The Augmented Age
We are currently living in the Information Age, and the Industrial Age is still lingering around, but fading away rapidly. However, there are already large numbers of people in this world living in the Augmented Age. However, those people are currently leaping fast ahead of the rest of humanity, and soon we will find ourselves witnessing an uncertain Augmented Divide. The term Augmented Age embodies an Age where all physical objects not only generate information, but also a virtual information layer which augments the value and usability of those objects. The best current rudimentary example of the Augmented Age is the smartphone. It is not only a device of the Information Age, but a device heralding the new age. In essence the smartphone and specifically some apps, are augmented reality windows. Microsoft Windows provided us with the windows into the Information Age, smartphones are providing us fuggy windows into the Augmented Age. The most basic example of the Augmented Age is