One possile future...

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

.. as seen by the creator of this humorous video.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=t3TAOYXT840

[youtube=425,350]t3TAOYXT840[/youtube]

Or is it humorous, really?

Do we really want our daily walkabout bombarded with web-based input like this?   Imagine trying to drive.... when an emergency message suddenly blocks our view....!

[Roland Deschain]

This would not be the most practical of technology if it were so intrusive. It needs to be seamlessly added, and not appearing as it does in the video. The end part is scary though, where his lifelog is requested by the police, and he has no legal right to deny access. Fascism, much?

[Griffin NoName]

The end part is scary though, where his lifelog is requested by the police, and he has no legal right to deny access.

Actually the DWP and local councils pretty much have these powers already 

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Indeed they do Griff--- here in Oklahomer, the most Socialist of states, we have this lovely "implied consent" law on the books-- a law which denies your right to unlawful search & seizure... seriously.

Any officer who's jurisdiction includes motorized vehicles automatically has the right to stop for any reason (or no reason) and demand to be allowed to paw through the contents of said motorized vehicle....

...!!!

A whole new meaning to the "Kicking in your door" phrase from Pink Floyd's  The Wall

[Opsa]

I saw a news item on these Google glasses, and all I could think was: Isn't it enough that we carry little computers around with us everywhere without putting them on our faces?

I mean seriously, it makes me think of those face-huggers from the movie Alien. Or maybe the thought-smashers from the Kurt Vonnegut story Welcome to the Monkey House.

I love my computer, but it's also nice to give it a rest from time to time.

[Roland Deschain]

Any law is capable of being subverted, most of all ones like these. Look at what's been done with the Patriot Act, and the Bush administration categorically promised it would only be used for its original purpose (as if it wasn't just for terrorists...).

The issue is that when people abuse laws, especially if they're law enforcement, they think they're doing the right thing to detect criminals, when in fact they are not. Yes, they can catch criminals this way, and they do, but i'd rather criminals go free than have my right to privacy invaded. The police must have reasonable cause at the minimum before they should be allowed to search you, and any search they conduct of your property must be authorised by a judge or magistrate by way of search warrant. The only exception to the last should be your vehicle, but only if you are in it, and only if there is reasonable cause.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Y'all:  you do realize I was being extremely sarcastic when I called Oklahomer "socialized", right?   

Opsa:  I'm with you 100%, here-- I like my computers as gadgets I can put away, shut off or otherwise dismiss.    Having them built-in to glasses is not my idea of a nice walk.

Now, I could see these infernal things in an Art Museum or a Natural History Emporium-- it'd be cool if they were locale-sensitive, and offered up Interesting Facts about what I was looking at...

... and another use for these:   when watching Politicians on TV?   It'd be really cool to see running statistics of how many times this politician has lied, or failed to keep his campaign promise scrolling across the bottom, every time he spoke... !!!   

In fact?  If I could, I would make that a law-- any time a politician was speaking in public, there was a streamer along the bottom outlining his public voting record, and contrasting it with his public speaking-- and I'd also include any and all arrest and convictions too.   The Public Has A Right To Know... right?

[pieces o nine]

^ Fair *and* Balanced, yeah?     

[Griffin NoName]

... and another use for these:   when watching Politicians on TV?   It'd be really cool to see running statistics of how many times this politician has lied, or failed to keep his campaign promise scrolling across the bottom, every time he spoke... !!!   

In fact?  If I could, I would make that a law-- any time a politician was speaking in public, there was a streamer along the bottom outlining his public voting record, and contrasting it with his public speaking-- and I'd also include any and all arrest and convictions too.   The Public Has A Right To Know... right?

I'd like a large white cloud to appear over the potlician's head on TV with LIAR written inside it, every time they lie.

[Aggie]

In fact?  If I could, I would make that a law-- any time a politician was speaking in public, there was a streamer along the bottom outlining his public voting record, and contrasting it with his public speaking-- and I'd also include any and all arrest and convictions too.   The Public Has A Right To Know... right?

Hey, to go back in time and technology, why not put out trading cards with stats, like for sports figures?   An online version wouldn't be difficult.

[Swatopluk]

Unfortunately the process would be captured in no time. Soon statements from some politicians that are 98% true would be labelled 'pants on fire' while their opponent's statements that are 98% false would receive a 'mostly true'. Voting records on Omnibus bills would be presented as votes for just certain parts of those ('he voted to raise taxes 27 times' vs. 'he voted for any pro-life amendement that ever was'). And should the arbiter come too close to neutral there would be a firestorm of 'L-word bias'.
Half the public will believe that they are all lying bastards while the other half believes that those on the other side of the aisle are (well, that is what we have now).

[Sibling DavidH]

Just assume as a minimum that all politicians are lying whenever their lips move.

[Swatopluk]

That's what they want you to think

Seriously, it has become an actual theory that the GOP strategists deliberately try to create the image of politics as a dirty business where everyone lies their heads off (of course with the exception of the one candidate running for office where You are). They cannot hide their own bastardiness* from enough people any longer to win in a fair contest. Except for the willfully blind they are seen as what they are. Their only hope is to make their opponents to looks as bad and to create disgust of the political process in general. Many citizens are fed up with the-lesser-of-two-evils and don't bother to vote at all. That plays right into the hands of the bigger crooks because they can rely on the deluded 'base' to consistently vote for them. If enough people stay at home disgusted, they win by default. And the vote of those that smell the rot can be suppressed. Of course it helps that there are lots of crooks on the Dem side too, so painting All of them with the same brush has a certain ring of truth(iness).
It's a bad sign when one has to look with a magnifying glass for any non-negative ads.

*my apology to all bastards in the biological sense. There is nothing inherently wrong about you

[Roland Deschain]

Hey, to go back in time and technology, why not put out trading cards with stats, like for sports figures?   An online version wouldn't be difficult.

I'd buy that for a dollar. There are so many trading card games out there, all based on either fantasy characters or things like cars, that one based on current politicians would be quite the thing. I can imagine the playgrounds in schools, hundreds of children wanting to swap their excess Dick Cheney cards, as they always lose when it comes to their opponent comparing honesty and lack of corruption.

This is the issue with politics and political parties. As with unregulated (or at least unfettered) commerce, in the end you get a very small number of large companies pretty much running the whole market, and you end up with monopolies or oligopolies running the show. This gives you no choice at all, as with the illusion of only really having two candidates to choose from in elections. If people would unlearn what they have learned (eg - What's the point in voting for X candidate, as they'll never win), then politics would be a very changed field. Didn't the US founding fathers say something on political parties being bad? They're not just bad; they kill the democratic process.

[Opsa]

We're off the topic of Googlespecs here, but I agree with Roland. The party system in the US (if not other places) has to end. It has totally crippled us. The people have no voice and the politicians make no progress.