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Comment by dizzystar | Hacker News Reader

I really want to like the concept of Glass, but I can't shake the idea that it is pointing in the wrong direction. First Utopia and now Utopian Porn. There are so many things that are revolutionary that we can talk about that Glass will allow.

Imagine: There is an emergency operation. Patient is laying at the table and the surgeon could really use a specialist's help pronto. What better views can we imagine than the actual eyes of the surgeon? (Saving Lives)

There is so much more, but as teaching aid, crime witness aid for police, and so many other non-big-brother things could be done with it that pushes our world into a much better place.

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I find your examples "crime witness aid for police" and then "other non-big-brother things" a bit chilling.

I wouldn't consider a private recording a "Big Brother" thing. It's when recording is mandated and that you have no choice in sharing it, that it becomes "Big Brother"-ish.

Personally, I could see a passive recording feature (say, the last five minutes) as useful in this way. But then we're talking battery life, and I haven't read enough to know about such things for Google Glass.

"crime witness aid for police" would probably be beneficial by itself, if it is possible to limit the privacy and surveillance concerns. So essentially the situation, where a witness starts to film a crime and then gives this video to the police. Or the police could be required to document everything they do (by taking a full video of each shift).

On the other hand, the surveillance potential is of course scary. And once Google glass is out, I really do not know how to limit the impact.

> Or the police could be required to document everything they do (by taking a full video of each shift).

These tools already exist, and do great - except when they don't. Strangely, they tend to "not work" exactly when the officer is suspected/accused of overstepping the bounds of their authority or the law.

The classic example is the 18 minute silence on the Nixon tapes [1].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_White_House_tapes

Or how about an app that pays you a monthly fee in exchange for law enforcement being able to "borrow your eyes" whenever they want.

> Imagine: There is an emergency operation. Patient is laying at the table and the surgeon could really use a specialist's help pronto. What better views can we imagine than the actual eyes of the surgeon? (Saving Lives)

BMW introduced a kind of similar concept years ago http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=P... it's actually an augumented instruction set, but I guess it could as well be used for human consultation when needed.

The thing is, I feel like hospitals are hesitant to embrace new technology that isn't proven. Glass definitely fits that category. Like 16s said above, it's the First App Generation. This will get it in the hands of users. And from there, I think we will begin to see the really good, game changing uses.

Besides, like the article says, it always seems to be that the porn industry is one of the first to innovate. And that's because it's such a crowded space. Here's an interesting article about it http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/04/23/porn.technology/index...

I call this the "Fart App Generation Phenomenon".

They take technology and use it to satisfy immature juvenile urges and then say, oh, wow, this is so cool. Give them an iphone and they'll write an app showing boobs that jiggle when you shake the iphone.

They waste technology and the power it takes to run it, and they just don't get it. There's a place for that sort of content and those types of apps (bachelor parties, etc), but it's far too prominent today. I hope that changes soon.

Why not both?

Because absolutely everything has to be framed as a dichotomy these days. Drama and conflict are, apparently, the only way to hold the reader's interest.

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