This article here. Symbiosis is something I daydream of. The closest I’ve come to enacting that dream is by playing Deus Ex (Human Revolution to be precise, an excellent game too). The story of Human Revolution is based around the insurgency of ‘pure’ humans that have no opted to have any kind of cybernetics installed, a concept mentioned in the reading. 

“The hope is that, in not too many years, human brains and computing machines will be coupled together very tightly…the resulting partnership will think as no human brain has ever thought…” said by JCR Licklider excites me greatly; to have a close tie with a machine that would alter the way our already powerful mind works would be an extraordinary experience.

Okay so even if some kind of cybernetic device that can overlay Google maps on your eyeballs isn’t available yet, there is technology that sort of comes close. Google Glass is close-ish to a commercial release but it takes us a step closer to having enhanced neurons or something. What it does is augment our vision with the functionality of a lot of technology we use today: Google search, video and photo capture, phone, email, and text messaging. For anyone who has a passion for video games this equates to a real life Heads Up Display, and that’s enough to get me all giddy in a child-like way.

Google Glass isn’t quite Symbiosis but it’s getting closer with it at least. In that same reading a dream of Immersion is discussed, along with Virtual Reality. Where Google Glass enhances our network access in reality, Virtual Reality technology enhances our access to virtual worlds in a way.

I’ve discussed the Oculus Rift before and while it’s not the first of it’s kind, it’s certainly the most exciting form of Virtual Reality technology for consumers for a long time. Like enclosed roller-coaster simulators, the Rift closes your vision and places two small screens in front of your eyes to imitate binocular vision and the device moves a virtual camera as your head turns in different directions. Yes, it’s exciting, but in terms of this dream of Immersion, it is far from complete. As Char Davies says in the article, “I have been interested in conveying a sense of being enveloped in an all-encompassing, all-surrounding space” which suggests not only visual immersion but also sound, physical, smell, and perhaps taste immersion. All the senses really. Virtual Reality technology like the Rift paves the way for this though, and eventually we may have our other senses stimulated along with our eyes.

These two concepts of the lot were the most interested for me, which is why I highly recommend you go read the whole thing to see what you like. The overarching goal seems to be a sense of immediacy though; a point where technology can transmit information either very quickly or directly to our senses for the sake of communication or entertainment. The primary desire I understood from this article was that the authors – or the ideas they explore – aim for a synergy between technology and people. Whether that’s natural progression or not is very hard to say but it’s not hard to see how explosively we’ve developed and consumed new technology. Just take a look at how popular every single one of Apple’s new releases is, despite how redundant most of the product’s new features are.

Personally I’d like to think, one day, I can have some kind of GSM installed in my brain so I could make and receive phone calls without a handset. Better yet, a 4G modem to stream music and YouTube videos to my ears and eyes. The dream lives on.