{"id":8070,"date":"2013-05-28T07:05:30","date_gmt":"2013-05-28T14:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/?p=8070"},"modified":"2017-06-04T20:30:02","modified_gmt":"2017-06-05T03:30:02","slug":"4-ways-google-glass-makes-us-transhuman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/4-ways-google-glass-makes-us-transhuman","title":{"rendered":"4 ways Google Glass makes us Transhuman"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Transhumanism is all about the creative and ethical use of technology to better the human condition. Futurists, when discussing topics related to transhumanism, tend to look at nano-tech, bio-mechanical augmentation and related technology that, for the most part, is beyond the comprehension of lay-people.<\/p>\n

If Transhumanism as a movement is to succeed, we have to explain it\u2019s goals and benefits to humanity by addressing the common-man. After all, transhumanism is not the exclusive domain, nor restricted to the literati, academia or the rich. The more the common man realizes that (s)he is indeed already transhuman in a way \u2014 the lesser the taboo associated with the movement and the faster the law of accelerating returns<\/a> will kick in, leading to eventual Tech Singularity.<\/p>\n

Augmented Reality Visors: Enabling Transhumanism.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the moment, Google Glass is not exactly within reach of the common man, even if he want\u2019s to pay for it. It is \u201cinvite only\u201d, which may be counter productive to furthering the Transhumanism cause. Now, to be fair, it may be because the device is still in beta testing, and once any bugs have been ironed out, the general public will benefit from both, a price drop and accessibility, because if Google does not do it, China will<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Google Glass: A Transhumanist\u2019s Swiss Knife<\/strong><\/p>\n

Glass is the very definition of an augmented human, at least until the time hi-tech replaceable eye-balls, or non-obtrusive human augmentation technology becomes common-place. Glass is a good attempt at a wearable computing device that is practical. While it does lend a cyborg look to it\u2019s wearer, future iterations will no doubt, bring the \u201cMatrix\u201d look back into vogue.<\/p>\n

\"vuzix_augmented_transhumanism\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Above: Companies such as Vuzix, already have advanced AR capable visors that are aesthetically pleasing to look at and wear. So how is Google Glass (and similar AR visors) the Swiss Army Knife of Transhumanists?<\/p>\n

Augmented Human Memory:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wearing glass, allows a Transhuman to offload his\/her memory to glass storage. Everyday examples follow\u2026<\/p>\n

- Park your car in a multi-story parking lot, step back a few steps and blink your eyes once. Instant photographic memory of the location via Glass\u2019s wink activated snapshot feature<\/a>.<\/p>\n

- Visited a place once and don\u2019t remember? Call on your \u201cexpanded\u201d memory to playback a video recording of the path taken, or display a GPS powered visual overlay in your field of view.<\/p>\n

Previously, this was done via a cellphone. In both cases, one is already Transhuman. This is what the common man needs to be made aware of and there will be less of a stigma attached to: The World\u2019s most dangerous idea.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Life Saver \u2014 \u201cGlass Angel\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every one is said to have a \u201cGuardian Angel\u201d watching over them, yet an app named \u201cGlass Angel\u201d would be an apt name for a collection of potentially life saving modules that could run on Google Glass.<\/p>\n

- CPR Assist: How many people can honestly say they know CPR? or even the Heimlich maneuver? Crucial moments can be saved when access to such knowledge is available\u2026 while freeing up our hands to assist the person in distress. In future iterations of Google glass (glass v2.0?) if true augmented reality capability is provided, a CGI human skeleton can be overlaid on the live patient, giving visual cues to further assist in such kinds of situations.<\/p>\n

- Driver Safety: There are some states in the US looking at banning the use of Google Glass while driving. Yet, it is interesting to note that Glass could be that Guardian Angel watching over a driver who might nod off at the wheel after a long day at work. (DUI is not an excuse however to use Glass). The various sensors can monitor for tilt of head and sound an alarm, or even recognize unusual behavior of the wearer by analyzing and tracking the live video feed coming in through the camera\u2026sounding an alarm to warn the wearer.<\/p>\n

Augmented Intelligence \u2014 or \u2014 Amplified Intelligence:<\/strong><\/p>\n

How many times a day do we rely on auto-spell or Google\u2019s auto correct to pop up and say \u201cDid you mean\u201d to warn us of spelling errors or even context errors? How many times have we blindly trusted Google to go ahead and auto-correct for us? While it can be argued that dependence on technology is actually dulling our brains, it is an un-arguable fact that over the coming years, grammar, multi-lingual communication, and more advanced forms of intelligence augmentation will make technology such as Google Glass and it\u2019s successors, indispensable.<\/p>\n

Possibly, the Singularity is not all that far away\u2026 If the Singularity is the point when Technology overtakes human intelligence\u2026 I see it as the point when human intelligence regresses to meet technology, mid-way.<\/p>\n

On a more serious note: Should we be alarmed at our increasing dependence on Augmented Intelligence? or should we think of it as simply a storage and retrieval system.<\/p>\n

If a lecturer on-stage, addressing a gathering of intellectuals, uses his eyeballs to scroll up a list of synonyms in real time on his Google glass display, to use a more succinct word or phrase when making a point, does that make him sound more intelligent?\u2026 how about if he punctuates the point by calling up the german translation of the phrase?<\/p>\n

These are questions that I leave open to you\u2026<\/p>\n

\"whats_on_your_mind_digital_breadcrumbs_resurrection\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Digital Bread Crumbs- Quantum Archeology and Immortality.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every time we share a photo, a thought\u2026 an emotion as a status update: we are converting a biological function into a digital one. We are digitizing our analog stream-of-consciousness.<\/p>\n

These Digital Breadcrumbs that we leave behind, will be mined by \u201cdeep learning\u201d algorithms, feeding necessary data that will drive Quantum Archeology processes\u2026 that may one day soon, resurrect us \u2014 Digital Resurrection. This might sound like a Transhumanist\u2019s Hansel and Gretel fairy-tale\u2026 but not for long.<\/p>\n

How does Google Glass fit in? It\u2019s the device that will accelerate the creation of Digital Bread-crumbs. I\u2019d saved this most radical idea for last: Digital Resurrection.<\/p>\n

Glass is already generating these BreadCrumbs \u2014 transhumanizing the first round of beta testers wearing the device.<\/p>\n

The next version of Google Glass, if it features true see-through Augmented Reality support, or indeed a visor from a Google competitor, will allow us to see and interact with these Digital Surrogates of immortal beings. It\u2019s described with plausible hard science to back it up, in Chapter 6 of Memories with Maya<\/a> \u2014 The Dirrogate.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to end this essay by opening it up to wiki like input from you. What ideas can you come up with to make Google Glass a swiss army knife for Transhumanists?<\/p>\n

(This article was originally posted on the Science behind the story section on Dirrogate.com<\/a><\/a><\/em>) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Transhumanism is all about the creative and ethical use of technology to better the human condition. Futurists, when discussing topics related to transhumanism, tend to look at nano-tech, bio-mechanical augmentation and related technology that, for the most part, is beyond the comprehension of lay-people. If Transhumanism as a movement is to succeed, we have to [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[385,20,42,225,6,64],"tags":[99,1367,1368,1373,318,2145,2149,222,251],"class_list":["post-8070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evolution","category-futurism","category-media-arts","category-philosophy","category-robotics-ai","category-singularity","tag-ai","tag-clyde-desouza","tag-dirrogate","tag-google-glass","tag-life-extension-tag","tag-media-arts","tag-singularity","tag-technology","tag-transhumanism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8070"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70133,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8070\/revisions\/70133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}