This week's news feeds were looking like some steampunkdream of the future come true. I'm not even going to getinto the flying car discussion — with its auto, homeowners andthird-party liability concerns, it's a bigger issue foranother time — but when the news broke about the testing ofGoogle's augmentedreality glasses, I felt compelled to comment.

I'm all for better living through technology, but just considerfor a moment the liability exposures when you combinesomeone wearing Google goggles and driving the flying car —while cruising for chicks with the Girls Around Me app. Oh, that's right— he won't need something as archaic as a “mobile application” whenhe has GPS embedded in his Ray-Bans — or, soon enough,directly into his brain.

For years, legislators, law enforcement and the riskmanagement industry has been worried about the combination ofmobile technology and driving. First it was simply using cellphones while driving; then came texting and driving. Now we'll begrappling with the reality of driving while visually augmented(DWVA?).

Take a quick, nonaugmented (for now) look at this video about GoogleGlass, which provides an idea of how it will work. The glassesincorporate smartphone, camera and microphone which, as the callowyouth in the video informs us, saves us the trouble of having toremove a smart phone from our pockets, unlocking it and turning iton to take a picture. (Whew — I'm breaking a sweat justthinking about it.)

Of course, the video shows us Google Glass'spractical applications, such as getting GPS directions, IMsfrom friends or information about street closures. Thereality, and you know it as well as I do, is that the user's visionwill be cluttered and bombarded with pop-up ads.

Talk about distracted driving.

And don't kid yourself: People will be wearing these thingsbehind the wheel.

What all of this really seems to be leading up to is theultimate in social networking: a process where we can simply bemicrochipped, like the family dog, so advertisers and everybodyelse who wants to keep tabs on us are constantly aware of where weare, what we're doing and who we're doing it to or with. Andwhy not? It will save us the inconvenience of having to makeall those Facebook updates.

If you think I'm exaggerating, read about the iBrain, a headband device that “can collect data in real timein a person's own bed, or when they're watching TV, or doingjust about anything,” according to Philip Low, the neuroscientistwho is currently involved in experiments using Stephen Hawking ashis product tester.

And yes, helping Hawking to communicate in realtime is wonderful stuff. But that phrase about “collectingdata in real time” sounds like the stuff you'd hear in amarketing seminar with lots of big dollar signs attached to it.

It will definitely be interesting to see how the risk managementworld will have to evolve and change to address all these newrealities.

I won't even get into the implications of privacy. After all, wehaven't lost it so much as we've given it away.

(Check out this article on a recent ENISA experiment about whether people would pay extra for moreprivacy – which could provide a clue to where we might beheaded with all this interconnection.)