The announcement of the Apple Vision Pro yesterday left me very conflicted. On one hand, the productivity gains that can be yielded by replacing the standard desk and monitor setups for myself and many others (and being able to easily travel with such large “screen space”) is very exciting. On the other, the dystopic future that was once predicted in 80’s science fiction is one step closer to becoming realized.
Spatial computing does seem to be the future and has been a long time coming with virtual reality headsets, but now it seems all the technologies, both software, and hardware, are falling together to make such devices now possible. The current limitations of screens, especially on mobile computing, certainly limits the way we can interact with our devices. For example, I choose to use a tiling window manager to maximize screen size on my laptop. Is this the best way to interface with my computer? For a small screen space, I think yes, but in general? Likely not. This technology opens many doors to the future of computing and interfaces with the technologies we all use daily.
But I suppose this greatly depends on how one uses such technologies daily. If one interacts mostly with their small-sized smartphone, exploring the cesspool of what are the endless feeds of social media and entertainment apps like my current least favorite thing in the world, TikTok. The current use of these technologies, from my use of experiences and observations of others, is opening an app Instagram for a few swipes, swiping to Twitter, opening a Snapchat notification, responding to a friend or group chat, opening TikTok, getting bored, and repeat the cycle back on Instagram (or another most desired app). But great news, this wasted time flipping through apps can come to an end! With such new technologies, one can have a YouTube video playing, while having their Snapchat open, flipping through their friends’ stories, texting in an iMessage group chat, all while scrolling for new crap they don’t need on Amazon. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?
Part of this truly scares me. I witness individuals scroll on TikTok, with their audio muted for extended periods. So, if an app like TikTok can be so addicting and stimulating on a small, 6-inch screen with, as seen, without audio not even necessary, how high is the ceiling of entrancement such apps can cast on their users with the levels of immersion spatial audio and video can give?
That is why I was always fascinated with the term “wirehead,” introduced to me by William Gibson in his Sprawl Trilogy. He used it to refer to individuals constantly “jacked-in” into cyberspace because whatever was in there, was “better”, at least in the current moment more entertaining or stimulating, than the life, their life, right in front of them. I always thought it was funny due to how closely this resembles the masses’ current use of smartphones, but now the actual wirehead is near.