LOL those things are hilarious to look at.
this post was submitted on 09 May 2025
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It may be time to outfit a ballcap with super bright infrared LEDs. It's probably past that point already, sadly.
I'll be honest, shit like this would be pretty handy—if it didn't also enable more dystopian shit. I'd be happy if it could just remind me of someone's name and how I know them. Maybe remind me of small talk details. But they aren't going to stop there...
A tool that keeps track of people in your life and gives you small talk cues seems dystopian in its self. Relying on that you would just further isolate yourself from others.
Thinking about it, I am pretty sure I would immediately despise anyone who used this tool on me, even apart from the fact that they would be putting me into a meta database without my consent. I would despise people who use this tool for the same reason I despise people who crudely implement the strategies from “How to win friends and influence people”. Their interactions are insincere and manipulative.
What does dystopia mean to you? This is akin to having sticky notes to remember things, just in a more compact convenient application. Having social lubricant is also not really a bad thing. If anything it can help people keep from isolating themselves from others.
It can be abused... but then again so can sticky notes. The problem isn't the technology, it's the application. Keeping track of friends and colleagues and having simple prompts to encourage interaction is good, keeping databases of dissenters and subjugation tools not so good.
But people have different abilities and some of us are REALLY bad at remembering names...uh...Greg.
Some of us are face blind and this could be helpful.
No fucking way I’d trust meta not to exploit it though, so this is a hard pass.
I see your point but also I just genuinely don't have a mind for that shit. Even my own close friends and family, it never pops into my head to ask about that vacation they just got back from or what their kids are up to. I rely on social cues from others, mainly my wife, to sort of kick start my brain.
I just started a new job. I can't remember who said they were into fishing and who didn't, and now it's anxiety inducing to try to figure out who is who. Or they ask me a friendly question and I get caught up answering and when I'm done I forget to ask it back to them (because frequently asking someone about their weekend or kids or whatever is their way of getting to share their own life with you, but my brain doesn't think that way).
I get what you're saying. It could absolutely be used for performative interactions but for some of us people drift away because we aren't good at being curious about them or remembering details like that. And also, I have to sit through awkward lunches at work where no one really knows what to talk about or ask about because outside of work we are completely alien to one another.
And it's fine. It wouldn't be worth the damage it does. I have left behind all personally identifiable social media for the same reason. But I do hate how social anxiety and ADHD makes friendship so fleeting.
You could then be replaced by an android that just uses this info to interact with those people, instead of yourself. You'd never have to meet ppl again. 5 stars 😄
I just want to know how I can be opted out of being recognized. This has privacy nightmare written all over it
The guy in the file photo looks like such an absolute dork
Those are just prototypes, but yes I agree.