I have a confession to make: I love the internet. This love has turned my MacBook into something of a digital albatross, a ball with a chain only as long as the Wi-Fi signal’s reach. Smart phones, tablets, and other mobile devices have gone some way to rectifying this problem; all those formerly pesky little wasted moments between points A and B now burst with potential! But these devices still have the same crucial design flaw as a desktop computer: They separate and compartmentalize the virtual from the physical.

Enter augmented reality (AR). Two separate realities that demand constant switching back and forth are replaced by a single integrated space that works wherever the user is, an antidote to strained eyes and lamentable posture. Beyond mere convenience, AR also allows users to both enhance physical objects with digital information and reify abstract ideas for a more intuitive learning experience. Everyone from surgeons to white people seems poised to benefit from having their world slathered in layers of data.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4VRFuSyzzc

Looks pretty cool and all but TBH I was praying for the spinning beach ball of death to show up and make this douche force quit his flirting.

But might this techno-infusion hasten the decline of some essential element(s) of what it means to be human? As much as it can hurt to tear myself away from tumblr and Facebook, I feel a little bit freer once I abandon my laptop. I get on the bus. Notice people. Make up stories about them. What happens when the mystery is erased, when everything we look at is mediated through a gaze of questionable benevolence? The appeal of AR lies in its capacity to create a more harmonious relationship with technology, but the prospect of having no escape from it is what makes it so terrifying. Besides, aren’t our lives overwhelming and over-saturated enough as is?

I’m confident humanity will adapt, but that’s not exactly comforting. I don’t want to live in a Shteygartian future where books are smelly artifacts, or where I’ll be nostalgic for days like this, spent happily clacking away in the jealous embrace of a machine trying to keep me tied down while it still can.