I like to think Glass was the first real sign of the general public truly being uncomfortable with the invasive nature of Google and information hoarding technology. That we do, like you say, want technology to progress culture and free us more from our conformist and largely capitalist reality; where we were before comfortable with what Google has done before because of the world of knowledge provided by that at a cost of some privacy and data going to a corporation, Glass was primarily a step into our lives and data without much providing the extra knowledge or freedom, or an advancement in technology or culture.

Let me put it this way. The average American has a veritable gadget cornucopia at his fingertips. But he’s poorer, more unhappy, more anxious, and less mobile than he was 30 short years ago. In short, technology hasn’t liberated people. It might just be thwarting them, in significant ways, from the lives they should be living.

Do you (Hubski) technology-- as a whole, but in this case, the internet, smartphones, global inter-connectivity, "big data"-- make us happier or unhappier, and would we be better or worse off without it? Does modern tech promote freedom or limit it though, or is it a neutral? I believe I do things less that I want to because of the technology I waste time on, but at the same time, I know far more about the world and have my opinions shaped so deeply and on so many topics that I would not have if it were not for these very same things. Not to mention on a less important level, my whole career built around them. Would the world be better if the internet did not exist?