Mask of the Moon Moth.

The title for today's post comes from a short science fiction story I read in college. (It starts on p. 116 of this book) The basic concept of the story is a society where everyone wears masks, and people change identity with a change of the mask. Everyone knows that everyone else has more than one mask, but it is considered improper to acknowledge that it's the same person beneath different masks. Thus, everyone takes for granted the mask presented them.

St. Louis isn't a ReDS zone yet, but with the state of things down river (Check out the story disease central in stories, I can't link directly), the city is being extra cautious. Assembly12 has closed down a lot of business and called of many events. The old city hospital has apparently been refitted as a ReDS Hotel. And Masks have become the latest fashion.

I'm sure in your own cities you've seen the face covers being used, and now stores carry designer masks, Walmart has masks with your favorite characters on them. Hell, Even I wear one, though I still consider myself above petty germophobia. I've exposed my immune system to enough that I'm confident of it's Darwinian excellence. I just hate the bad pollution days, and I don't seal myself in an air-conditioned bubble so I have to deal with it more than most. Walking down the street in St. Louis these days is like walking in Singapore during the bird flu scares. Over half the people you see will be wearing a mask of some kind. Combine the mouth and nose covering with sunglasses and a hat, and you can barely see anyone's face.

Bet the cops feel really silly about paying for that expensive facial recognition software for the public security cameras now, don't they?

That's all well and good on it's own, but something else interesting is happening. Many of those people are currently using Augmented Reality goggles as well, and they are broadcasting their Personal profiles so that other people who look at them in AR can get their name, etc. This isn't new either, AR enabled social software has been in use by a lot of people for a year now. It's the intersection which has gotten interesting. Since people can't see your face, but they CAN see your public profile in AR, they are forced to accept that you are who you say you are. Switch Profiles, and you switch names, interests, personality. Public interaction IRL is starting to take on the same pseudonymous quality as Internet interaction has.

I've been experimenting with this as I walk around town today. A few different profiles, and I can do some pretty interesting things. I spent a half hour talking to a woman in the loop, then walked around the block and changed profiles. When I came back to her she didn't recognize me, even when I waved. People who snubbed me with one profile greeted me as a compatriot with a changed one. I spent the afternoon flirting with dissociative disorder. I'm already thinking of a few dozen ways this new development could be used or abused. Is anyone seeing this anywhere else? Who else has fun ideas?