back to article Sergey Brin emasculated after HORROR smartphone disaster

Seething mass of testosterone and Google co-founder Sergey Brin has stated that smartphones are emasculating. Speaking at the Technology, Education and Design TED conference series on the subject of Google Glasses and the future of Google, Brin let drop that he finds the fastest growing technology of the past decade to be " …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    He is Guilty

    In a large part due to ANDROID revolution.

    After all they are giving it away, innit, and more people are adopting this"emasculating" device he so derides now.

    It all began with Goolge.

  2. GBL Initialiser

    The iDevice that exploded in that guys trousers was potentially emasculating. I'll give him that.

  3. Piers
    Happy

    Brin's remedy for the manhood-stripping mobes...

    "Brin's remedy for the manhood-stripping mobes, of course, was Google's own augmented reality glasses - Google Glass - which has tiny computers bolted onto its frame and leaves your hands free."

    Which will make you totally look like a techno-nerd (to ordinary folks, anyway).

    So that's really going to help, yes?

    1. fandom

      Re: Brin's remedy for the manhood-stripping mobes...

      Were you alive at the beginning of the eighties?

      If so you will remember that people talking on cell phones were considered to be assholes by the population at large.

      We are all assholes now.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Brin's remedy for the manhood-stripping mobes...

        It still is, hence quiet zones on trains.

        Smartphones took off when SMS messaging appeared, texting is the thing that brought phones to the masses.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Brin's remedy for the manhood-stripping mobes...

      Obviously looking like a techno-geek is the norm at Google, with their big kid playground offices. So they lack any comprehension of what real people like.

  4. plrndl

    New Balls Please

    A friend told me that when her boyfriend got an iPhone, she didn't see his face for a month. She now has a new boyfriend.

    1. Mike 68

      Re: New Balls Please

      He had a lucky escape if she's less interesting than a phone

      1. Ted Treen
        Trollface

        Re: New Balls Please

        Equally, she might have had a lucky escape if he finds a gizmo more interesting than a human being..

        1. I Am Spartacus
          Thumb Up

          Re: New Balls Please

          Oh, I don;t know. We haven't seen a picture of the girl. She could have been an Anne Widecomb lookalike. May be this was the excuse he needed. Or maybe he was just hooked on Match.Com.

        2. Intractable Potsherd

          Re: New Balls Please @ Ted Treen

          "... she might have had a lucky escape if he finds a gizmo more interesting than a human being." I understand the sentiment, but I know some people who aren't as interesting as blank sheet of A4, let alone a new gadget.

      2. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. JayBizzle
      Trollface

      Re: New Balls Please

      When is she going to look at herself and see she might be contributing to his interest in the phone.

      Unless OP has a new girlfriend and they are just bragging.

    3. teebie

      Re: New Balls Please

      She has a new boyfriend... but he has a new iPhone, so who is winning.

      (The answer is her. She is the one who is winning)

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: New Balls Please

      She should post pictures of her in minor clothing in his iPhone, to see his face again, or at least a mirror in the ceiling, for that matter...

  5. Dan 55 Silver badge
    FAIL

    He hopes the new Google glasses will allow once more for "natural" human interaction.

    I can imagine that happening when the person you're interacting with has a camera staring them in the face.

    1. Corborg

      Re: He hopes the new Google glasses will allow once more for "natural" human interaction.

      ...and while you think they are making eye contact and listening to you, they are pulling turnips in farmville.

      Any technology can be anti-social. The only solution is an agreement on social etiquette. Unless talking while using your tech becomes as anti-social as blowing smoke in someones face then it's not going to go away regardless of the platform or form you're using.

  6. JDX Gold badge

    You look very manly wearing big glasses, any science geek can tell you that.

  7. Jonsey

    Hmm...

    Okay, Glass is a good idea. Technology as we know will slowly dissolve becoming more and more seamless with our lives. This is the first step from Google and it's pretty adventurous and more importantly, it works!

    If this does indeed double as a mobile, then searching for contacts could be interesting, but when integrated with Google contacts using an online account, it could work well.

    It does look rather geeky, but lets be honest, the technology will shrink in time.

    Glass is a statement, a brave new world awaits and this is the start.

    As far as the 'emasculating' statement goes... Well, that won't come back to haunt Mr. Brin... will it?!

    He's excited, who can blame him, it is really cool! - Just don't wear them trying to pick up women.

  8. Trollslayer
    Thumb Down

    Pathetic

    If that is all he can say about the product it's a sad day for Google.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    He had to say that.

