Vision Pro and Apple’s Vision

Apple product releases come with fanfare and a lot of noise.

Then there is the signal.

If you’re curious about the product specs and features, check out MKBHD’s video here. He covers the basics of what it does very well in about 20 minutes.

On the surface, I see lots of potential. I also see a lot of problems, especially the potential for exacerbatng existing problems with another piece of tech designed to capture (or contain?) one’s attention. It’s a deeply immersive headset after all. As a society we are in the midst of several self-made crises only made worse by outrage-amplifyng algorithms and dopamine-dosing devices. I worry that Apple’s Vision Pro could further disconnect some already very disconnected people to a degree that we’ve never seen before. ]

I also think it’s too easy to fall into the trap of seeking out the negative.

And that’s the noise.

Going a few levels deeper, I see something remarkable happening. This, I think, is the signal.

With Vision Pro, I think Apple is finishing what it started in 2007.

Apple's Vision Pro appears to be the first step in the complete dematerialization of physical TVs (screens) and movie theaters (film).

Which is utterly brilliant.

We went from listening to radio shows in the 1930s,

To watching TV shows, staring at CRTs in the 1950s,

To streaming Youtube, TV shows, movies and more on flat-screen TVs in the 2010s,

The iPhone triggered the mobile screen wave in 2007. 16 years later, Apple Vision Pro appears to be ending the era of fixed displays and location-based viewing.

Now, maybe for the first time, we're going to be immersed in the story? The potential for education, communication and story telling is mind boggling.

Imagine for a moment decentralized technology that enables meeting up in global town halls, like Twitter Spaces but as if we were there in person, and what this means to our world. Apple Vision Pro may be the first transformative tech tool that enables us to find our tribes, to meet, talk with and connect with people in Network States that are waiting for us to find them.

Apple’s Vision Pro may be the first tool that enables us to combine the disruptive power of Twitter with the storytelling, creative and imagination amplifying power of Youtube.

At first, I wasn’t sure where Apple Vision Pro fit in the Apple ecosystem of products. Now I understand that it’s an extension of Apple’s original Vision from 1977: “Man is the true creator of change in this world. As such, he should be above systems and structures, and not subordinate to them.”

Apple Vision Pro is a creative tool that can amplify existing and future tech that can enable us to change the world.

And to the naysayers whining about the form factor: It’s only a matter of time before it all fits in our contact lenses, our glasses lenses, or a neuralink firmware update.