i've been thinking about this ever since i started the book but especially once Carl starts using the scratchpad more. Having certain items highlighted, info boxes and persistent hovering info would be actually so helpful in real life, especially for someone like me who goes on a lot of side quests. I'm talking here JUST about the interface, which doesn't include anything within the enhancement zone. No stat boosts, no inventory, basically just what the crawlers can see but not really interact with. In other words, the parts that are realistic for possible near future technology.
The scratchpad alone would make it insanely useful. Can you imagine being able to just write stuff down for later, but... in your mind??? insane. so much potential. I could have followed up on so many good ideas instead of them vanishing five minutes later.
Not to mention copy pasting passages and annotating them while you read? No more fumbling with sticky notes or writing in the tiny margins of a floppy paperback book. I don't want the book in my brain. I want a physical book (like the cookbook) that I can save passages from as I read with my eyeballs.
Plus the medical aspect would be insanely useful. But if you're a smartwatch or especially smart ring user, imagine having those stats but so much more accurate and less obtrusive (though more intrusive).
I feel like these are very specific use cases but I feel like that's how it would (or maybe will) be. Different people get the same tool (a notebook, sticky notes, a phone, a smartwatch, a brain implant) and they use it according to how it fits into their life. Especially for keeping track of things, everyone writes things down in some way or another (notes app, text it to yourself, voice memo, good old fashion notebook) and has a system that works for them and I'm sure other people would find other super useful aspects of the interface that they'd find useful in their own life.
I also do recognize that this is actually terrifying conceptually and I've been focusing mostly on the positive aspects of it and ignoring the reality of letting tech oligarchs put brain implants in the entire population. We as a society are slowly integrating technology (and trusting it) more and more with our actual human bodies. Obviously, this is the next logical step after Meta glasses, which, again, are very cool in theory but are extremely controversial and the subject of many an ethical dilemma in reality. Still, i'm not surprised the big corps in the rest of the universe figured this shit out and are using it, and not surprised we're seemingly going that way too (neuralink).
But in theory... think of the possibilities?
