Insightful article. And worldscraping is a delightful term, with lots of positive potential if there were an open platform.
Unfortunately I agree that big tech will definitely try to own AR-scraped data, and make it even more of a walled garden than smartphones, but I am pessimistic about government regulation preventing that, and keeping data open.
Governments around the world have so far only shown interest in"opening" the data into their own surveillance systems. And centralization of the platform by big tech makes it easier for them.
The only hope I have is from either of:
a) a new upstart that builds on an open platform from the very beginning, to compete with big tech (unlikely due to the significant hardware investment requirements)
b) the loser among FAMANG's AR attempts, who decides to open everything up as a last ditch attempt (plausible)
c) hackers jailbreaking AR glasses and creating an open platform
I am surprised that such a provocative article is getting no discussion. "Worldscraping" is the cyberpunkiest new word I've learned in quite a while. Coincidentally, my new copy of Simulacra & Simulation should be arriving from Amazon today...
I loved the article and it got me thinking about the extent to which AR glasses would be locked down software and hardware wise. I'm somewhat thankful for the existence of old electronics giants of Korea and Japan, as I'd expect of them to put some semblance of a competition to American data giants. The electronics corps still would want to be consumer and privacy hostile, but at least seem to be less competent about it.
And then there is hope for small hacker projects of open user-owned hardware, as in the attempts we've seen with laptops and smartphones. I also wonder how much such hardware would be commoditized at least locally, as in no-name parts being available to buy in some kiosks in Shenzhen (like with smartphones). Especially given the movements in geopolitics.
This of course assuming the AR glasses future. But e.g. walking around with a camera is now more normalized than it was in the early 2010s.
So yeah, cyberpunky stuff. But I don't feel expert in my musings and predictions, so I don't feel pressed to publish them.
Author here: This is the second time it's been on HN's front page (I posted it the first time), and it didn't get any comments then either! I was pretty surprised "worldscraping" hadn't been used before tbh.
Unfortunately I agree that big tech will definitely try to own AR-scraped data, and make it even more of a walled garden than smartphones, but I am pessimistic about government regulation preventing that, and keeping data open.
Governments around the world have so far only shown interest in"opening" the data into their own surveillance systems. And centralization of the platform by big tech makes it easier for them.
The only hope I have is from either of:
a) a new upstart that builds on an open platform from the very beginning, to compete with big tech (unlikely due to the significant hardware investment requirements)
b) the loser among FAMANG's AR attempts, who decides to open everything up as a last ditch attempt (plausible)
c) hackers jailbreaking AR glasses and creating an open platform