Apple is apparently developing a virtual reality headset for its iOS devices, and it could be the first major shift in the way we think about virtual reality in tech. Will it be a hit or a disaster? And what will it tell us about the future of virtual reality?
00:00:33.380So I have to say, I am rather shocked in a way that Apple is doing a headset.
00:00:43.880And I do sense that it might very well be a disaster because I think the metaverse or virtual reality has been a kind of long-term disaster.
00:00:57.440And I think it goes against a lot of what Apple has sought to do in the past and kind of how it's built up its brand.
00:01:13.240And again, I know this sounds like we're talking about tech now or whatever, but I do want to get deeper into the concept of virtual reality.
00:01:25.220So it all does relate to something bigger.
00:01:29.560But I think it's good to set it up with how this is relevant to the current day.
00:01:36.680So I can remember even when I was a kid wearing a virtual reality headset.
00:01:41.300I think I was actually at Dave & Buster's, which I don't know if they have those all across the U.S. or in Europe.
00:01:48.540But it's basically like a big arcade and restaurant, and they've got some pool tables.
00:03:02.160And I think the image of online gaming and virtual reality was extremely dystopian, and I think properly so.
00:03:15.240So it was, you put on these, you're living in these tiny, like, I don't know, 50-square-foot apartment stacked on one.
00:03:26.360You know, it's almost like you're living in a mobile home stacked up like a skyscraper.
00:03:32.180And you have, the real world sucks, everyone's poor and unhappy, but you can kind of escape into these virtual realms with your headset where everything is like a, you know, fantastical heavenly version of Las Vegas or something like this.
00:03:55.560And the image of virtual reality was, properly speaking, false.
00:04:01.360It was a way of not touching grass or gaining human connections.
00:04:08.680And I think at the end of the film, the, you know, madman who invented this game, who is a kind of, I don't know, like Steve Jobs slash Einstein figure, actually ended the game to some extent.
00:04:24.840And they, like, reduced game usage to two hours a day or on the weekends or something.
00:04:32.020And the hope was that you would actually connect in the real world.
00:04:36.580Recently, Mark Zuckerberg has pivoted to virtual reality in a way to try to save his company.
00:04:48.860I think he recognizes that as sticky as something like Facebook is, in the sense that it just seems to always be around.
00:04:59.920You'll everyone here, whether you use Facebook or not, you'll get some link to Facebook to sign up for something or whatever.
00:05:11.620There's going to be something that replaces it.
00:05:14.240And the thing that he found was the so-called metaverse.
00:05:19.960And he actually renamed the entire company and suites of apps, which include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and et cetera, that this will all be meta.
00:05:29.900But he was really making this huge bet on the metaverse.
00:05:35.100And a year and a half later, this has been a complete disaster.
00:05:40.820So he has, I don't even know what the numbers are.
00:06:06.860The introductory video for the metaverse was just totally bizarre.
00:06:16.260And it's like you can have some Tony Stark home that you can live in with all your stuff.
00:06:25.660And you can walk around in this Pixar version of yourself.
00:06:29.420And I remember looking at this thing where, you know, this was how they were pitching it to the public.
00:06:36.420And it was just all these just kind of weird Silicon Valley nerd types who are disconnected from reality and rather contemptible people, ultimately.
00:06:50.860I mean, Zuckerberg being paramount among them.
00:06:53.440And they were like meeting up in a space shuttle to play cards or something like this.
00:07:40.800I mean, I don't, I'm surprised meta hasn't collapsed more than this.
00:07:45.340And as you can, you know, there, there's all also been these just kind of crazy stories of people getting sexually harassed in the metaverse, or there's actually a rape in the metaverse.
00:07:58.000I read about this last night and it was, there, there's actually a video, there's not a video of the rape itself, there's a video of what happened before.
00:08:05.820And, you know, obviously it kind of sounds bizarre about this notion of, you know, if you get raped in the metaverse, is it a crime or something?
00:08:16.240And this is, this is either theoretically interesting or completely ridiculous, depending on your perspective.
00:08:22.020But, you know, to be completely fair, and in many ways to defend the victim of this, I watched the video of what happened before the rape, and it actually looked like any other rape situation.
00:08:36.360They were drinking, I guess, metaphysically drinking vodka and harassing this woman and trying to push her into a private room.
00:08:47.340And I think if, so in a way, I mean, again, I won't, is this legal, is this legally an assault or something?
00:08:55.340So, but in a way, it kind of was actually, it was reproducing in the metaphysical realm, all of the vulgarity, stupidity, and violence of the real world.
00:09:09.640It's like, there's this notion that almost like we would change in the metaverse, and we'd all become cool, peaceful, consensual, you know, Silicon Valley nerd types.
00:09:23.520But in fact, you're just reproducing in another realm, all of the problems of contemporary society.
00:09:31.400And you're not in that video that Mark Zuckerberg promoted, where he said, you know, oh, you know, face our mission has not changed at Facebook.
00:09:43.420And it's like, does anyone feel like we're more connected now, after this social media revolution?
