this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2024
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[–] [email protected] 94 points 10 months ago (6 children)

Do we really want to live in a world where people are walking around with these things on their face, gesturing around like they are insane?

It's bad enough to witness how awful public spaces have become since smartphones came out, but this is next level zombie.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 10 months ago (4 children)

It is inevitable to a degree. Obviously this is not the final form and I’m sure the goal is to make a more fashionable solution that fits into their phone/watch/airpods kind of edc strategy. But no doubt we’ll have a future where info is right there if we want it. This thing is the foray into developing that eventual product for Apple. To me it looks real dumb, but a sleeker version in the future that looks like glasses…well shit it might be nice to watch a show while washing dishes idk.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago (2 children)

But no doubt we’ll have a future where info is right there if we want it.

But we're already there. It's called a smartphone.

The value add of replacing a pocket watch or a cellphone with a device about the same size that also fits in your pocket but also gives you access to all the world's information in seconds is immense. And that's why the smartphone revolutionized the world.

The value add of having that information strapped to your face at all times is... just not worth the physical discomfort of having said device strapped to your face.

I say this as a VR user. A device strapped over your face really sucks and you can't wait to take it off. The only reason to tolerate it is that that's the only way to trick your senses into thinking you are somewhere else.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

I think they meant in the future when the form factor is the same as wearing glasses.

My glasses are on my face every minute of every day, except when showering and sleeping. I’m uncomfortable when they’re not there - and not just because I can’t see, but because I’m so used to it.

That’s probably the future - people being uncomfortable if a screen isn’t in their vision every waking moment, because it’s as physically comfortable and as “normal” as wearing glasses, and more comfortable than looking down at a phone.

It’d be an amazing feat for technology, but similarly as dystopian as having a social media-feeding PC in your pocket, or just any PC if you’re another generation older. Future people will eat it up though, just like we eat up the phones.

Now I’m imagining marketing where the old millennials are staring at their phones, and the young people are complaining about how grandpa never engages with other human beings or makes eye contact - but they’re still scrolling TikTok while talking to him.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

It would be ar glasses I’d think, not a headset with a strap. At least that would be my guess as to the end state.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I was looking forward to the Google glass. Not because it was Google but because if a heavy hitter drops something more usually follow. To bad it flopped. I would love having something like that instead of my phone. Especially once there's prescription versions of them.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I just want smart glasses like a smart watch. Show me notifications, let me decline calls, etc. I don't want all the VR crap, just like 4 lines of text.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Given the ability to verbally ask a gpt something now, the goggles would have been a great thing to release in about a year from now.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

That's why they released the pro now, so in a year when they release the $1000 "cheap" ones people will jump at the opportunity to be a part of the "in" crowd. 🤮

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I like to Google for questions I have. I would like for at least that much. Im with you on the rest. I don't need for it to have video or anything like that. Just basic features and text googling.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Yea, while it's way out of my price range and looks a little goofy, this is exactly what I've been hoping for as the next step to VR. AR (or whatever Apple wants to call it) is super fascinating, and will be pretty much the main reason for me to get a headset in the first place.

While it may have issues, I'm really excited to see how the market reacts to it, hopefully occulus or another company will try and compete. Feels weird to say, but I'm hoping Apple finds success with it

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

there are rudimentary holo projectors, that are big and can only do a few flickering dots. they will probably become better. it will be less weird when other people see what you're gesturing at. i think that's where we're headed

[–] [email protected] 20 points 10 months ago (3 children)

If people can behave, I don't care what they wear or what they watch

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

About 200,000 years of history proves that we cannot lol

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Did you not see the video of the guy wearing his new tim apple ski goggles, in his semi-self driving Tesla cyber truck?

What makes you think people can behave?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Those are fake, the apple vision pro bugs ten fuck out when it's I a moving car, so they couldn't have been using it. Its all for clout.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I want you to imagine a subway car, where 50% of the people have these on their face.

