A blog about Articulated Naturality and augmented reality and how stuff that people think will make people happier will probably make them more miserable

This is an interesting blog that I happened to come across.
http://articulatednaturality.blogspot.com/

It's clearly a marketing blog for something called Articulated
Naturality. It's not something I really understand. In the future the
internet or the Articulated Naturality Web as this author describes it
will be overlaid on the real world. What that means is information will
exist in physical space, so a geotagged comment can appear sort of stuck
to a building when viewed through the right equipment. The equipment
seems to be a very expensive smartphone and the blogger is keen on a
Chinese-American phone called the Ouidoo Gaian.

It's an interesting concept but one I'm only able to foresee a limited
utility. I feel like those people in the 1990s who couldn't see the
potential of the internet but few could envisage what it's become today.
The idea of overlaying internet information linked to real world objects
and places has opportunities for gaming, tour guides, reviews, signage,
urban planning, new forms of multimedia and a few others. But that's all
I can think of for this future of the internet.

This site has also inspired another thought process: can consumer
electronics make us happy, or alternatively is there anything that can
be done in the design of new consumer electronics products that can make
people happier or more content? I've really drawn a blank on that one so
far but will keep working on it. The simple answer is that material
possessions and advances in technology often make people more content
but they bring negative things too. The evolution of social network
sites from Friends Reunited to Facebook brought the joy and wonder of
finding lost friends and lovers, but years on it's now a pain as much as
a pleasure.

In one of the blog posts the author contemplates proximity-based
augmented reality social network games as a fun and new way to enjoy
going to the office.
http://articulatednaturality.blogspot.com/2010/05/proximity-based-augmented-reality.html

And they'll also increase social cohesion....hmmm.....

The blogger justifies this well but like so many visionaries I think
they only see one side: the side they want to see. The blogger describes
new games where people can walk past each other and quick draw their
mobile phones to have a wild west showdown while on the way to work, and
this will bring people together who would otherwise not have met. I'm
going to withold my usual criticism and not call this guy an idiot
because I really don't know much about the technology they talking about.

They've forgotten the human aspect. Initially people will enjoy the
novelty then they'll get bored. The modern age of electronic
communication has made it easier to keep in touch but now there's too
much communication and too much information. Many people don't want more
friends. Many people will also have days where the last thing they want
to do is have someone jump out and zap them with their phone when
they're on their way to or from work. If the blogger is correct it is
likely that we'll see a phenomenon of "AR gaming rage" and see newspaper
stories about a person being beaten to death with an iPhone because they
picked the wrong time to play games.

Sigh. Idiots. More misery all round eh?