00:09:53.740I mean, you know, to be fair, in many ways, we are.
00:09:57.700Many people on this call, we might not, we probably would not have gotten to know each other, if it weren't through the magic of Twitter, or Substack, or even you could say email, or the websites, you know, we wouldn't have connected.
00:10:18.700And so that is kind of an amazing thing.
00:10:22.340But obviously, the serious issue of living in a post-social media environment is loneliness, sexlessness, and suicide.
00:10:33.920And, you know, you can, I think I saw a lot of people kind of attacking that, that, that Facebook whistleblower who spoke before Congress, might have been a year ago or two years.
00:10:47.520But, I mean, okay, everyone deserves to be criticized, but I think what she was saying was completely real, in the sense that Facebook knows that young girls on Instagram are becoming depressed as a direct result of using Instagram.
00:11:11.540And that, on some level, Instagram has killed people, in the sense of inspiring, on an actuarial basis, inspiring more young, particularly girls, apparently, to kill themselves than otherwise would have.
00:11:32.060So, I don't know, it's like, these things, yeah, there are obviously great things about the internet.
00:11:39.200I wouldn't, my entire career has more or less been on the internet, but it's like, without, I think we need to recognize, like, the horrible quality of this, and the way in which the metaverse is just putting that, the, all of the awfulness of social media almost on steroids.
00:12:03.060I, so, there's actually an Israeli psychologist named Sam Vankin, V-A-N-K-I-N, and he, I don't think he has a book out about this, but I know he was doing research, and you just reminded me.
00:12:16.720So, there was a study, two studies done, one in 1985, that basically just surveyed some, I can't tell you the college, they surveyed and asked, you know, X amount of college students, you know, do you feel anxious often?
00:12:33.860And, okay, these kids are college age, more likely for, you know, anxiety or depression, you know, in your 20s or whatever, and then usually you level out as you get older.
00:12:45.480And I think it was, I believe it was 15%, I know it was less than a quarter, and in 2015, they did the same study, and it was, I want to say, like, over 50%, maybe 55, 60, something like that.
00:13:03.700So, it's anecdotal for me to say this, but, I mean, I'm not, it's not an exaggeration, and it's just, he said, what has changed?
00:13:13.500And, you know, here we can say, okay, like, maybe a little bit of that is the spiteful mutant theory or whatever, like the, just the fact that, you know, medical technology is keeping, you know, otherwise sicker people alive, and, okay, that's one thing.
00:13:28.600I think that's pretty minor in comparison with this technological transformation that's occurred, yes.
00:13:35.820Yes, and that's what he was saying, he goes, what else has changed, you know?
00:13:40.460I think the funny thing, or sad thing, is at the time of him saying this, it was probably about four or five years ago that I was listening to this interview, and he said something like,
00:13:51.580the most popular video on Instagram is of a woman eating a banana.
00:13:56.820I think it's the most watched video on Instagram.
00:14:03.280So, is she eating it in a provocative way? Is that what is going on, or is it actually more mundane?
00:14:09.160I believe, I believe, he didn't expand. I just, I assumed it was, you know, provocative.
00:14:14.080And the other thing, I'm going to need to see that video to make a determination about its quality.
00:14:19.120Yeah, right. But, you know, this might be old at this point.
00:14:24.980Like I said, this was probably about four or five years ago that I was listening to this interview,
00:14:30.000and he said something like, every time you post, it is a, like, signal.
00:14:35.840You're signaling something. Like, you're always telling the world, like, you know, like, you could say, like, you know,
00:14:41.900rest in peace, mom, or whatever, or, but it's always, fundamentally, he was saying, it's always, like, a me thing.
00:14:49.120And there's always anxiety-related, there's always a release of dopamine, and therefore anxiety.
00:14:58.900And what a lot of people, like, don't talk about when they talk about dopamine is that it is,
00:15:03.840it's basically increased in anticipation when you are feeling anxious, or it, or I'm sorry,
00:15:10.920let's just say this, it increases, with the dopamine increase, I believe, there is an increase in anxiety.
00:15:20.040But basically, like, every time you post, there is this, like, oh, who's going to see this?
00:15:25.120Oh, how are they going to react kind of thing?
00:15:27.000And it creates, like, obviously, unhealthier people, but also very narcissistic people.
00:15:33.500Or it at least selects for these kind of people.
00:16:27.220And I don't think it's just that, you know, these people who are sickly who would have died before the Industrial Revolution are now walkie among us.
00:16:37.180I mean, I think it's that kids are being exposed to social media so early on.
00:16:42.420And they are, you know, the world is inducing dysphoria.
00:17:01.240Like, Mark Zuckerberg and company know that this is, you know, just a disaster for people's mental health, etc.
00:17:11.680But, you know, in a lot of ways, it's a, I mean, it's obviously a monkey, a monkey, moneymaker, rather.
00:17:21.120And it kind of ties in with, like, the, I don't know if you're at all familiar with this, but, like, the surveillance capitalism kind of, the aspect of this.
00:17:33.560There was a book that came out about four years ago.
