I’ve always been a little weirded out by people who wear sunglasses indoors… or at night.
Maybe even a touch fearful? Makes me feel like they’re trying to hide something from us.
But all that is about to change, apparently.
Very soon, we are going to be the ones hiding, from them.
Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, has been collaborating with manufacturer Ray-Ban to insert tiny video cameras into a line of sunglasses. They call them ‘smart glasses.’
You can see an example in the photo below. The little circles in the upper corners are camera lenses. With the touch of a button, you can take a photo, or record video footage.
I guess there’s also a microphone built in, for when you’re recording video clips.
The glasses appear to be priced at around $300 a pair. (Or you can find used Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses on eBay for about $250.)
Fortunately, we won’t see these glasses in Pagosa Springs for a while. It normally takes about 5 years for anything popular in the rest of the U.S. to reach Archuleta County.
That’s one of the advantages to being isolated, living in the middle of nowhere. Which can also be a disadvantage. But in this case, definitely an advantage.
But I can see where this whole thing is headed.
It’s one thing, when a person is wearing Ray-Ban sunglasses and we can see the little camera lenses in the corners. So we can be warned.
I expect we will quickly get good at recognizing these Ray-Ban glasses from a distance.
It’s a very different thing when ordinary glasses — not sunglasses, but ordinary glasses — start to feature these kinds of recording devices. I know a lot of people who wear ordinary glasses, and up until now, I haven’t been afraid of them. In fact, I sort of felt sorry for them.
But this new technology puts people like me — who don’t wear glasses — at a distinct disadvantage. I have to actually remember what I saw and heard… and if you asked my ex-wife how that typically works out, she would likely offer a highly critical assessment of my memory. And maybe even, of my veracity.
Which brings up the worst thing about this new technology. The problem of truth.
All through the long history of humankind, we’ve had to rely on our individual memories to explain, for example, what did or didn’t happen in a certain situation. Sometimes, we’ve relied on our imaginations.
God gave us imaginations for exactly that purpose. But the big tech companies decided to sell us glasses with cameras. To make a profit.
So you wake up on Sunday morning, following the office Christmas party, with a splitting headache.
Your wife is standing over you, with her arms crossed. She is wearing her glasses. The same glasses she was wearing last night at the office party.
“Well, I hope you had fun flirting with your secretary last night,” she says. “That was pretty disgusting to watch.”
You honestly don’t remember anything like that happening. And you say so.
Your wife taps her glasses, lightly, with her index finger.