That demo actually made me excited. It was really great work. I wished their on-stage demo could have built off of that energy.

I noticed that too. It was a sensational, unexpected, brilliant demo that made me feel wonderful things inside, mixed with reflections about the entire human race, and then it was followed by an underwhelming, slightly silly and slow presentation. It didn't fit... it didn't flow.

But on the other hand, the fact that this seemed almost entirely unscripted (the presentation) and that Sergey felt strongly enough to go public with Glass as rough as it currently is, spoke more to me about the excitement and innovation going on at Google than anything else (seriously, Nexus Q?!?). As other posters have said, augmented reality like this is the future.

I get that they were going for excitement but for someone who wasn't watching it live I can't help like feeling: what a waste of bright minds. And I do think this comes down to the demo.

As others have mentioned there must be better uses but to me it seems like sensationalism that boils down to this if you weren't there: I can livestream something from (essentially) a helmet cam to a platform that not many people actually use.

I know I'm being cynical but I struggle to come up to a practical use where the technology does not already exist (thinking surgery, military, etc.) so my only assumption is they can compete on price or I'm just missing something and getting old.

It's not so much 'not missing the human element' as it is 'finding your mojo'. It's the first part of that whole keynote in which Google actually was itself instead of trying to mimic Apple's keynote style and approach. Immediately felt better (and more convincing, too)