The Evolution of Surveillance, Part 4: Augments & Amputees

Beta-testing Google Glass was only the beginning. Uninstalling AR dinosaurs taught me no man’s an island…and that we must be far more careful about who gets administrative access to our minds.

About:

This continues my now-ancient essay series on my experience as a Google Glass Explorer and the lens it offered me on the evolution of intelligence and cognitive/sensory arms races going back half a billion years. Before you dive in you may want to read Parts 1, 2, and 3, but this one was written to stand on its own. (The essay linking this series into my larger body of work is The Future Is Indistinguishable from Magic, which I discussed as a guest on Weird Studies Podcast Episode 26 for those curious about my thoughts on the agency of objects and materials and a nondual philosophy of science.)

Inspirations:

Manfred Macx’s exocortex from Charles Stross’ novel Accelerando, Siri Keaton from Peter Watts’ novel Blindsight; The Information Theory of Individuality; Laurence Gonzales’ Surviving Survival, an excruciating and illuminating book about trauma; and William Gibson’s 2010 comment that we have become a coral reef. All of which feel uncomfortably…