So I was on YouTube, for a class this time, when I saw this video Microsoft put out a in 2011. It was one of those future-vision videos and what I saw made me downright giddy. We're talking little-kid-on-christmas-morning giddy, which is a rather hysterical image in and of itself.
With this video, I had finally found something I hadn't even known I was looking for: the concept of a society where modern technology is so far integrated that it becomes an afterthought and falls back to second place.
Technology has come to every inch of our lives. We live in a society where refrigerators can come with tablets embedded into them and where I can play scrabble with my friend in Dietikon, Switzerland. For all the technology that is here already though, I have found myself incapable of becoming simply 'used to it' in such a way that smart phones don't seem obtrusive, ugly, and equal parts annoying and useful.
I have known that technology would integrate further and further in our lives -- it's simply a fact of life that we, as a species, show no signs of stopping nor of even wanting to. I have always been worried, though, that it would keep being obtrusive.
I am used to technology, but not in the same way that I am used to my eggs in the morning. Despite eating eggs with breakfast regularly for only a short amount of time, it has become an expected thing, one of regularity and comfort. When I wake up and start my breakfast, I think nothing of it.
While I am used to technology, my mind has to swap gears when I see a smart phone or a tablet (and moreso when I have to use one). While the usage of them is natural enough to me through much repetition, these things still feel out of place to me. They seem to stick out in my vision, glaring putrid daggers at me. The technology now is far from subtle, and I feel like it changes what we do in our tasks, rather than augments.
I do not think I am capable enough to formulate the words I want to say, and I regret it greatly.
When I watched that video I felt a dichotomy growing in my mind. The amount of technology shown in the video is staggering, and the personas in the video rely on it very heavily. I would go so far as to say that there is more technology shown in the kitchen than there is in my entire apartment.
There was such a massive amount of technology being relied on that it was staggering. I was blown away, but not in disbelief. No, I was blown away by the other side of the dichotomy formed in my mind.
For all their technology, there was so much more human interaction than I am used to seeing, that I felt overjoyed. Someone had found the answer, I had realized: they found out what a world would look like if our technology went back to augmenting, not dictating nor distracting, our lives.
The technology shown in that video was powerful, far more powerful than what we have today, and yet it simply augmented the woman's experience and became an after thought.
I was stricken when it translated dialogues for her and immediately bridged a communication gap that would normally required years of training to waltz across. It augmented her experience, not took precedent over it.
The man in the subway on his device? It was a seamless interface that truly reminded me more of a written notebook and traveler's guide than a smart phone.
This was it, I had realized. This was the type of technology that we rely on in the way we rely on hammers and our keys, not on smart phones. It was an assumed level of technology, not a big deal, unobtrusive, seamless integration that showed no sign of hindering social experiences or the day to day activities of the users.
I am not often touched by such things, but I find myself sitting here, tearing up slightly at this vision of the future. This is the vision, I realize, that I want most of all to happen: more powerful tools that augment, not overtake, our lives.
The YouTube commenters trash this video. While I can understand their concerns, I disagree with them.
Simply put, I have never seen a video more beautiful than this. This is the path I pray we humans will tread.
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