November 17, 2029—TEL-U Mobile said today that network disruptions yesterday led to inoperable augmented reality service, leaving millions of customers to walk or drive around with no information about what they were seeing.
The outage began about 2:16 p.m. ET yesterday and lasted until early this morning, affecting customers across the country, a TEL-U spokesman said. The company says a software error led to the disruption.
TEL-U customers complained that they felt virtually crippled without the augmented reality (AR) data that tell them everything from the source of the beans used in their Starbucks coffee to the marital status of a person passing them on the street. The incident underscored Americans’ deepening dependence on AR -powered eyeglasses and contact lenses to get through the day.
TEL-U advertises its AR network and eyewear as the most sophisticated in the nation. The company boasts more than 7 million subscribers.
The company yesterday was deluged with calls from angry customers. Diners complained that they had no data to determine whether a restaurant they were considering patronizing had any health-code violations. Consumers complained that the outage hampered their everyday search for the latest fashions.
“I was walking down Park Avenue and noticed this woman wearing a gorgeous cashmere coat,” Manhattan resident Pru Tenchus said. “I wanted to know where she bought it and how much she paid for it, but the data didn’t pop up on my AR sunglasses. This was highly inconvenient.”
Pedestrians griped that they had no information about the criminal history, political affiliation or religion of people they passed on the street.
“I started chatting with a very nice man in line with me at the deli near my office,” said Chicago resident Sue Spiches. “I was waiting for information about him to pop up on my contact lenses, but it never came. For all I know, he was a registered sex offender or a Mormon.”
For other customers, the outage merely hampered their personal lives a bit.
“I was sitting at a coffee shop and was attracted to a woman sitting at the table next to me,” said Greg Aryus, a longtime TEL-U subscriber. “But I’m a conservative guy. I like old-fashioned girls, and without the AR network functioning, I had no information on whether she was a member of a NOW or a regular contributor to Emily’s List. Unaugmented reality bites.”
[...] quote comes from the fantastic piece, Augmented Reality Network Crashes, Leaving Millions Dataless, imagining a news article from the future: “I started chatting with a very nice man in line with [...]
My first reaction is that I would buy those glasses in a heartbeat. Identifying a gorgeous coat or a Mormon sex offender: what could be better? Having the system crash would be horrible, like being ejected from the digital womb into a cold alien world.
But then it dawns on me that I can’t control what others see about me. What is it that people who take away right to privacy say? “If you’ve got nothing to hide, what do you care?” I’m sure I’d get over it.
Comparing Mormons to sex offenders was in poor taste. If you’d been wearing AR-glasses when you wrote this article, the message “WARNING: Lame joke being written” might have been beamed onto your retina.
@JDD – I laughed. [shrug]
So augmented reality will help me identify sluts? Cool. Although I can imagine people being attacked in the streets by tweeter mobs.
Hi, I’m from 2029. Our FutureNews broadcast must be sending to your time-slice again. Bugger if I’m going to fix it again.
The ARNET was only down for about five minutes. It’s not like the world exploded or anything, though the probability for such an even has risen steadily from 0.034% to 0.057% in the last five years, which has some of us wondering.
I suggest that all of you actually practice talking to people instead of having ARNET do all the work for you. It’s your choice to become anti-social with the advent of ARNET glasses/lenses. Depending on how you want the future to turn out, you’ll make the proper choice and maybe even prevent this article from ever getting sent back in time. Miserable, we’ve become.
there was no comparison to sex offenders and Mormons. The quote stated “For all I know, he was a registered sex offender or a Mormon.” Which doesn’t compare only insinuates that that particular person finds Mormons and sex offenders offensive…or for that matter she could like Mormons and sex offenders.
fake