An engrossing look at the eye-tracking wizardry of Google Glass that doesn’t quite bear out its own alarmism.
A hot new digital device could let sinister—or at least annoying—forces read your mind according to this intriguing if overwrought exposé.
Google Glass, a tiny computer worn like eyeglasses, projects an optical display into the user’s eye. It has already been accused of everything from welding people even more closely to the Internet to violating privacy by enabling wearers to surreptitiously take photographs and videos. The author adds an ominous new possibility: Google Glass, he contends, could divine its wearer’s conscious and even unconscious thoughts, emotions, “temptations, cravings and strong urges” and reveal them to third parties. Wedam, working from a close if sometimes-disorganized exegesis of Google patent filings, explains that Google Glass meticulously tracks its wearer’s eyes and, possibly, pupil dilation; it knows when you are gazing at a fashion ad and how aroused you are by the pretty dress you see (or the model wearing it). It can also, he notes, detect “saccades”—the tiny, rapid eye movements that give away mental preoccupations we aren’t consciously aware of, although he doesn’t explain how the computer could differentiate the myriad possible subconscious states. Written in straightforward prose that makes technical issues accessible to laypeople, Wedam’s brief account of the eye-tracking technology that makes Google Glass possible, and the neuro-cognitive science behind it, is lucid and compelling. It also raises timely and unsettling questions about the subtle intrusions of digital technology. Unfortunately, while he harps on the menace of Google Glass to privacy and autonomy, he fails to actually demonstrate it. He invokes the specter of marketers sussing out and manipulating our secret desires and makes dark references to “nefarious hackers,” but he never explains what harm will come of all this other than, say, an augmented bombardment of pop-up ads. The incursions Wedam spotlights seem more tiresome than threatening, as inevitable in the digital age as death and taxes.
An engrossing look at the eye-tracking wizardry of Google Glass that doesn’t quite bear out its own alarmism.Pub Date: May 29, 2014
ISBN: 978-1496173720
Page Count: 56
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both...
Italian theoretical physicist Rovelli (General Relativity: The Most Beautiful of Theories, 2015, etc.) shares his thoughts on the broader scientific and philosophical implications of the great revolution that has taken place over the past century.
These seven lessons, which first appeared as articles in the Sunday supplement of the Italian newspaper Sole 24 Ore, are addressed to readers with little knowledge of physics. In less than 100 pages, the author, who teaches physics in both France and the United States, cogently covers the great accomplishments of the past and the open questions still baffling physicists today. In the first lesson, he focuses on Einstein's theory of general relativity. He describes Einstein's recognition that gravity "is not diffused through space [but] is that space itself" as "a stroke of pure genius." In the second lesson, Rovelli deals with the puzzling features of quantum physics that challenge our picture of reality. In the remaining sections, the author introduces the constant fluctuations of atoms, the granular nature of space, and more. "It is hardly surprising that there are more things in heaven and earth, dear reader, than have been dreamed of in our philosophy—or in our physics,” he writes. Rovelli also discusses the issues raised in loop quantum gravity, a theory that he co-developed. These issues lead to his extraordinary claim that the passage of time is not fundamental but rather derived from the granular nature of space. The author suggests that there have been two separate pathways throughout human history: mythology and the accumulation of knowledge through observation. He believes that scientists today share the same curiosity about nature exhibited by early man.
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both scientists and general readers.Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-18441-3
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A magnificent account of a central reality of our times, incorporating deep scientific expertise, broad political and social knowledge, and ethical insight, and Idled with beautifully written biographical sketches of the men and women who created nuclear physics. Rhodes describes in detail the great scientific achievements that led up to the invention of the atomic bomb. Everything of importance is examined, from the discovery of the atomic nucleus and of nuclear fission to the emergence of quantum physics, the invention of the mass-spectroscope and of the cyclotron, the creation of such man-made elements as plutonium and tritium, and implementation of the nuclear chain reaction in uranium. Even more important, Rhodes shows how these achievements were thrust into the arms of the state, which culminated in the unfolding of the nuclear arms race. Often brilliantly, he records the rise of fascism and of anti-Semitism, and the intensification of nationalist ambitions. He traces the outbreak of WW II, which provoked a hysterical rivalry among nations to devise the bomb. This book contains a grim description of Japanese resistance, and of the horrible psychological numbing that caused an unparalleled tolerance for human suffering and destruction. Rhodes depicts the Faustian scale of the Manhattan Project. His account of the dropping of the bomb itself, and of the awful firebombing that prepared its way, is unforgettable. Although Rhodes' gallery of names and events is sometimes dizzying, his scientific discussions often daunting, he has written a book of great drama and sweep. A superb accomplishment.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1986
ISBN: 0684813785
Page Count: 932
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1986
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