Sometimes, the road to hell is virtually augmented by good intentions

The text that follows is a small excerpt of a great, much longer warning that “Augmented reality pioneer warns it could be far worse than social media”. No edits by me, excepts highlighting and subtitles.

You should be worried about the LEGITIMATE uses of Augmented Reality (AR)

I am very concerned about the negative consequences, and it is not because I worry about bad actors hacking the technology or otherwise hijacking our good intentions.

No, I am concerned about the legitimate uses of AR by the powerful platform providers that will control the infrastructure.

Imagine walking down the street in your hometown, casually glancing at people you pass on the sidewalk.

It is much like today, except floating over the heads of every person you see are big glowing bubbles of information.

Maybe the intention is innocent, allowing people to share their hobbies and interests with everyone around them.

Now imagine that third parties can inject their own content, possibly as a paid filter layer that only certain people can see.

And they use that layer to tag individuals with bold flashing words like “Alcoholic” or “Immigrant” or “Atheist” or “Racist” or even less charged words like “Democrat” or “Republican.”

Those who are tagged may not even know that others can see them that way.

The virtual overlays could easily be designed to amplify political division, ostracize certain groups, even drive hatred and mistrust.

Will this really make the world a better place? Or will it take the polarized and confrontational culture that has emerged online and spray it across the real world?

Retail augmented nightmares

Now imagine you work behind a retail counter. AR will change how you size up your customers. That is because personal data will float all around them, showing you their tastes and interests… even their gross annual income.

as I said, continues here. Read it.