becoming

This demo — from Pattie Maes’ lab at MIT, spearheaded by Pranav Mistry — was the buzz of TED. It’s a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment. Imagine “Minority Report” and then some.

Like it or not, I think this is going to happen soon. I won’t call it “Six Sense” though, since it still uses our 5 common senses to operate at its best.

Undoubtedly, in order for this to work, everything and everyone will be tagged. In terms of human relationships, this could create a huge problem — Relationships no longer need to be slowly evolved through interactions and shared experiences. Why should I trust that those tags correctly described the person in front of me when I barely know him first hand? Where are the spirit of exploration, the grace, the risk, and the inter-dependency required? Imagine how many otherwise potential relationships will be ditched when the meta-data displayed might not be something you are looking for at first glance…

As a consumer, this will prove to be an indispensible tool. One can always get the best price and best product at any place and at any time with this. Price-wise, the technology will surely benefit the mega-stores online where everything is sold much cheaper. Shopping in a physical building (e.g. buying books) will become unnecessary unless what you are purchasing is some kind of service (e.g. hair cut). And ironically, the price-comparison function of this tool will also become obsolete at the end, when there is no other shop to compare with.

Ultimately, what I want to ask is: If Sixth Sense can give us even more information about virtually anything at our finger tips (literally), don’t we have an all-the-more urgent need for a way to process them, to discern them?

Just what kind of advancement do we have in that area?

[link: TED]