No, I am not one of the fortunate people first allowed to experiment with Google Glass. Even if chosen, I would not have paid the $1,500 for the privilege. [Note: Since his article in 2013, the price has dropped to $225.] As a travel writer, it would be great to have screens of desired data available in a tiny screen above the eye. Or woudl it?
Gary Shteyngart, the author of Little Failure, did get to experience the device firsthand, while walking through New York City, riding on public transit, and even during a psychotherapy session.beyond the argument for good technology advances and the creep-factor of people using the glasses to spy on citizens, Shteyngart raised another interesting point for us, as travelers and as writers: Read the full New Yorker story here and see what you think of the future technology that’s already here. Love it? Hate it? Scared? Comment and let us know…. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/08/05/o-k-glass?currentPage=all
The novel was set in an unspecified near future, because setting a novel in the present in a time of unprecedented technological and social dislocation seemed to me shortsighted. For example, the word “phone” has meant almost entirely one thing for close to a century, but by 2007 it meant a device that was also a personal stereo, a stockbroker, a weather prognosticator, and a flashlight. By 2013, my glasses serve not only as a phone but also as a video phone. To write a book set in the present, circa 2013, is to write about the distant past.
