This post was co-written with Alison Fernandes, a researcher at the Department of Psychology at Monk Prayogshala.

The very first Black Mirror (a dystopian sci-fi series) episode I stumbled upon in 2011 was "The Entire History of You" (S01E03). The premise was simple: through a chip in one’s brain, one could record and replay their memories—scenes they witnessed, conversations they had, and people they met. Fast forward to 2023, when Meta and Ray Ban have developed smart glasses that kind of do the same thing—with caveats, of course.

These glasses have several cool features like the ability to record audiovisuals or livestream from the glasses straight to Instagram and Facebook. Undoubtedly, they provide the opportunity for (largely) hands-free communication and documentation. The glasses are quite subtle compared to an obvious camera or phone pointed at you, and although they have a small LED light that turns on to indicate the glasses are recording, even this might go unnoticed if you’re not looking too closely. You do have to raise your hand to click a button to record or take a photo, but this can be easily mistaken for someone trying to fix their hair or the glasses themselves.

All this is to say........

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