If his performance at the Golden Globes earlier this year said anything about Ricky Gervais, it’s that the comedian doesn’t pull his punches or censor his opinions. Such was also the case on a recent episode of “The Ricky Gervais Show,” an animated HBO series based on the podcast of the same name.

But this time Gervais’ victim wasn’t the low-hanging fruit of Hollywood. Instead, Gervais has let it known that he thinks augmented reality is “a load of bollocks.” Gervais wasn’t pontificating on the latest trends in technology. He was engaged in a lively, comedic discussion with his fellow show stars Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington in which the later was discussing his vision for the future.

After pointing out that in the future, the human species will be significantly weaker in strength, pants will be evolutionarily eliminated from existence and all of our food will be consumed in a blended paste form, Karl suggests the idea of augmented reality technology within an everyday pair of bifocals.

“Everything that’s real, you’re not looking at that anymore. This is really the future,” Karl says. “If you’re a young kid and you like the idea of living in the urban ghetto with all the graffiti on the walls, you can see that.”

“What you mean is that the stuff that’s there in the real world is being digitally reimagined in your glasses,” adds Merchant. “So what was a nice country lane is suddenly now an urban ghetto.”

Those familiar with augmented reality can immediately recognize Karl’s vision of the future, and one could say that this technology is not far off. The building blocks of such a future are being placed as we speak. But Gervais wasn’t convinced.

“Absolutely mental. Pointless. Won’t ever work. Absolutely one of the maddest things you’ve ever said,” he retorts. “That’s a load of bollocks.”

Obviously, we disagree with Mr. Gervais, but he’s still entitled to his opinion. Check out this YouTube clip of the discussion of the future (AR shows up at 3:53) or watch the embedded version after the jump and let us know what you think of Gervais’ dismissal of AR.

We’re with you, Karl!

Art is everywhere. Whether as simple as a crude marker sketch in a bathroom stall, or as intricate as a mixed-media mural covering the side of a building, there are dozens of inspired artistic creations free to view right outside your door. 

These pieces are often hidden in back alleys and tunnels, or painted over by the city or a rival artist, however, with MOB‘s new mobile streetARt application (available for free in the iTunes store), you can see the many different types of public art around you, past and present.

MOB developer Rob Manson has talked about street art with colleagues for years, as there are hundreds of great public art pieces on the streets and at skate parks near his house in Bondi Beach, Australia as well as in Sydney and Melbourne. Once the Layar Player became available for iPhone, Manson wanted to create an app to show it off that used widely distributed content in the AR view, so an ever-growing international collection of street art was the perfect fit.

Manson started the content-gathering process by running scripts across Flickr, which resulted in about 30,000 street art images in over 500 locations. The streetARt app then adds to that content, allowing users to snap photos and upload them directly to streetARtAPP.com.

In the iPhone app, users join the streetARt community by connecting their Twitter accounts where they can “like” and comment on photos as well as upload their own from inside the app. Currently the “likes” and comments are only visible to other app users, but Facebook/Twitter sharing is coming soon, along with other features like permalinks and advanced filtering options.

While Layar Player (and therefore the streetARt app) is currently only available for iPhone, streetARt’s content is fully viewable from within the Layar application, so both iPhone and Android users can view the images.

MOB is an Australia-based business innovation lab focused on mobile and online platforms. A member of the Layar Partner Network, MOB is responsible for the BuildAR layer creation tool as well as numerous other layers.