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Keller @ Large: Google Glasses - Technology Gone Too Far?

BOSTON (CBS) - A few months ago I was part of a panel discussion about advances in personal technology, and I suggested that before too long we will all have micro-chips implanted in the back of our neck that will turn our brains into iPads.

Listen to Jon's commentary:

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Blink your left eye, and you can surf the web and have the results projected on your eyeballs.

Blink your right eye to read and reply to e-mails and text messages.

When you want to log off, if you ever do, you will simply wiggle your nose like Samantha on "Bewitched" to slip into sleep mode.

Everyone had a good laugh, but it looks like the laugh is on us.

The masters of the universe at Google are cooking up a new way of embracing the internet, a pair of futuristic glasses not unlike the ones Geordi wore in "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

They've released a web video in which a twenty-something guy checks the weather, texts a buddy, looks at a map, goes book shopping, buys concert tickets, take photos and Skypes with his girlfriend, all through his glasses as he's strolling around New York City.

The product is just a prototype, so don't rush out to the store looking for this just yet.

But after talking about this new gadget with a specialist in pedestrian injuries yesterday, I think Google ought to recut their video to show Mr. Fancy Glasses bumping into other pedestrians, causing accidents while jaywalking, and finally, being struck by a cab and rushed to the hospital, because that's what the expert told me is much more likely to happen with this new layer of distraction added to our already dangerously-distracted culture.

It's bad enough with drivers and pedestrians addicted to their cellphones.

We are really abandoning common sense if we think it's OK to have people in motion with their smartphones glued to the bridge of their nose.

There's a word for people who can't put something aside long enough to take basic safety precautions for themselves and those around them – addicts.

Make that two words – dangerous addicts.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

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