Apple Vision Pro seems like a Mental Health Nightmare
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Apple Vision Pro seems like a Mental Health Nightmare
Counterpoint: Am I just old?
There’s a scene in Minority Report where Tom Cruise is alone, hopped up on drugs, and watching 3D memories of his ex-wife. It’s a dimly lit sad scene about a man who can’t let go of his past.
On Monday, Apple released a video for their new product Apple Vision Pro, A VR headset that will cost $3499 next year. Their product video shows an eerily similar scene of a man sitting in a dimly lit room, watching memories on his headset.
From a mental health standpoint, I don’t understand why anyone would…want this? My father-in-law passed away recently, and we’ve watched videos and looked at pictures. But tricking my brain into thinking I’m in a room with him…
I…just…don’t…know.
Photos and videos work as a healthy way of remembering someone because there’s a proscenium, a window separating you and said memory. When that line erases, what will happen to our brains?
Full disclosure: I never got into VR. I tried it at a friend’s place a few times, and it always made me physically ill within 10 minutes. I get it as entertainment, a fun thing for video games, but it doesn’t make sense outside of that.
The idea of “living inside” text messages or emails sends a shiver down my spine. If anything, I’m actively trying to detach from tech, reclaim my humanity.
And these are words from someone who loves tech, reads the Verge religiously, and has boxes of gadgets in his garage he should sell. I don’t consider myself a luddite, but the way tech is going…Maybe I am now?
It’s widely documented that our phones have made us more detached, anxious, and depressed. So, why would we want to amp things up with a $3499 headset?
But let me check myself before I, quite frankly, wreck myself.
Here’s a quote from Douglas Adams about technology:
Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.
Is he right? Am I just…old?
I don’t want to be old! I really don’t! So instead of going through that Apple video and shouting at the sky, I want to turn this over to you in the comments.
What am I missing about VR?
Apple Vision Pro seems like a Mental Health Nightmare
"Get off my lawn!" The crotchety old man yells at the little punks running across his immaculately manicured, emerald grass, as he struggles to get out of his rocking chair. "Those rotten no-goodnicks--always trampling my lawn, leaving footprints and BUTT prints everywhere! My grass will never be the same." he grumbles, shaking his fist at the fleeing, laughing children. One of the smaller kids trips on her untied shoelace. Landing hard and skinning a knee on the rough pavement, she begins to weep and sob. The little girl glances back at the old man, hoping he might show a little compassion and help her. For a moment, the ornery sod stares at the girl--their eyes lock, and he sees tears begin to well up. Then, he bursts out laughing! "Serves you right, you little BRAT! Let this be a lesson to you. STAY OFF MY LAWN!" He continues to cackle with glee, as the girl gets up and limps away. An almost giddy madness radiates from his eyes as his laughter wafts down the street...
"What's so funny?" The nurse enters the hospital room door, carrying a tray of pills. In front of her lies a withered body surrounded by beeping machines. The old man in the bed wheezes what might have once been laughter, a shrivelled grin plastered beneath a pair of VR goggles that barely fit his desiccated skull. The nurse looks at the computer screen and sees a program called 'Happy Times' running. "You're back in that one again, Doug? The amount you play it, it must really be something wonderful." The nurse puts down her tray next to the bed. "I'll let you have five more minutes, but then you'll have to disconnect and go to bed." Old Doug doesn't acknowledge her, so amused by the computer-generated memory he's enjoying. Until, that is, he hears a crash in his room. Gingerly, Doug pulls off the headset, blinking and squinting at the bright lights in his room. Then, he begins to laugh again, as he sees the mean old nurse trying to pick herself off the ground. "It's not funny, you old jerk!" the nurse yells. " I think I may have twisted an ankle! Push your help button, please!" But the old man just laughs, his cackles filling the room...
Inside a buried coffin, an eerie, blue glow radiates from a VR headset, sitting on the decomposing face of Douglas G. Waccamore. Even though he's been gone for months, his family decided to pay the extra funeral expense of having his fondest memories replayed to him. It costs $4000 per year to keep the feed running, but because Doug enjoyed his VR so much, they couldn't deprive him of it in the afterlife. After all, it's the memories that keep us alive when we're gone...
The Future
I'm not into this either, Bobby. My eyeballs aren't into this.