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MODERN TECHNOLOGY CONTINUES
(Print it) Make that data iner, the 21st
century counterpart. While Levi's is using the ICD+ line to target
millennial workers-road warriors of one sort of another-other companies
are going directly for the mainstream with fashionable wearable
technology. Nike is integrating MP3 players into its sportswear, and
Sallsonite launched their Black label Travel Wear line, rigged with
simple devices like reading lamps and alarm clocks. Even IBM, the
quintessential example of corporate geek doll, is dabbling in computer
couture these days. While one division of Big Blue is collaborating
with Xybernaut on the next generation of wearable computing for
commercial applications, IBM's future-forward Almaden Research Center,
in the heart of Silicon Valley, is developing a line of digital jewelry
created by Denise Chan, a recent graduate of Stanford's School of
Engineering, who hooked up with the company at a job fair. As legend
has it, the idea was sparked by an out-of-character comment from
Almaden Director Robert Morris, who muttered that he' d
be willing to pierce his ears if it negated the need to wear a headset
for mobile communication. The result? Demo devices like earrings with
tiny onboard speakers and a ring with a built-in Track Point, the
nipple-like cursor controller found on IBM ThinkPads. Further along are
the elegant offerings of Charmed Technology, a Los Angeles
firm that spun out of the MIT Media Lab to commercialize
wearable-computing couture. Indeed, the CTO of the company is Thad
Starner, who, along with fellow Media Lab alum Mann, the first cyborg I
closely encountered, are arguably the preeminent envelope
pushers in wearable computing. Currently, the company is best known for
its successful series of Brave New Unwired World fashion shows which
merge spacey runway fashion with wearable technology from numerous
developers, including Xybernaut, Motorola and others. Their first two
signature products, due out this month (2000), include the Charmed
Communicator, a PC in a belt buckle with a display inside sunglasses;
and the Charmed Badge, which automatically transmits its wearer's
electronic business card to other users via infrared. Katrina Barillova
{who formerly worked in the security surveillance industry) is the
27-Year-old Czechoslovakia
born chief operating officer of Charmed. People are afraid to look like
cyborgs, she has said. Our goal is to make technology fashionable and
to incorporate these items into everyday lifestyles. While Charmed,
along with Levi's, IBM and other comies, is racing toward making
aesthetic improvements of today's wearable computing, the social impact
of the technology's far-future applications remain largely unresolved.
And the annoying symphony of cell-phone rings is just the first cue
encouraging us to consider how wearable technology can become as banal
as it is empowering. Extrapolate a scenario from this example: the
impressively inexpensive yet conceptually advanced key-ring computer,
the Japanese Lovegety. Users enter into the Tamagotchi-like device
whether they're in the mood for love, chat, .'drink or
movie and the Lovegety beeps whenever they're within 30 feet of another
Lovegety carrying individual with whom they're compatible. Now expand
the Lovegety's preference possibilities (foreign films, loves kids,
etc.) along with its range, so it can cover entire neighborhoods or
even towns. At its worst, it turns every city into a
giant singles bar, Donath says. A next-generation Lovegety could bring
the Buddy Lists of virtual chatrooms into the physical realm, providing
a pleasant surprise by alerting you that your best friend happens to be
the next cafe over, or tracking your child if she's lost. The key for
designers is to incorporate a host of custom-control features into the
product, enabling you to block what information you'd like to broadcast
and to pick and choose who receives it. Wearable computers are not
handcuffs, Pratt says. No one forces you to wear them.
True, but
even if you're not wearing one they still can make you feel like a
prisoner of the datasphere. Take the research of ph.D. candidate
Bradley Rhodes at the MIT Media Lab. Rhodes has designed a system he
calls a Remembrance Agent, a program that continuously watches over the
shoulder of the wearer of a wearable computer and displays one-line
summaries of notes, files, old e-mail, papers and other text
information that might be helpful to the user at any given moment. The
benefits of having a Remembrance Agent in your peripheral vision are
enormous. Picture wandering around a museum and having background on
each artifact you see automatically pop into view. Or the notes from a ,
talk someone gave that you saw several years ago displayed in your
peripheral vision the instant you shake that person's hand in real
life. Now imagine meeting a person wearing a Remembrance Agent system
at a dinner party. As soon as your name is entered into his wearable
computer, either transmitted by the likes of a Charmed Badge, or
entered manually, a full web search of you begins. The problem
(actually, not a problem), is that a person is much more than their
home page, resume or list of favorite films. The physical world around
us has lots of information in it that we are subconsciously picking up,
Donath says. When we add a whole new data-stream, we really need to
think about how we control it, especially when you could be paying
attention to it later. Otherwise, you may lose a lot of subtle,
hard-to-articulate information if you're looking at a person's Web site
instead of into their eyes. Turning off the Remembrance Agent may be
akin to dispensing with a built-in bullshit detector. But you can
always do your Web search after the party ends, instead of missing out
on the very things that make us yearn for real-world interaction to
begin with. I'm curious to what extent people are going to adapt to
these new devices as opposed to the devices' adapting to , our existing
mores. Donath adds. And, lest we forget, there's always the off
switch. [Who will control that is the Anti-Christ and his forces, be careful
you're not deceived. The mere fact you have a cell phone suggests that you have already begun in the deception.] All
three aspects of technology are working together, complimentary to each
other or even vital to the other. The purpose is to deceive and ensnare
the soul. We will later find out that the UFO phenomenon is a ploy by satan
and his angels. I said that because I want to make a quote by Jaques
Valle about Modern technology, he is the most renowned astro-physicist.
He said, "I believe there is a machinery of mass manipulation behind
the UFO phenomenon...they are helping create a new belief system...they
are designed to help change belief systems, and that the technology we observe is only the incidental support for a world-wide enterprise of subliminal seduction." Or, in essence, deception. My suggestion is that
"having food and raiment let us be therewith content" (1 Tim 6:8). Because gain is not godliness but
"But godliness with contentment is great gain"
(1 Tim 6:6). Another thing, this is a great distraction from God and
the techno fad chasers are ensnaring their own souls and others
unawares. Remember, most things around us that are demonology will
never look that way, that's why the bible keeps telling us that the
devil "deceive the nations...,“ that is, masked the evil with convenience and benefits.
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