Put Your Goggles on and Buckle Up

Happy Sunday Friends,

The biggest hype this month is without a doubt the Apple’s Vision Pro release. If you’ve been on a silent retreat and don’t know what I’m talking about let me give you a quick intro.

The Vision Pro is a virtual (VR) & augmented (AR) reality headset made by Apple. This is how Apple describe it on their website; Welcome to the era of spatial computing. Apple Vision Pro seamlessly blends digital content with your physical space.

This description in itself is interesting and VERY Apple.

It is vague and doesn’t refer to AR or VR. My guess is that both AR & VR products have been in and out of the market for the past decade. We don’t seem to have gotten any real-world use for VR yet but AR has way more interesting use cases. 

If you’ve used Google Maps’s Live View then you’ve already used AR before. I love the live view, it’s useful when walking to a location in a place you’ve never been to before.

There are a few headsets on the market, I’m sure if you’re like me you’ve never purchased any. 95% of the use cases currently are for gaming. Like Nintendo Wii but on your face. The graphics and gameplay are average but I guess the selling point is that it’s seamless.

This is not Apple’s first rodeo though, they are marketing legends. They are cleverly positioning this as the new future of work and interaction with your digital world. Did you ever watch Minority Report and wish you could tap and swipe your screens like Tom Cruise does? You can’t deny it looked awesome. Well, Apple is offering a very similar interface. You can have multiple screens open in front of you and work between them, virtually.

You can superimpose them over the environment you’re sitting in or you can completely block out the world and sit in Leonardo de Vinci’s studio if that’s what gets your juices flowing.

At first glance, I am not that impressed. I don’t see anything ground-breaking in what Apple has developed. I am a bit of a gamer; I spent almost the full 9 hours of my flight to Thailand immersed in Zelda on my Nintendo Switch. 

If I could put a headset on and play as my character, in the game I would be all in. Love it! So, for gaming in the future, I think VR takes it to another level.Reports are that the movie-watching experience is also awesome. It’s like sitting in your own Imax cinema.

But, that is where my concerns start to roll in. “Your own” Imax cinema.

We have all gone to the cinema at some point in our lives on our own. I think I’ve been only once in my 40 years on the planet. If you’re watching at home alone then maybe, but imagine a couple sitting on the couch together but each has a headset on watching the same movie. It’s a fully immersive yet separate experience.

Technology like this excludes us from the real world. We are already so involved in our phones that people get knocked over crossing the street because they can’t pull their eyes away from their screen for 30 seconds.

Now imagine hordes of zombies with Vision Pro goggles walking the streets. I saw a video this week of someone in their Tesla, set to self-drive and they’re working with their Vision Pro on. We’re in for a world of hurt.

There’s a lot to think about but here are a few key talking points I’ve been contemplating this past week.

The Ethical Dilemma of Virtual Realities With technology like the Vision Pro, we are slowly blurring the lines between virtual experiences and real-life ones. On the one hand, I see the benefit of escaping from reality for a while. But, I’d argue when it’s presented in this way we increase the addiction to a fiction universe we’re creating for ourselves. 

A universe the real world will never live up to. Could we face a future where people prefer virtual worlds to real ones, and what does this mean for humanity?

The Isolation Paradox of Connected VR WorldsVR promises unparalleled connectivity to distant friends, virtual communities and places you’ve never travelled to. Yet, there's a paradox where users become more isolated from their immediate physical surroundings. 

We may become so used to the convenience of interacting with people without having to leave our houses that this becomes the norm. Imagine you can video call a friend and they are instantly transported to the same place you’re in “with you”. Sounds great. Or does it?

VR and Mental HealthA Double-Edged Sword: I see scenarios where this technology has potential in therapeutic settings, such as treating phobias, PTSD, and anxiety. But, when we solve one problem do we create another? I can also see it creating higher levels of dissociation and mental health issues like fear of public spaces and large crowds. 

We are already seeing higher rates of depression and suicides in teens. They are a generation who have been deep in society since the day they could speak.Adding more time, in more excluded “social” environments can only make that situation worse.

Preserving Memories with VR and AR Imagine a future where you can relive your favourite memories through VR or have deceased loved ones appear in your daily life via AR. Our brains are incredible but the reality is they cannot retain everything. 

I have experiences from my childhood that I wish I could remember more vividly. Sure, I’ve got photos but how great would it be to be able to replay memories as I saw them, like an old school home movie? 

Would this help us grieve loved ones who have died? Or, would it make it much harder because we’re not equipped as a species to deal with loss in this way?

AR in EducationA Revolution or a Distraction? Think about a geography teacher not just teaching her class about a volcano in Hawaii but rather taking the kids right into the heart of it. You can let a child in a rural town in India experience what it’s like to climb the Eifel Tower and watch the sunset over Paris. 

For learning the use cases are limitless and exciting.

Again though, more questions. If you can do the above then why even have a physical classroom? You could have a virtual school where children from all over the world attend and listen to the same teacher, in their native language.Would this foster deeper engagement and understanding or distract students and isolate them?

There are obvious, amazing use cases for technological advances like this. But, as we improve technology at the speed of light, we often forget about the social, ethical and emotional dimensions of advancement. 

As we race forward into the future we forget our brains, at their core are still sitting back in the dark ages. Can we adapt and evolve quickly enough to handle what is coming our way?

Or, will Elon Musk come to the rescue with Neuralink for the masses? Finally advancing our lizard brains the thousands of years we need to handle tech advancement.

Exciting and interesting times.

Peace, love and muscles.

Jazza

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