“Mark Twain” on Wearables

While writing the post about Aaron Rudger’s wearables presentation, I summarized it for a friend, in an instant messaging encounter. That was enough to provoke my friend into a riff on the dark side. I’ve adapted it here.

Since my friend works in telecommunications, and some of his opinions could be interpreted as expressing less than total enthusiasm for any business venture his employer might conceivably undertake, we’ll call him “Mark Twain.”

[4/20/2015 10:25:53 AM] Mark Twain: I guess that’s why I have come to hate the “mediated experience” Neal Stephenson writes about in In the Beginning was the Command Line.

Didn't Know He Was a Lefty

[4/20/2015 10:27:45 AM] Mark Twain: Most of that experience is advertising of one form or another. Or surrounded by it. Looking for a word here…suspended in it?

[4/20/2015 10:29:14 AM] Mark Twain: Like a decent movie is suspended in a bath of advertising, like the nutrient bath (or whatever it is) Neo wakes up to find himself immersed in, in the Matrix….

[4/20/2015 10:30:23 AM] Mark Twain: OK, back to making the world more capable of delivering it to all of us on more devices in real time….

[4/20/2015 10:32:16 AM] Mark Twain: But we could start dreaming up a good horror movie (too bad I don’t like those either) about what happens to the nascent amoral machine intelligence of the cloud once we’re all covered in “wearables” and all our appliances talk to each other on the web….

[4/20/2015 10:32:58 AM] Mark Twain: Think of the havoc that might be wrought by connected chainsaws and lawnmowers. I already know guys in Denmark working on the lawnmowers….

I was picturing Dalí-esque gelled (jelloed?) smartwatches devouring debutante wrists like pythons….

[5/9/2015 10:01:18 AM] Mark Twain: Now that would be interesting to test.

I agree! But I wouldn’t undertake such a project without competent legal advice.