Google: 1984 is finally here and it seems rather frightening

Familiar with George Orwell’s prophetic book “1984?”

Quite frightening to think that the rest of our lives could be lived out in fishbowls – no privacy – no such thing as closed doors behind which we do whatever it is that we choose to do.

No, it’s not retinal scanning that we have to fear – a technology that the government has employed for the past couple of decades.

And no, it’s not the X-ray scanners at airport security stops that somehow render our clothed bodies completely naked as we were the day we came into this world.

“Google Glass” is the villain – the culprit that threatens to invade even the dark corners of our everyday existence.

The Feb. 25, CNN News reports, “Google Glass opens an entirely new front in the digital war against privacy.”

Google GlassGoogle Glass

The article continues,."These spectacles, which have been specifically designed to record everything we see, represent a developmental leap in the history of data that is comparable to moving from the bicycle to the automobile.”

And it is not the government’s push; rather, this “sort of radical transformation that may actually end up completely destroying our individual privacy in the digital 21st century” is at the hands of the giant, Silicon Valley, data-gathering firm –Google.

What appears even more frightening is that Google with its Project Glass, Google’s innovative evolving technology, is reaching out to Google + and Twitter users to become “Glass Explorers” (spies is probably more appropriate) testing their prototype.

The process to become a test pilot of the new technology is simple; write an essay not to exceed fifty (50) words in length (English teachers are cringing – students rejoicing) and it must contain the hash tag #ifihadglass.

Details can be found in the application, - deadline for submitting is 11:59 PM PST on February 27, 2013.

Google touts the many features of their newest technology - “Google Glass” is capable of taking photos, including an automatic picture-taking mode, snapping pictures at a preset intervals (such as every 5 seconds), recording videos, looking up answers on Google, showing reminders, and either via messaging or through a Google+ Hangout - sharing whatever you're looking at, all using voice commands.

Two days ago, a YouTube video was posted showing how “Google Glass” would be used throughout the day.

While it all is rather dazzling and very interesting, particularly to techies, it is also very frightening. In this age of reality TV, smart phones, and big government and big corporations, hasn’t technology gone a little too far?

Last summer, Google’s co-founder, Sergio Brin, said that the eyeglass-embedded computers would be available to consumers by 2014.

For a moment, try and look ahead a year and just imagine that at anytime, wherever you are, someone standing in front or in back of you or to your side could be photographing or videotaping you, and evidence of your behavior - whether deviant or normal - could be captured and stored as tiny bits of data and displayed all over the world before you can say “Google Glass!”

An ominous thought!

Check out all my examiner columns:

Art - Fashion - Film - Health - Music - Performing Arts - Science

Subscribe to get email updates when new articles are published!