A new vision of the future has tech-bloggers equally creeped out and utterly fascinated. The short film “Sight” shows a world where applications, games, television, cooking, even dating, are all run through technology embedded in the human eye.
You might remember the YouTube video “A Day Made of Glass” in which Corning Incorporated envisioned a technological utopia where all of our hardware is replaced by, well, interactive glass. Now, a film created by mystery company “Sight Systems” (a cover for a couple of Bezalel Academy of Art and Design students) hypothetically one-ups the glass-world, but putting gaming, entertainment, damn-near-everything into your eyes.
The film shows some kind of system either implanted into the human eye surgically or possibly a high-tech contact lens, performing all of the functions of an iPhone, a laptop, a gaming system, a television, and more without any hardware to speak of. You see the main character of the film watching TV on a blank wall. He plays a video game laying on his stomach in his living room. He cuts cucumber with visual assistance (that also makes a game of it). He even gets tips on a date with a “Wingman” app.
It’s a little creepy, but also kind of cool. Luckily we have tech-heads to help us sort through the ethical and philosophical ramifications of the hypothetical tech. TechCrunch said “by embedding this type of technology in our bodies, there is absolutely zero freedom from this externalized knowledge. There is no way to resist the temptation to ‘look it up.’ And thus, everything we know comes from the technology inside us rather than our own brains,” of the potential for such technology.
Though generally admiring the film, the International Digital Times pointed out that “The creepiest part of the movie [...] is the ending,” continuing, “When the man’s date found out that he’s been using ‘Wingman,’ she becomes disgusted and gets up to leave his apartment. But as she walks out, he manipulates her Sight, seemingly gains control of her mind, accesses her profile and says, ‘Let’s try this again.’”
Here’s the video. What do you think? Is “Sight” an early look at a highly interactive and slightly rape-y future?