Will Bill Gates' "Reality Acquisition Device" save the world, or destroy it?

Is this science fiction or horror? At a thing called the "D" Conference in Carlsbad, California, Bill Gates unveiled his idea for the ultimate personal digital assistant: a "Reality Acquisition Device." The Reality Acquisition Device will be a portable device, much like the Blackberry, that we will place in front of us as we move through life. It will help us answer questions such as "Have I been here before? Where did I go? Are there buildings or businesses that my social network of friends have told me about? What are the local issues related to those I have already expressed concern about?"

Blogger Hilary Rosen thinks we need Reality Acquisition Devices "to preserve our daily experiences...so that the next time Americans go into the voting booths they will look at their handheld before they vote and remember the thousands of dead and wounded in Iraq and still no strategy for victory or exit; the size of the check they wrote for their last health insurance payment and their fear if they didn't have any at all; the price of filling up their last tank of gas without an energy policy; a President who panders to religious conservatives by telling the rest of us what our family values should be...until the choice of the lever we pull in that booth becomes no real choice at all."

But if we need such a device to help us remember the atrocities of the Bush administration, then voting probably won't make much difference anyway, will it?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hilary-rosen/from-d-reality-in-the_b_21919.html