Steve Mann sure does seem a weirdo. his recent piece on the IEEE Spectrum site is part backstory (Mann has been "designing, building, and wearing some form of [enhanced vision hardware] for more than 35 years"), part takedown of Google Glass, and partly a discussion of the implication of the approaching onslaught of what Mann calls "augmented reality" hardware.

i'll spare the technical details - and shortcomings - of Google Glass to Mann, but he does touch on privacy concerns in a way that resonated with me strongly:

But there’s a darker side: Instead of acting as a counterweight to Big Brother, could this technology just turn us into so many Little Brothers, as some commentators have suggested?...

I believe that like it or not, video cameras will soon be everywhere: You already find them in many television sets, automatic faucets, smoke alarms, and energy-saving lightbulbs. No doubt, authorities will have access to the recordings they make, expanding an already large surveillance capability. To my mind, surveillance videos stand to be abused less if ordinary people routinely wear their own video-gathering equipment, so they can watch the watchers with a form of inverse surveillance.

Of course, I could be wrong. I can see a lot of subtle things with my computerized eyewear, but the future remains too murky for me to make out.

i like this attitude. and weirdo or not, i'm glad that people like Steve Mann are out there, keepin' shit real.