    He can't very well say "I can't use a smart phone, as our Chinese employees will report back the contents of my meetings in Maryland." so it's much easier to pretend he doesn't like them.

  10. DrXym

    I can think of more emasculating things

    This tech reminds me in some ways of bluetooth handsfree ear pieces. People used to walk around talking into them not realising that to everyone else they looked either mad and / or a colossal dickhead. If their intent was to look cool, it failed badly.

    I think these glasses will convey the same effect only more so since it's not just sound but vision too. Who really wants to engage someone in conversation who is wearing these? Are they filming you while you speak to them? Are they even paying attention to their surroundings or the email they just got? Maybe they're ogling you through some augmented reality dong / boobies app? How great would that be? Not great in the slightest. In terms of social acceptance I think these things will rank somewhere between strong body odour and Tourette's syndrome.

    At least with a phone you can see them fiddly with it and know their attention is diverted.

    The tech could be extremely useful in lots of scenarios where sociality is not necessary (e.g. Amazon warehouse staff could use the glasses as a HUD to fulfill orders faster). but I think the picture painted by Google so far is totally unrealistic. Who knows where it may end, but so far I'm not hugely impressed.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: I can think of more emasculating things

      I like people with bluetooth headsets. It lets you play the "crazy or on the phone" game.

      If you see somebody in the supermarket late at night having an argument with the carrots you have to guess if they are crazy or not before you are allowed to look for the headset.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I can think of more emasculating things

      So can I. I keep trying to talk my girlfriend into it, but she's rather reluctant.

  11. Francis Boyle Silver badge

    Dear Sergey,

    'Emasculating'. I don't think it means what you think it means.

    Oh, and while you're here, please stop the fuck trying to get me to sign into my Google account whenever I do a quick search for movie quotes I'm pretending to know by heart.

    regards - FJB

    1. Kevin Johnston

      Re: Dear Sergey,

      I would upvote you for the quote but then I would have to balance that with a downvote as it's inconceivable you don't know it by heart.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh the irony, Google have no vision at all which must be why they are pushing glasses.

    Everything Google have done so far has been a copy of something else that already existed or has been predicted in sci-fi of the past.

    Google glass is a geek toy and nothing more. You will look like a right plum wearing them, even worse than those awful bluetooth headsets.

    If you want to do something like a heads up display then you need to do it without forcing the user to wear something or use something to see it.

    Touch screen devices were hampered by styluses, preventing mass market adoption and Google glass is hampered by the need to have stupid looking glasses on your face.

    1. Kevin Johnston

      Excuse me but WTF?

      "If you want to do something like a heads up display then you need to do it without forcing the user to wear something or use something to see it."

      Just how do you suppose that is meant to be achievable...a HUD is a projection on "something" unless you were maybe expecting a free-floating hologram?

    2. NumptyScrub
      Terminator

      quote: "Touch screen devices were hampered by styluses, preventing mass market adoption and Google glass is hampered by the need to have stupid looking glasses on your face."

      Yeah, but installing cybereyes lowers your Essence, not to mention being much more expensive, and they don't have many upgrade slots.

      Also I don't think they've actually invented cybereyes IRL yet. I think we might be stuck with needing glasses for AR for a while :/

      1. Daniel B.
        Go

        @NumptyScrub

        So I see someone has been playing Shadowrun... :)

        1. NumptyScrub

          Re: @NumptyScrub

          If friends of mine weren't so set on breaking any system they come across, I'd still be playing it. Gun bunny is one thing, but a 19-dice rifle pool on a starting character (and<5 dice everything else)? That's barely even 1-dimensional :(

          Still, it means I get to try out quite a few different systems and see just how breakable (or not) they are... ;)

  13. Evil Auditor Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    "...leaves hands free..."

    To wank?

  14. bag o' spanners
    Devil

    Garden shears are infinitely more emasculating. It's all about the right tools for the job, as enny fule kno.

  15. Reyouthroot
    Thumb Up

    I for one agree, just because you’re a ‘Geek’ or an evolved man as I so often hear should not should mean you have to shed you masculinity as so many males have these days.

    I for one am sicken at the sight of young men standing around in bars in London wearing tight trousers and expensive shirts, foundling their mobile phones instead of talking to women as if the mobile phone is now their USP.

    It’s a sickening sight, no wonder the divorce rate is so high, when these boys have forgotten how to be masculine, just look at the amount of money men now spend on hair gel.

