"Washing machines liberated women to get soul-crushing jobs that ate up their free time. Social media gave the world one revolution before it destabilised democracies everywhere else. Now AI is here, and its main job seems to be replacing screenwriters. It's easy to fall into techno-pessimism, but new documentary Seeing into the Future (Sunday 23 November, 8pm, BBC Two) has a different angle. For disabled people, tech has already brought about life-changing advancements. And we haven't seen anything yet."
"Some of the most casually astonishing scenes occur early on, showing how he uses his phone essentially, an eye with a mouth. What T-shirt is this? he asks, holding up a garment. A grey T-shirt with a graphic logo of Deftones, his phone obliges. It can even tell him if the shirt needs ironing. But it's where all this is going that fascinates McCausland, so he heads to the US, to see what's in development at the houses of our tech overlords."
A blind comedian demonstrates a smartphone functioning as a visual interpreter that identifies a grey T-shirt's Deftones logo and can tell whether the shirt needs ironing. He visits US tech facilities to test smart glasses from Meta that provide always-on live video interpretation and describe visual scenes. Wearable devices free users' hands and extend the phone's accessibility when portability is crucial. Conventional techno-pessimism is contrasted with examples of past technological shifts such as washing machines, social media and AI, while noting tangible, life-changing gains already delivered to disabled people and potential future advances that could further expand independence and daily autonomy.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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