How to ride the augmented reality tsunami without getting swamped
In an interview on ABC News’ “Good Morning America,” Apple CEO Tim Cook expressed strong interest in augmented reality (AR) and a lesser interest in virtual reality (VR). AR lets people be more “present,” he said.
In a VR headset, we’re isolated. Not so with AR technology. We can still experience and interact with our environment and other people. For this reason, the commercial potential for AR is larger than for VR “probably by far,” Cook said.
Did his remarks telegraph the company’s next new thing? Might Apple take off where Google Glass (Google’s AR venture) left off? If so and if others follow suit, AR might become as pervasive as smartphones and tablets, with widespread social impact.
Why is this a big deal?
- AR has the same power as words. Augmented reality overlays images and information onto what we are experiencing in an environment or on a screen. This is like the “additive” power of another technology invented thousands of years ago, language. Like AR, words cause images to be “overlaid” on what our senses show us. For example, if we’re sitting at a beach and say or think the word “apple,” a picture of an apple comes to mind, overlaying the sand, sea, and sky before us.
- AR extends language. When the AR technology is widely available, people will still communicate with language, but they’ll supplement words with images and graphic information such as charts, formulas, data displays, and simulations. This has great potential for collaboration and innovation in business and personal affairs; and for artistic expression.
But there’s a huge potential problem.
AR could magnify the main unintended consequence of language: the mental chatter that drowns out present reality, creates stress, and leads us astray. To ride the AR tsunami successfully, we’ll need to double-down on the language cure developed over centuries: taming our inner chatter through calm, peaceful self-reflection.
We’ll need to master mindful reflection sans words or media. We’ll need to go quiet and turn everything off, cold turkey, on frequent occasions — whether we call it meditation, meditative prayer, or simple mindfulness.
The trend toward augmented reality is part of supertrend #1, one of six supertrends toward a much better future.
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