EDUC - 8848 Module 3 Blog Post

Rhymes of History – Google Glasses

Six useful forces that drive emerging technologies on a path of change are: evolutionary technologies, rhymes of history, disruptive technologies, science fiction, increasing returns, and Red Queens (Laureate Education, 2009). Kevin Kelly in his video spoke about the Internet as only 5,000 days old, yet it has had a profound impact on the world, bearing elements such as satellite images of the Earth, laptops, wireless devices, making all that seemed impossible, possible (Kelly, 2007).  I actually recalled life without the Internet when I was a child living in Jamaica. The world seemed gigantic and mysterious. Also, information was hard to come by. During those days, it seemed as though only a few people knew how the world works, until the Internet came into being and leveled the playing field where humanity has access to endless information.

Yes indeed the future will be like the past, but with more interesting technological gadgets (Laureate Education, 2009).  A fine example, of this is the use of walkie talkies in the past which were “cool” but not as interesting as smart phones in this era. Smart phones themselves are on an evolutionary path. Thus, an example of the technology which represents a rhyme in history is Google’s glasses. Google’s glasses can be described as hands-free smart phones. See the following video for Google glasses’ features: 

Rhyme of History

            The Google glasses rekindle the 1960s psychedelic and surrealism art movements. Users walk around in a virtual world, going beyond what ordinary humans see. See the following link for more information on Google glasses based on users’ experiences: https://www.google.com/glass/start/explorer-stories/

Kelly pondered on what the next 5,000 days will be like and concluded that there will be embodiment, restructuring and codependency on the Internet. All these elements are reflected in Google glasses. Also, the single global machine that Kelly spoke about can be seen as Siri in the future. He also spoke about different kinds of dimensions which reminds me of the Google glasses and how users seem to enter a new dimension once they put them on. Many of us are already heavily depended on the Internet. I know I am, and being able to carry around your smart phone entirely hands free sounds like a technology that might very well stay with us for a while (until it evolves into something more powerful).  My reliance on the Internet and my smart phone might eventually influence me into purchasing a pair of Google glasses. This is how depended I am on the Internets. I went away on vacation and ended up renting a personal hotspot for the entire time that I was gone.

References

Kelly, K. (2007). Kevin Kelly on the next 5,000 days of the Web [Speech]. Speech delivered at the EG 2007 Conference, Los Angeles. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html

Laureate Education, Inc. (2009). Emerging and future technology: Six forces that drive emerging technologies. Baltimore, MD: Author.