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Eye Contact

Having tech to create eye-contact where none exists is yet another example of doing things that will no doubt have a lot of unintended consequences. The point of eye contact is for two humans to connect and build trust and a level of comfort with each other. That said, we don't make eye contact all the time and for good reason - you don't want to drown in the truth serum. If the eye contact is tech enabled in a video conference for instance, the person now has no obligation to even try. 

They could as well be staring into space or the ceiling. The very point of the eye contact - to gauge the level of engagement and authenticity will go out the window. The identity of the person along with their intent will be over-ridden by technology. On the other side the eye contact is likely fake as well. So two people are having a conversation with their eyes locked on one another while in reality both sides are checked out. Depending on a person chooses to process this interaction, the outcomes will range from unpredictable to crazy. 

This tech comes with a bunch of interesting questions, of course. Like: is constant unbroken eye contact good or a bit creepy? Are these tools useful for people who don’t naturally like eye contact? Or is this all just the thin edge of a wedge labeled, for the sake of argument, “the increasing use of AI to create a more polished digital version of ourselves is contributing to an increased sense of alienation and loss of identity”?

This is not a more polished version of ourselves - just another layer on untruthful and unreliable. 

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