We've all seen the person sitting in a restaurant or coffee shop, apparently having a heated discussion with himself. In reality, carrying on a cellphone conversation via the Bluetooth earpiece he's wearing.
Thats what I see happening with these glasses. If they became widely available, all of a sudden we'd be confronted with hordes of zombie-like creatures, lurching through our streets and shopping malls, filling out their empty lives with whatever combination of of mapping data and male-enhancement spam Google's servers spat out.
We remember the scene from Terminator, where the Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator sees all this cool "extra" data about whats in front of him. Its a great scene - but is that really what we want from our lives?
I can certainly see some uses for this sort of technology. Military and law enforcement personnel for instance. But even in those areas, there is increasing evidence that people are suffering from information overload. That even the most highly-trained pilot can only really focus on a few data streams, and that beyond that point, more data means worse performance.
Lets also look at the "reality" of virtual reality: Its likely to be a serious threat to public safety. Where are the places where there is the most relevant data? Answer: Cities - with almost infinite restaurants, tagged photos, historical landmarks, points of interest, and our human contacts. They are also the places where the streets and sidewalks are crowded with fast moving vehicles and pedestrians - and the last thing we need is distracted people wandering around interacting with a world that, quite literally, isn't there.
