I'd like to imagine Vernor Vinge's "Rainbows End" would be a better version of AR layering.

I'm a big fan of Accelerando as well, but only the first section had people wandering around with goggles strapped to their heads and computers on their belts. By the second section, everything got internalized and the main character from the first section was a throwback that didn't want to upgrade from goggles to a neural net. And frankly, the idea that everyone would be happy wandering around with a fat computer sucked onto their face is the most fictional part about that book.

I can't possibly imagine that there would be less demand for head mounted displays than other more geeky stuff like NAS boxes. I mean, the MYVU stuff sells pretty well, even though it's a low-resolution piece of junk that costs something like $200.

Newsflash, the reality is that surveillance technology is susceptible to Moore's Law. It's getting cheaper and better every year. It won't be too long before privacy outside of one's private bunker (and probably inside it too) is a luxury no-one can afford. I already own no less than four cameras, and that's not even counting things that /only/ take pictures. If some company released a product next year, some sort of pendant or pair of glasses that would constantly record to cheap storage media, I would buy it immediately because there are always moments I wish Iwould have caught if I'd only had my camera out at the time. I wouldn't wear it for personal security. I'd wear it to catch youtube moments. Multiply this by the local population, and you've got a de-facto panopticon.

That's the problem. People aren't going to pay attention to something that sounds like it's straight out of a science fiction movie. It's going to take a while before people accept something like this as possible. Post video to youtube and get it on TV and stuff.