Navaho Gunleg

It’s amusing to see how ‘new’, almost magical technologies get embraced with so-much naivety. Slashdot has this little blurb about an article in the New Scientist on ’smell-technology’;

“Simply point the gadget at a freshly baked cookie, for example, and it will analyse its odour and reproduce it for you using a host of non-toxic chemicals. The device could be used to improve online shopping by allowing you to sniff foods or fragrances before you buy, to add an extra dimension to virtual reality environments and even to assist military doctors treating soldiers remotely by recreating bile, blood or urine odours that might help a diagnosis.”

Yeh yeh — the usual ‘wet-dream’ stories pop up — just like they do when they’re discussing anything data-retention or RFID.

Nah — it really is inconceivable that this isn’t going to be used to repress people. (That’s sarcasm.) I don’t see Smell-O-Vision becoming a standard — I rather see sniffer-dogs loosing their jobs as they’re replaced with mechanics, keeping the costs of operating an air-port and stuff even lower…

I smell a new world odor…

Progress, Inventions, Smell, Rant