As the world’s top advocate for Google Glass, Sergey Brin has to say a lot of stuff in favor of the technology — even if some of it’s pretty dumb.

Brin, for example, doesn’t like touch screens. “I feel it’s kind of emasculating. You’re just rubbing this featureless piece of glass,” he said during a TED talk in Long Beach, Calif. today.

Some people have reacted to the supposed sexism embedded in Brin’s use of “emasculating”,  but it’s clear that Brin was reaching for a word like “disempowering”  – which makes a lot more sense in context.

But even if we substitute “emasculating” for ”disempowering”, does Brin’s argument hold water? I’m still not so sure. At this point Brin seems to be grasping for whatever arguments he can in an effort to convince the world that Google Glass is something that it needs. So far, though, most of his arguments have come up a bit short, at least if you’re the type of person whose skeptical about effusive claims about new technology.

Brin for example, loves to compare Google Glass to the smartphone, which, while amazing and life-changing  just isn’t good enough.

“The cell phone is a nervous habit. I whip this out and look as if I have something important to do. [Google Glass] takes that away,” he said. 

Invoking the cell phone’s social stigma in an attempt to justify the existence of Google Glass may seem clever, but it’s really not. The technology is only in its prototype phase, and yet it’s already raising all kinds of concerns about how it will change the way we interact with each other — mostly for the worse. (You think people constantly whipping out their cell phones is bad? Just wait until you start having conversations with people who are constantly looking at the little displays attached their faces. Something tells me that won’t be any better.)

I should mention here that I’m not anti-Google Glass, per se, and I’m sure I’ll end up using the device one day. But as cool/innovative/interesting as Google Glass is, I still haven’t found a compelling reason to be excited for it. Glass is still half-empty for me.