( CNN ) -- Years ago , a friend of mine considered getting a mobile phone , but he opted for a car phone instead . He just could n't imagine needing to call someone when he was walking around . As humans , we often have a hard time seeing the significance of new technologies . When the telephone came out , the telegraph companies dismissed it as `` idiotic . '' Many of the first television programs consisted of people reading radio scripts . According to popular legend , Thomas Watson of IBM once declared that the worldwide market for computers was `` five . '' When the web arrived , it was like an entirely new dimension . It allowed us to publish things into `` cyberspace , '' where anyone could see them . We could instantly pull up facts on any topic . Soon e-commerce emerged , allowing us to research products , buy things with one click and track our shipments in real-time . Social networks allowed us to publish profiles and learn about others in ways never before possible . It was a Cambrian explosion of knowledge . To this day , we struggle to remember what life was like without it . Should we fear mind-reading future tech ? The physical world , by comparison , is pre-internet . Each day we walk past buildings wondering what they are . We wait at busy intersections , hoping that a taxi will eventually come our way . We go to clothing stores blindly hoping to find things we like , and we cross paths with thousands of people , knowing nothing about them . For some reason this does not seem weird to us . It has always been this way . For the second time in as many decades , a new dimension is opening up . The mobile phones that once seemed so useless are now everywhere . And they are powerful -- with GPS receivers , gyroscopes , accelerometers , and proximity sensors . They can speak to other databases , access the internet , and publish things into the air above our heads . It 's a new type of spatial web : one that gives us real-time data about the people , places and things physically around us . Mapping and local search apps like Yelp have been popular since the early days of the iPhone . More recently , improvements in battery life and location technology have given rise to services like Uber and Lyft , which let you request a ride and track your driver as a moving dot on a map , coming to pick you up . TaskRabbit and Exec do similar things for local errands , and HotelTonight lets you book a last minute hotel nearby with the tap of a button . This new web is also changing the way we socialize . Imagine if you could see information about the people standing near you . Your phone could notify you when friends were nearby , help you remember people 's names , and surface the hidden connections you have with others in the room . Just by looking at someone you could know all about them . This is what we are building at Highlight . Do our mobiles own us ? New hardware devices like Pebble and Google Glass will be the early browsers of this spatial web , allowing us to see this information without pulling out our phones . Eventually it 'll move to contact lens overlays . With improved battery life and storage technology , we 'll be able to capture our entire lives on video ( or some equivalent ) and recall the past at any time . Imagine being able to go back to the first moment you met your wife or relive a family vacation you took when you were eight years old . The social , legal , and psychological implications are just staggering . So how do we feel about this shift ? It 's been fascinating to see how people react to Highlight . At first , the idea of sharing a profile with the people around you is a bit jarring to some . It 's not because we are inherently opposed to the idea . It 's because we 've never even had to consider it . It just has n't been possible until now . Just like with the Web , we need to figure out how we want to use this technology . What things do we want to share ? What should the social norms be ? What privacy settings do we want ? The potential of this technology is tremendous . Knowing more about the world around you just makes life better . It makes you more informed and educated . It saves time and reduces inefficiencies . Most importantly , it makes people friendlier . They smile more , talk more , see the hidden connections around them . In another decade , we are going to look back and wonder how we ever got by without this , and how we lived for so long blind to the world around us . I am excited for that day to come . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Paul Davison .
New tech has always been met with doubt , criticism but in the end , real-world application prevails , says Davison . Google Glass and Pebble will be the first to combine the physical world and the web . Davison argues this new tech creates more social people who are more informed and educated .