indicative of attention-to-detail, “reading the fine print.” Optometry as a sub-discipline for the science of optics has produced remarkable innovations over the past several centuries. The advent of Google Glass points to a multi-dimensional convergence of “actual” and “virtual” in the domain of vision and optics. This might be a proper moment to reassert the philosophical, as wise arbiter, in the arena of ideas and technology. While it is true that research and development in optical technology have yielded amazing products, we might consider how advances are being applied. Optical technology is increasingly present or ubiquitous in war machinery, the systems of mass destruction. Even the foot soldier in today’s army is fitted with optical-enhancing technology.* Concurrently, optical technology is employed in a variety of robotics applications, with “game-changing” implications in the business sector, especially in manufacturing. Another area in which optical technology is having massive impact is in the communications and/or surveillance fields, which we might - somewhat ironically - call “media,” since the term