Invisible Technology
This also answers the second question posed to me as to whether I am speaking out against technology. As was said, going against the flow of Moore’s law, etc…
My intention in quoting from Astro Teller, head of Google X, was an attempt to answer this concern. Since it wasn’t clear, let’s quote Astro’s statement once again:
“When technology reaches that level of invisibility in our lives, that’s our ultimate goal. It vanishes into our lives. It says: ‘you don’t have to do the work, I’ll do the work.’”
According to an “open your eyes” Redemptive understanding of technology, the goal of technology is that human ability should surpass robot ability. This is what we call the singularity of human potential. Instead of a time when a race of sentient robots will roam the Earth, we prefer to focus on the time when humans will live according to their fullest potentials.
Conceptually, the desire to make technology invisible is the expression of a deep-seated hope that indeed, this should be so. That we should each be able to witness a “Human Plus” experience without the need for implanted nanochips, exoskeletons, and other cyborg components.
Seeing Wonder
When news of Google Glass first came out, I wrote an article entitled, “Google’s Project Glass: Seeing Wonder with the Eyes.” At the end of the article, I included the story of a blind boy who found a pair of glasses belonging to an unknown tzadik. When he put them on he was able to see, when he took them off, he returned to his previous state.
Soon after posting the article, a person who has devoted himself to promoting artificial vision research and technology, messaged to thank me for the article, and the “wonderful glasses” depicted in it.
This was a most surprising result, especially since I was not offering any actual technology enhancement to Google Glass. What I did have in mind was the “open your eyes” concept above. That each of us should train ourselves to see the wondrous and miraculous in reality.
Back then, this gave me hope for the approach taken in these articles. That while I am not an engineer, technician, or computer programmer, even those in real and present need of what these technologies have to offer, appreciate knowing the spiritual side of these physical devices. But now two years later, these convictions were being tested once more.
Immersing in Reality
The article about Oculus Rift and other VR devices was not against technology. Rather it was pro-immersing fully in reality (even to the extent of traveling through time and space) without the need for technology as a crux.
In the story of the blind boy, while it would have better if he could see from the beginning without needing the glasses of a tzadik, we well understand the important function of those glasses. Never for a moment would we tell the boy to toss the glasses away because he shouldn’t rely on “technology.”
But when asked what would be more exciting, a blind boy that woke up one morning able to see or one that put on his vision simulated technology? We would of course answer the one who was able to see as the result of a miracle.
This is why the most exciting talk you’ll hear from gadget advocates today is this desire to turn technology gadgets invisible. More exciting than the technologies themselves, is the ability to experience reality without the need for these technologies; to be able to see like the Seer of Lublin from one end of the Earth to the other without the need for Google Glass, Oculus Rift, or anything else other than one’s pure and simple faith in God.