Tea at Trianon: Google Glass

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, June 7, 2013

Google Glass

Some privacy concerns. To quote Unveiling the Apocalypse:

With the future addition of facial recognition technology however, this would take this invasion of privacy to a whole new level, allowing anyone wearing these glasses to instantly access the online information of anyone standing in front of them. With the introduction of facial recognition technology, a wearer of Google Glass would be able to immediately access information such as a person's Facebook account, just by looking at them, and have all their personal data floating around in their field of vision. Although Google have stalled their plans on incorporating facial recognition on Google Glass for now, it is widely believed that the future introduction of this technology is inevitable - especially if it is being offered by competitors.

It is easy to imagine how this technology could be exploited by a future dystopian government - being used not only to gather and disseminate personal information, but also to spy on anyone in the immediate vicinity of someone wearing these devices.(Read more.)