Thursday June 7th, 2023
Despite the technology being very impressive and potentially groundbreaking, the trailer was so creepy to me!
I’ll embed the trailer and keynote below, plus maybe a few additional thoughts. Because why not, I can do fun things like that on my blog!
The 10-minute trailer:
I still can’t get over the visual of the dad watching his kids while looking like a Borg. It becomes more hilarious to me each time I see the clip, haha.
The full keynote, with the timestamp marked to play at the Apple Vision Pro segment:
I was also very confused by the visual choices during the main presentation. Why does it make everyone look like they are in toaster ovens, or hamster cages? What was the design philosophy behind this? What was the desired audience reaction? Because if it was to make the viewer feel this new piece of tech would make you feel isolated and creepy, then they succeeded with my impression.
Impressions & Thoughts
What caused the creepiness factor to me is how consumption-focused the trailer is. I’m sure (or at least, I hope) this will change as software is developed, but I am going by what we were presented in the presentation for now.
The images that stood out to me are both how isolating the device looks like it will be. With the trailer’s emphasis on how you can completely block out the world in favor of 100-foot high screens, it seemed like a bleak visual to me, and not inspiring. I suspect if the presentation had included more productivity or creation-focused applications, instead of being zombies immersed in content fed directly into your eyeballs, it might have given me a different impression.
If they had shown it, I could easily imagine this being brilliant for 3D-sculpting directly with your hands, or being able to paint digitally without being limited by physical screen size. This might have made it feel very inspiring, instead of vaguely creepy or unsettling. It’s the focus on delivering us “content” in an ever-more frictionless, addictive (or “immersive”) way that feels unsettling.
Even if it had shown those, I still feel like the gargantuan resources to develop these is almost superfluous – relative to how much it might benefit people. Huge amounts of time and money invested for … what? To compel us to be addicted to our screens even more than we currently are? To be slightly more comfortable while typing up Excel files? To creep out (or amuse) remote colleagues with personas solidly within the realm of the uncanny valley?
Human Innovation
Throughout the 10-minute trailer, I couldn’t get this thought out of my head. It felt weird to be watching this stunning display of innovation and technological advancement – and then dismaying to see what all this human innovation is being used for. To allow us to view photos slightly better (“expand them to your entire room!”). To allow us to consume entertainment slightly better (“view your shows on a 100-foot screen!”). To allow us to video call in a … slightly worse way (why would you be spontaneously wearing those goggles while packing?).
To make our lives slightly more comfortable. Not even to revolutionize it in a remarkable way! Merely to see your apps slightly better in augmented-reality 3D. Or persuade you to be lazy on the couch even more than you are probably already guilty of (I know I am).
It seems like such a waste of the brilliant minds who are surely at Apple, and who are no doubt capable of doing incredible good for humanity if they had either the opportunity or the incentive.
I am probably also biased toward this line of thought, because this is largely the issue artists over the past year have had toward generative image A.I. (sometimes known as “A.I. Art,” though I personally dislike this term). It has felt more like “technology for technology’s sake,” instead of “technology to better our lives.” Or, if you want to wax poetic – “to better humanity.”
It feels like that has become lost. In the rush of returned investments, of venture capital, of meaningless clout. Current incentive structures are set up in a way to erase the people who will end up being the consumers of this technology. Generative image A.I. companies are incentivized to erase human artists, AR/VR companies seem to be incentivized to erase meaningful human interaction.
I’m hopeful that there seems to be growing awareness by people outside of art communities about these concerns. And hopefully this rant will seem silly in a few years, and this technology really will be used to improve many people’s lives.
Either that, or we’ll all become Borg by then.
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