404 Not Found: Wearing the future

The California-based cyberculture magazine “Mondo 2000” published a photo essay in 1990 entitled “R U a Cyberpunk.”

It featured a long-haired, leather-jacketed model with the latest bits of technology clipped, attached and slung from every pocket, notch and loop.

Science fiction author Bruce Sterling posted a scan of the spread online, which is how it came to the attention of the wider Internet and myself.

"Since 20 years have passed, contemporary people will fail to realize that this was a comical self-parody," he captioned the photo.

Sterling has a point. The jacket, stun gun and combination-lock briefcase may be a bit much, but these days the idea of carrying an entire suite of computing power on a person's body at all time doesn't seem so strange - those of us with smartphones do it all the time.

But because I was raised on a healthy diet of science fiction, my interest in this area tends to go to extremes. I can't help it. When I look at new devices such as Google's Project Glass, I see the fulfillment of decades of daydreams and doodles in the margins of school notebooks.

For those not familiar, Glass is a yet-to-be commercialized experiment by Google in marrying the smartphone with a pair of eyeglasses.

My excitement to try these is entirely emotional; I may hate the specific implementation when it's finally released. But for my inner child, this “wearable technology,” as tech journalists, analysts and futurists call it, is 100 percent pure nerd fuel

Fiction has long predicted the marriage of clothing and computer. The earliest example I could think of is Dick Tracy, who sported a two-way Wrist-TV communicator. It's probably one of the more stylish examples I could find, but the world seems to have passed on wrist-based technologies.

The characters on "Babylon 5" - one of my favorite TV shows from the 1990s - wore communicators that stuck to the back of their hands. In a moment of uncharacteristic realism for science fiction, the characters frequently complained about these devices, as they painfully tugged the hair on the back of their hands when removed.

Moving up the body to the eyes, the VISOR worn by LeVar Burton's character on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" has a strong similarity to the Google Glass prototypes.

But the VISOR wasn't some fanciful gadget used for entertainment or productivity - Burton's character was completely blind without it.

As crazy as this sounds, this type of enhancement is starting to move into the realm of reality. Dr. Steven Mann is a Canadian researcher in this area who has constructed a device that's a dead ringer for the VISOR that allows him to see.

I could go on - fictional, wearable tech ranges from Marty McFly's self-drying jacket to Tony Stark's mechanical suit of armor. If Project Glass is an indication we're heading in this direction, I can't wait until the day that I can do both my clothes and computer shopping in the same store.

Maybe I'll end up looking like the Mondo 2000 model: a ridiculous, self-parody.

At least that way, I won't be the only one who's happy.