I was having a discussion the other day about possible future societal norms, after everyone has gotten used to seeing the world around them through cyber-enhanced contact lenses. As I’ve discussed here before, how you appear to others in such a future society, when you go out in public, may become a matter of choice.
And if such choices become the norm, then those future norms may become protected by privacy laws: To gaze upon somebody in public with your “naked eyes” — without the socially accepted intermediary of cyber-contact lenses — may come to be considered an invasion of their privacy.
In such a world, it might become a big deal to reveal your true biological appearance, perhaps akin to the way, in present day, we decide who gets to see us naked. And this change might have an effect on all sorts of things.
I can imagine a future conversation between two people who have just started dating:
“Would you like to see what I really look like?”
“I don’t know whether I’m ready for that level of commitment before the third date.”
“Yeah, me neither. Let’s just have sex.”
“OK. Thanks for understanding.”