#$3499 jfc

[probablyasocialecologist]

Through time, we’ve seen a progressive narrowing of how we experience entertainment: from the collective cinema experience, to the family viewing of the television, to the even narrower audience of the streaming service and various video apps, and now the expectation is that we’ll strap a set of screens directly onto our faces to ensure we can’t share an experience with another person. The development is a worrying one, and illustrates how disconnected tech executives are from real life.

The leaders of the tech industry are not only separated by much of the public because their wealth, experience of the world, and exclusive lifestyles, but also seem to have stunted social lives, or at least a lack of insight into the social nature of regular humans. They think an ideal way of living is one where as much as possible is mediated through digital technology because they have a specific interest in the tools that made them rich and powerful, and continuing a process that put them in that position in the first place. And while people have been open to going along with their visions, it’s pretty clear there’s a growing frustration and even dissatisfaction with the world they’ve created. Doubling down on it seems like a bad idea.

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Given that the Vision Pro will retail for $3499 and won’t launch until 2024, with an initial rollout limited to the United States, I think we have a unique ability to ensure this project fails. We’ve already seen how ridicule can take the hype out of a tech bubble, most recently with crypto and the metaverse, but a decade ago the same thing happened with Google’s attempt to make its Glass smart glasses happen. Instead, its users were termed “Glassholes” and the product was scaled back and sold as a niche enterprise tool.