly setting civil conduct examples, like taking the Glasses off when going to a public restroom, because people on the other end of recording devices have rights too in public spaces, if not legal, moral, ethical or merely civil common sense.

Case in point is that, for the first time i remember in the short 32 years of my life, a few weeks back i angrily got up from my metro seat and went sat dow as far as possible of a women sitted right in front of me, which was having a loud and unnecessary family discussion with her mother over the phone. She was:

* very notably by the look on peoples faces, not only causing distress to me but to the surrounding people (later afternoon rush hour)

* i could still hear her clearly 2 carriages away

* she publicly admitted during the conversation that having those kind of public conversations was uncivil but would not turn off the call, by her own will

Same goes for the latest tendency (around here at least) of people playing music loud on their phones, again, on public transportation.

There is civil freedom in public space of course, but there are different types of public spaces; closed quarters public transportation is very different from a town square and can only imagine how discomforting it will feel when i'm sat across someone wearing Google classes, wondering if i'm being recorded or not and most importantly, if i as a citizen complain about my privacy, will be recorded and shown up on Youtube in the next minute.

I will never understand why people yell into the phone on the metro. It's loud and talking louder doesn't, magically, reconnect the call.

I wouldn't call this a new trend. You have a number of youths in close proximity and 2 ear cups. It makes sense to use the speaker when more than 2 people want to hear. I used to do the same when I was young and mixtapes came on tape. Now, some idiot sitting alone and singing along I find annoying.

That's what was in my subconscious when I was reading it: this is really good writing.

To offer a counterpoint, I thought it was a terribly written piece that is like "cliches about glass 101". Sure he had the conversation with the gentleman regarding winking...or maybe he read about that app and thought he would milk the "Google Glass dystopia" a little further (he had another ridiculous piece that made waves about Google Glass' "shine" wearing off, which is funny because I've read the same fear-mongering "they're all out to take pictures of my wiener" articles since the first hint of glass hit the tubes).

But with google glass, suddenly small discrete cameras will be everywhere! Not like today, where for a picture to be taken, a huge flash bulb has to explode, and the subject has to stand perfectly still for 10 minutes.

Not exactly discreet, anyone wearing the dorky glasses will be automatically labeled dork, and when they start winking at things they want to photograph it will just be super creepy.

It is just a matter of time (perhaps it has even happened, I don't follow Glass development much) until there is an app for jailbroken Glass devices that takes photos on an X second timer, no winking required. Whenever cameras and control logic are combined, intervalometer control isn't far behind.

Right, and it can be a smart intervalometer, with a little pop-up, "taking a picture in 5, 4,... (to skip taking a picture this time, tilt your head to the left)". Or, "you seem to still be sitting in that waiting room, skipping the timed picture as per your settings (tilt your head left to make an exception this time)." And "you will soon be arriving at the party on your calendar, increasing rate of auto-pictures and going into silent-running mode for two hours (tilt your head left to cancel)."

Parent comment is being facetious.

That's where we're headed, right? Smartphone cameras are so small already that they could be embedded in a pair of glasses without the dorky hardware hanging off the side. Make them sunglasses and no one can see you winking. Or just video your entire day then edit it later to extract creepy stills at your leisure.

Already in the works... http://www.epiphanyeyewear.com

Yes, it seems contrived to me, just like a blog post that the author references, written by himself, where he claims to have forgotten to pay a NYC cab driver because he was used to using Uber in SF. I think the winking thing is likely made up.