    (Oh well, I also blame the tidal wave of cheap & camp TV shows for that).

    I have even seen these ‘men’ when faced with fights, raise their mobile phones to their ear rather that put their fists up.

    Who would have imaged 5 years ago that a man would actually want a to own ‘white phone’.

    The corporate marketing machine have done their jobs well to dumb men down to point were there is hardly any boundary between men and women.

    So I say good to you, for saying how it is, as the truth hurts and often offends.

    1. frank ly

      re. "...just look at the amount of money men now spend on hair gel."

      Are you jealous because they still have hair to put gel on? I know I am. I used to be able to wear tight trousers and not look ridiculous - sighs.

      1. FrankAlphaXII
        Joke

        Re: re. "...just look at the amount of money men now spend on hair gel."

        When I was a boy, we didn't have these fancy tight pants, or shirts, or hair. At all! And if we were lucky enough to have hair we certainly wouldn't put such a thing as gel in it! We used pomade. And we liked it damnit!

        We had to walk 15 miles in a blizzard to go the drug store payphone to make a phone call. For a PENNY!! There was none of this new fangled devilry these damn kids call mobile phones. And there was only one phone color, black. Those were the days. And Men were MEN back then, I tell you!

        1. ChrisBedford

          Re: re. "...just look at the amount of money men now spend on hair gel."

          Aye well of course we had it rough. We had to work 15 hours a day, down at t' mill, for tuppence a week, and our dad would thrash us to sleep with razor, then dance on our graves singing glory halleluya.

  16. Sil

    Having glasses drowning you in video ads all day long and probably recording your positions if not what you see 24/7 a la Google street car may be even more emasculating.

  17. stefn
    Happy

    Is that a smartphone in your pocket, Sergie, or are you just glass to see me?

  18. disgruntled yank

    clearly

    If it's manliness we're after, Google needs to customize an NFL helmet. Some models already have radio built in (as for the the quarterback), some I think have plexiglass visors (as for linemen who need to protect their eyes from other linemen's fingers, all made since the late 1950s have various bars in front that could accommodate electronics. Nothing says stud quite like a Ravens/49ers/Cowboys helmet.

    Of course, that's with the full uniform of pads, cleats, etc. Worn with say the Steve Jobs turtleneck and jeans, nothing says dork (or even mentally unbalanced) quite like that same helmet.

  19. Atrophic Cerebrum
    Devil

    He got mixed up what he meant to say was:

    The consumption based internet is dehumanizing.

  20. mIRCat
    Black Helicopters

    “Is this the way you’re meant to interact with other people? It’s kind of emasculating. Is this what you’re meant to do with your body?”

    Good question, Sergey. What does my private data tell you?

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fix

    Put a google chip to our brains right Sergei?

  22. aqk
    Black Helicopters

    Thumbs!

    The new intromittent organ.

    Well, at least she can't "get into trouble" when the spermatozoa are basically electrons.

  23. ecofeco Silver badge
    Trollface

    Irony, He Haz It

    Does anyone else see the irony here?

    1. Ilgaz

      Re: Irony, He Haz It

      They are yet to figure the irony of Sun founder's famous Wired article.

  24. The Envoy
    Meh

    Huh?

    Penis!

    (That's all...)

  25. Gil Grissum
    FAIL

    Part of the problem. Not the solution.

    Hey guess what Sir-gay,

    YOUR ANDROID SMARTPHONE seems to be the Phone that the majority of penny pinching mobe owners are "hunched over" and being "emasculated" with. But you probably missed that while getting high and playing with your overhyped, over priced smart glasses. Ironic that your SMARTPHONES are particularly in the lead in developing countries where people can't afford your fancy glasses. Get over yourself. No one is falling for your word games and shelling out piles of cash for your POS glasses.

  26. Lghost

    Google is emasculating..

    http://catalystseries.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/anyone-seen-sergey-brin-like-this/

  27. The Alpha Klutz

    no human interaction is natural

    humans evolved conversation because they couldnt understand why the early days of humans involved 100% rape. we were all just rapin' apes. raping someone was like saying hello, because we hadn't figured out how to say hello yet.

    why can't we go back to the good old days?

  28. ChrisBedford

    two points come to mind

    1. probably the emptiest article I've ever read on El Reg. Basically one line from Sergei repeated several times with a few minor changes.

    2. probably the most responses to a pointless article I've ever seen. Says something about the social impact of the content!

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