They are waving their hands around, sometimes accidentally hitting other passengers because of it.

They are too distracted to even catch their stop, so there's always extra chaos because of it.

Some are using apps that record what they are seeing and makes other passengers "naked" in their headset, which they share online. Privacy is a thing of the past because they can record what they see.

Imagine nobody being able to even have a conversation with other people, or make human connections with strangers, because the person across from them has a digital mask on, and you have no idea if they are even aware of what's going on around them.

Sure, you can have a great number of people "behaving" in this scenario, but is this something you want society to become? I don't. It deprives the human experience to an absurd extent.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I'm sorry, but do you just talk to strangers on the subway?

We already have smartphones that everyone is looking at anyway.

Before that we had newspapers.

You are making up an imaginary dystopia to peddle fear for no reason.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I’m sorry, but do you just talk to strangers on the subway?

I very often greet people, say polite things, perhaps engage in some light conversation with strangers. It's quite human to have these social interactions.

We already have smartphones that everyone is looking at anyway.

Yes, which is already bad enough. Why make it worse by having them on our faces?

Before that we had newspapers.

True, but newspapers didn't take people out of the environment they were in - it was simply an object within that environment in which people were still fully able to interact with the outside world uninhibited.

These headsets are designed to remove you from reality, while you are still in it. =

You are making up an imaginary dystopia to peddle fear for no reason.

Nah, I just see where corporate interests are trying to move society, and I'm concerned about the negative impacts it will have.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

These headsets are designed to remove you from reality, while you are still in it. How does AR/MR do that? Phones are more about that than AR/MR. Or even newspapers, which very rarely are about the thing you are actively doing and can be used as a physical barrier to separate you from other people. Unlike a pair of glasses...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

These headsets are designed to remove you from reality, while you are still in it.

Does Apple not know that human beings are not capable of multitasking?

You are either in the real world or you are in interacting in the virtual one. Even the visual distraction isn't something that our brains handle all that well.

People kill enough people while driving simply because they can't change a radio station while driving. Who expects an augmented reality system to suddenly be easier than that?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Old people usually strike a conversation.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Do we really want to live in a world where people are walking around with these things on their face, gesturing around like they are insane?

You've seen someone talk on radio earbuds when the phone's in their pocket? It's the second most creepy thing I've ever seen with a phone conversation.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I've had people looking at me while they are talking to people on concealed earbuds. It's embarrassing if you respond to them as if they were actually talking to you. But how would you know who the hell they are talking to? 🤷‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

Sliders on Peacock Season 4 Episode 4, “Virtual Slide”. Worth watching as this episode from 1998 realistically conveys the dystopian potential of VR/AR headsets. The headsets are centrally controlled and wirelessly networked. Topics covered include privacy violations, IP theft, manipulation of reality, social decay, virtual image and body autonomy, nested reality. It’s only taken 26 years to create a convincing reality that allows someone to wear the headset publicly with minimal problems. The fact that Apple hit the target on a 1.0 product is actually frightening. What will another 30 years of development bring?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I’m old enough to remember the advent of two of the most annoying pieces of electronics ever…

  1. The Bluetooth earpiece - which made everyone having a conversation look like they were either talking to themselves or possibly schizophrenic.

  2. Those god-awful push to talk walkie talkie type phones from mainly Nextel - which not only made you privy to the both parties conversation but had the freaking awfully loud and obnoxious beep in between switching parties talking. I wanted to strangle anyone using one in a restaurant.

I’m not sure that as a species we are capable of being present in the moment and not searching for that next hit of dopamine from a device with a screen. And Lord knows I’m as guilty as the next person.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I’ve had the Nextel beep as my SMS tone for almost 20 years now. Phone is usually on vibrate but the tone is there.

… I also have the “science is fun” song from Portal as my ringtone because it starts out with a noise that I can hear above the din and quickly gets really loud if I didn’t hear it. I had it as the Turret “hello?” sequence for a bit but that was super creepy.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 10 months ago

Wh do you care?