One of the new emerging information technologies that we are witnessing today is this idea of augmented reality. This notion of taking the world of everyday perception and tweaking it, augmenting it, and impregnating perception with mindedness and with aesthetics.
So what does that mean?
It essentially means that the information technologies and instruments we’re using today to manipulate and transform the world are now allowing us to overlay digital information onto of the physical world.
Today we have a multitude of apps that allow you to look through the camera and place and interact with virtual elements into real environments. With that we now have this notion that we are mapping the real world while overlaying agency, information, and kind of gamification, and ultimately mind.
So what does this mean?
It means that more of the world starts to become re-enchanted, there becomes more cognitive activity occurring between self and world around us until self and world become one.
I believe this is where we are heading as augmented reality is what it means to be human.
Then again this is nothing new. It has existed from the moment we started to create architecture, put objects (such as statues) in the world, to create art, tools, we’ve been in an augmenting reality.
So for this digital age to finally catch up, it’s a natural emergence.
And I for one am excited to be witnessing this in my lifetime.