Technology

Quiz: Are You a True Tech Geek?

By Megan Garber

A tech Rorschach featuring cameos from Google, virtual reality, your eyeballs.

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What if these were computer screens? (Shutterstock/Dom)

Want to know if you're a real, true tech geek? Not just an appreciator of the smartphone, or a connoisseur of the tablet, or an aficionado of the animated GIF ... but a tried-and-true, to-the-core technology nerd?

Here's a pretty good test. It has only one question.

Google X is the experimental lab that will soon be bringing Project Glass (street name: Google Goggles) to market. And it would like to extend the technology of those nerdy-chic augmented reality glasses. In an interview with Fast Company, Project Glass product lead Steve Lee mentioned the challenges of creating AR glasses that can fit every user -- even people who already wear standard eyeglasses. The down-the-road solution, Lee suggested, could be the manufacture of virtual reality contact lenses. At this point," he said, "it seems like a natural evolution."

Here is the test. Is this (A) awesome or (B) horrifying?

If you answered B:
You are (sorry) not a full tech geek. You appreciate technology and all it can do to help improve people's lives ... but you also think it is and should be limited in its reach. Humans are humans; tech is tech. And while you recognize that there's really very little difference between glasses and contacts ... given a choice, you'd prefer a little distance between your computer screen and your eyeball.

If you answered A:
Congratulations! You are a true tech geek. You love technology with a wild abandon, and are both hopeful and expectant about tech's potential to make humans better at being human. You are probably wearing a Fitbit right now, and you are probably loving it. You're excited about DARPA's attempts to create virtual reality contacts for military purposes. You assume that the lenses will prove their utility far beyond the battlefield. And you hope that virtual reality contacts will be available for your own world-augmenting enjoyment well before 2014.