More Isolationist Technology for the Masses

How much more isolationist technology do we need?

I can’t even blame Apple for this one. Vision Pro, the latest isolationist technology to hit the market from an already socially bereft global population that is still dealing with the hangover of 20+ years on social media. Do we really need this? It’s really a question and not a rhetorical question. I’m trying to be an honest broker when I talk about these things.

Look, I’ve been in the digital industry for a while. I know every trick, I mean feature, that these companies do, because I’m in the same industry. The killer immersive experience is to melt away the technology until it becomes invisible. Make the utility of the product so irresistible that you forget that you are even using the technology. That’s not always a bad thing. Product engineering is my specialty, but in a completely different industry. I own a small bakery making cookies and I’ve spent years product engineering some of my cookie recipes to create such delight that you feel you are eating sunshine riding on a rainbow of tasty bliss. Yes, I follow the rules of the bliss point. But what if I told you that the cookies I make, I don’t eat or serve to my family or close friends? I don’t do this, but wouldn’t you find that odd?

Lets take a stroll down technology memory lane and remember this very quote that Steve Jobs said 10 years ago, 2 years after the release of the iPad:

“Your kids must love the iPad?” He said “Actually we don’t allow the iPad in the home. We think it’s too dangerous for them in effect.” The reason why he said that was because he recognized just how addictive the iPad was as a vehicle for delivering things to people. That once you had the iPad in front of you, or when you took it away from the home with you, you’d always have access to these platforms that were very addictive. That were hard to resist.

Now we are going to put the equivalent of iPad ski-mask goggles on millions of people? I want to repeat, I’m not attacking Apple. They are just the latest company trying to secure the technology bag. My dauther owns an iPad, my wife owns an Apple Watch, and we all use Apple Macbooks. We just recently bought my son a PS5. I’m really taking issue with the public’s appetite to embrace what I consider another form of isolationist technology. Will all this technology lead to a road of productivity and human bliss? Here’s a typical marketing playbook:

1. Show a bunch of students in some Ikea-esque designed education classroom smiling with joy using the technology while “learning”
2. A bunch of young 30 somethings all in some bland muted color living room using the technology. They’ll make sure every race is accounted for.
3. A bunch of cubicle ridden employees in a conference room dragging fancy colored charts and graphs while the CFO nods with gleeful approval.
4. A video of some old lady or man with 100% silver hair using the tech in some hospital ward, allowing them to pet the dog of the kids in some remote upwardly mobile city or some downtrodden village
5. A bunch of AR robots dancing to some cool blockbuster song that transcends generations. Sometimes they’ll add clothing to the robots to humanize them. They’ll even teach the robots to breakdance. Yeah, that will get them on our side.
6. Have the largest technology reviewers review the tech and give it praise. No slam on them, they are just doing what they normally do.

This might sound like I’m some jaded old technologist waving my fist in the air and hoping we could go back to the good ole days of listening to music during the days of the Purple Tape. That’s not it. My concern is the general public, often times, does not consider the externalities and knock-on effects of how this technology re-socializes how we behave. Ready Player One, here we come.

Once we are done with the tech we cast off these devices like an old worn jacket into the trash never to be seen again. We need to understand that technology is not limitless with zero tradeoffs, and we often approach these new tech inventions with bedazzled eyes. There are social tradeoffs, environmental tradeoffs, etc.

Let me say this in a different way. It’s not to say these products are nefarious in nature but I’d argue that some of the creators are benevolent technologists. The Vision Pro is ground breaking technology. Like most Apple products it will likely leapfrog most of the current VR/AR products and we’ll forget about all the current products like the iPod made your standard MP3 player disappear from the market. The thought of a ski-mask goggle society of isolationists gives me pause. However, there is a silver lining. My next investment: Eye insurance stocks.