Space Monkeys!

When Google Glass was first announced and it started rolling out to a few lucky people (who still had to pay $1,500 for the privilege of being a beta tester), it seemed like something to desire. This was the future, right on people’s faces, and soon we’d all get there.

As Glass actually got out there, though, it seems like that vibe curdled quickly. The backlash became strong and unshakable until, right now it seems, wearing Glass is an invitation to be ridiculed and, in some corners, shunned in public.

I understand why you would wear Glass, I really do, but I also understand why I wouldn’t, especially if I were out in public with my kids. Can you imagine going to a birthday party for a five- or six-year-old wearing those things? What parent would want a party guest like that?

We wrote this comic around the time Google decided to open up sales to everybody. And even though the stock supposedly sold out, it’s hard not to feel like the whole experiment has been an interesting failure. I mean, not a failure in the sense that it’s gonna make your eye grow and bulge, probably. That part we made up. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.

It’s a case where the reality and the promise did not meet in the middle and even as this is a product that could still change the world, we’ve seen very clearly that it may not be something we, as a society, are ready for. It would not surprise me if Google said, “Well, we tried,” and shelved the whole project in favor of something more subtle, more insidious, less literally in your face.