In just about every James Bond and Batman film , there is a segment where Q ( or Morgan Freeman ) introduces us to a few unexampled gadgets . At first , the hero looks over the objects quizzically , but then the handler demonstrate how to use them , unlock their mystery story and inviting both the hero and the consultation to imagine how the tool might become built-in to the account about to unfold .
Google Just Made You Batman
If you ’re a tech junkie like me , you might have noticed that Google is attempt to become our own personal Q in its exploit to promoteGlass , the futuristic / super - nerdy look eyewear that deliver a exploiter with a head up display and an always - on tv camera .
Just like Q , they first show us the strange - looking equipment ( picture show of impossibly soundly - looking hoi polloi wear out the hideously unfashionable glasses ) , then they establish a few basic uses ( waiting line the demonstration telecasting with gamey music below ) , and lastly — and most significantly – they make a social media campaigninviting people to usethe hashtag # IfIHadGlassand think how Google Glass might become integral in the story of their life .
The Importance of Imagination for New Technology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1uyQZNg2vE
Google recognize that the success of Glass has very lilliputian to do with how many features it has , and everything to do with embedding the product in our collective resourcefulness . They know that if you want to get the entire world to grease one’s palms something that no one is asking for , you ca n’t begin with spec , you have to start with taradiddle .
Before mass grease one’s palms things , they have to “ see themselves ” with the ware . For example , if you try on a new Cardigan Welsh corgi and you look ridiculous , you probably wo n’t buy it . But if the mirror ruminate a more awing you , then you ’ll probably bestow it home . With engineering , we too need to “ see ourselves ” using the machine , and the image we create in our intellect needs to show us overcoming some obstruction that would be difficult without the gadget . Without that fib in position , we ’ll never feel oblige to buy .
Creating an Alternate Ending
In his great fresh bookTell Me a Story , Scott McClellanwrites , “ A story is progress , action mechanism toward an outcome . Characters without a pursuit do not make for a [ good ] story . ”
The job for Google is that when we first look at Glass , we ’re not quite indisputable what the “ consequence ” is or how Glass gets us there . My life story seems fine , we say , why would I require to look like a cheesy persona from Argo ?
Google is saying , “ Yes , yes . involve that question . Ask it again and again and again , until you find the answer . Once you do , you ’ll have it away it . ”
If we attempt to ideate what it will be like to utilise Google Glass , and we ca n’t add up up with anything , Google looses big time . But if they can sweet-talk us to keep imagining and keep endeavor to tell and discover well # IfIHadGlass stories , then one Clarence Day the once strange intersection will become a normal , unchallenged part of our larger cultural myth and we ’ll consider it as necessary as a microwave oven or mobile phone .
Reclaiming the Narrative
There is nothing particularly perturbing about all this . But as always there is a risk lying around the corner , and that when we pass a plenty of sentence focusing on what the Cartesian product can do for us , we sometimes allow the mathematical product to take over the story we were in the beginning trying to say . Instead of using Glass toward some large pursuit , the skill and utilization of Glass becomes the issue .
We ’ve probably all grab ourselves doing this on occasional . For example , we all corrupt cameraphones to commemorate those heavy moment in living , but then we found out that sometimes the goal of “ capturing the consequence ” gets in the way of the bit itself . Or imagine a pastor who need to tell multitude about the surpassing beauty of Jesus , but then becomes enamored with bigger and bigger screen door and more and more downloads .
The goal of this post is not , of course , to sock on cameraphones , podcasts , or Glass , but to give us the opportunity to rethink on the place of technology in our life and in the stories we are trying to state with our life sentence .
What is the true consequence toward which we are striving ? Do our tool help us master conflict to get to that goal , or somewhere along the way did acquiring new toy become a primary pastime ?
John Dyer ( http://j.hn/ ) is a vane developer and technology author in Dallas , TX . He is the author ofFrom the Garden to the urban center : The Redeeming and Corrupting Power of Technologyand presently service as the Executive Director of Communications andOnline Seminary Educationat Dallas Theological Seminary .
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