Walking down a busy street in Manhatt…DUCK! A pterodactyl is coming straight towards you. Regain composure in just the knick of time to jump over the stream of molten lava. Wait…is it the end of the world or something? Are you on drugs? No, but you sure do look like a crackhead wearing those ridiculous glasses.
I wish I was talking about the end of the world or drugs or something else cool like that, but instead I’m referring to a new technology that’s been getting a lot of attention lately. Google recently announced they will be releasing virtual reality eyeglasses within the year. But despite the buzz, Google actually hasn’t unveiled too much about the product. Good. And I hope it stays that way for a while. Honestly, I think the last thing we need is another gadget weighing down our technological tool belt.
Good news for all you aspiring optometrists out there: I realized I spend probably about 90% of my day looking at a screen of sorts. At work? Staring at laptop. In class? Staring at laptop and projector. Doing homework? Glued to laptop, phone, and television. I’m not proud of this, but it’s the medium of my generation. And with the integration of virtual reality glasses, there goes the last 10% of the time I spend actually looking at the world.
I’m not denying that the technology would be useful, educational, and even fun. Running into someone you’ve met before but his or her name has slipped your mind. No problem, it’s floating above their head. Walking down the street and you see a historical monument. At the blink of an eye (well probably before that) a full explanation the piece is scribed in the sky above it.
But just because we can doesn’t mean we should. If you haven’t noticed, new technology doesn’t make our lives simpler, or even better. Sure it makes many tasks easier, but the time saved usually isn’t spent relaxing, but rather filled with more tasks. According to my social psychology teacher, we are “primordial beings living in an advanced technological world.” Remember that episodes when the Flintstones met the Jetsons? Kinda like that.
According to my teacher, we peaked during the time of Roman Empire. We were in our physical prime, walking miles a day and eating the basics: protein, fruits, vegetables. Now, we suffer from a national obesity epidemic and are lucky if we walk to the water cooler twice within the hour. Humans haven’t evolved much for thousands of years, but our technology has.
Is my teacher right? Should we look to the past for solutions for the present? I think so, because the remedy to many of our self-inflicted problems is simplification. Take a look at this video that shows the future of the virtual-and-augmented-reality technology discussed above. The video focuses on empathy. Pay close attention to 6:45, when the character is given a lesson on empathy and nature after putting a cigarette out on a tree:
“Empathy is not only projecting ourselves on our fellows but also on the world around us. One should never forget that we are all stardust we are one with the matter of the universe”
Best advice I’ve gotten in a while from talking glasses. But why does it take a billion dollar technology and a seven+ minute creepy video to tell us the same thing we could have learned by reading (gasp!) some Thoreau or get this—even venturing out into nature ourselves! (Gasp again, but this time for breathing in fresh air for the first time in years).
But what advice is it that we should borrow from the past? Simplify. Be a minimalist. Get rid of everything you don’t need. Join the Simplicity Movement.
Think of times people associated with happiness. Childhood. College. Vacations. Traveling abroad. What do all of these have in common? Not a lot of stuff. People following the Simplicity Movement have traded in their McMansions, cars, technology, and luxurious material items for flats and studio apartments containing only the bare necessities. According to them, the less stuff you own, the less stuff that owns you. And they claim to never been happier.
Okay so I’m probably not going to run home and throw my iPhone in the garbage disposal or burn my wardrobe, but I don’t plan on adding to my technological armoire any time soon. If you see me ducking a pterodactyl or jumping over a stream of lava anytime soon, hopefully its because I’m starring in Jurassic Park V, and not lost in a virtual world.
