My tech life is dominated by Apple & Google products. I use only Macs & have the greatest invention of the modern age - the iPhone.
Despite the usual complaints of difficulty in upgrading & modifying, I love Apple hardware because it just works & I don't have to tinker with it. For a long time, I resisted getting an iPhone until my old phone totally crapped out, but now it's an integral tool in my daily life.
Google is another company that has created tools that I find indispensable right now. I use Blogger to create The Monkey Buddha blog. I have an online Picasa Photo Album. The navigation program Google Maps is freakin' amazing & has helped immensely with my anxiety when traveling. Google is digitizing works of art & also literature. In fact, they are digitizing the entire planet with Google Earth. One of my most visited pages, Google Search, with options of Images, Shopping, & Video, is absolutely miraculous, to an information sponge like myself. I talk to people all the time about how much it sucked in "the old days," trying to find answers about anything- before the search engine became the powerful resource it is today. The Internet is truly becoming a virtual hive mind, and search engines are the current key to accessing that collective consciousness. Although its power is awesome & could easily have detrimental effects, Google's definitely augmenting the capabilities of the human race in countless ways.
Dicover Magazine:
I don't think there's any question that the digital age is the most radically transformative of any time in known human history. The change & progress we're experiencing only seems to be accelerating, so we have very interesting years ahead.
Although it's been in development for awhile, the interactive eyewear called Google Glass is starting to get some attention. They are basically computerized glasses that can access online content, find directions, take pics & video, etc.
The Google Glass technology is already inspiring spoofs...
Here's a video imagining how the ubiquitous ad culture will affect the experience:
Just in time for St. Patricks Day, this very funny video came out showing the day's festivities through a user's Google Glass experience:
Since I don't wear glasses, it would be a big change to have eyewear on constantly. Instead of having to speak commands, there should be a way to look at icons & blink to make choices. Although it is interesting, & the state of technology to make it possible is truly astounding, Google Glass is simply another step in a process. The process seems to be the integration of biological & digital systems, to enable a greatly enhanced consciousness. I can't say if there will ever be an endpoint to this process, other than perhaps the conversion of our singular experience into the dimension of pure light.
After this glasses interface, though, it seems like the only logical progression would be to have a direct mind-machine interface that connects directly into the structure of the brain. This will truly alter the way humans perceive & experience reality...
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