00:19:41.740And he also mentioned, quite correctly, that I am not alone in being just, like, at best and different and, at worst, antagonistic towards the notion of VR.
00:21:23.560Could it be almost like wearable mixed reality or augmented reality glasses where you can kind of see the real world, but tap into your text messages or whatever mapping?
00:21:38.020Like, you could wear glasses that could show you where you're driving to.
00:23:16.120It's the best-selling VR headset out there.
00:23:20.280And I would say that it has no connection to popular culture outside of a hardcore gaming community, perhaps, or someone who really wants to use Meta.
00:24:22.760And people, you know, I doubt this would be the first thing on their list, but people could make fun of me for, you know, missing this and just being totally out of touch.
00:27:58.980I mean, as the legend goes, he studied calligraphy at Reed College before he dropped out.
00:28:03.280And he was very interested in bringing fonts to the computer at a time when that was considered, again, kind of niche or irrelevant or unnecessary and so on.
00:28:15.620Now, I think people could not imagine using the computer without that kind of basic innovation.
00:28:22.340A lot of that came over from the Japanese.
00:28:25.560There's a really great NHK documentary that came out.
00:28:28.580It's in English about Steve Jobs in Japan.
00:28:32.020And I highly recommend people have a look-see at that.
00:29:02.520We're not going after some hardcore tech enthusiast audience.
00:29:07.840We're actually kind of ironically, I guess, kind of reaching everyone or reaching non-tech savvy people while developing technology at a high rate.
00:29:21.240That's the kind of contradiction or kind of balance, you could say, at the heart of Apple.
00:29:27.200And it's what, you know, it's like the iPhone had a, at the time, had a great screen and could do all this stuff.
00:29:34.540But it was really easy to use, intuitive.
00:29:36.980These are the kind of the common cliches that people say about Apple products.
00:29:42.340I just don't see how any of these things are possible with a VR headset.
00:29:49.280And I just don't think anyone is going to conceivably want to use such a thing.
00:29:54.420I think it has such dystopian resonances and is just so unattractive that it's only going to appeal to maybe that kind of tech autistic type who wants to who wants to do hardcore gaming, which, again, is a huge industry.
00:30:13.620But it's something that does not reach a mass audience.
00:30:23.340I think, by the way, people will not want to wear things on their face that makes them less attractive to mates.
00:30:29.280I think there's something about being like, you know, it's like an anthropological thing, right?
00:30:33.640Where, like, you know, you think about, like, all these people who like the context lens industry or the laser eye surgery business.
00:30:41.460And I must tell you, a major reason I joined the Apple cult was simply because, like, a lot of very attractive women were interested in Apple.
00:30:49.460And that was just not the case of all of the other products out there.
00:30:54.660And, you know, I think when you think of the iPhone, the iPhone is a kind of, like, remote for accessing the world, right?
00:31:01.800It's a kind of, like, you know, you push buttons and things happen on it.
00:31:40.700And she works for Magic Leap, which was part of the effort to clean up.
00:31:46.040She took over Magic Leap from the weird Israelis that were running it.
00:31:49.220And she told me, like, many years ago, she's like, listen, none of this stuff is going to work unless it's, like, actually making you more productive.
00:31:58.280Because you can justify the purchases that you make in life if they're actually making your marginal productivity of labor, like, better, right?
00:32:06.020So she's pushed very hard in the AR market, the augmented reality.
00:32:10.340And my understanding is the Magic Leap product is pretty good.
00:32:13.040And, you know, I don't really have any interest in it because I don't really, I don't, you know, I don't really want to spend any time in AR or VR for that matter.
00:32:21.780And I kind of feel like the cell phone is kind of good enough, you know, for a lot of things that I want to do.
00:32:28.060So that was another kind of, you could say promise or you could say fantasy about an Apple product is that it's going to make you more productive.
00:32:38.520Like, you're going to be able to engage and you're going to be able to become a graphic designer.
00:32:42.400I remember there was an Onion headline that was, like, unemployed mid-20s man justifies purchasing expensive Apple product on the basis that he will be a, quote, graphic designer.
00:33:00.580And obviously it's the Onion and so it's kind of funny.
00:33:05.300But, you know, it's funny because it's true.
00:33:08.320And it's promising something else that you can engage in.
00:33:13.740Whereas that video that Zuckerberg produced, I guess it was about a year ago or so, announcing the metaverse.
00:33:21.420I mean, I just watched that and I was like, I want to get, like, I want to get the hell out of the metaverse.
00:34:00.660And it's like the answer to that is yes.
00:34:03.860You know, it's like you can create a virtual realm that where, you know, it is algorithmic and it's much more controlled by logic.
00:34:16.400And so, like, it's a realm where it's like you get away from the reality and physicality and messiness of the real world and you enter this, like, idealized realm where, yes, like, the values of liberalism, the ADL, can be literally programmed into this world that you're experiencing.
00:34:38.480And, again, everything, I mean, I don't see any redeemable qualities to the metaverse.
00:34:49.280If you're a dork and you want to go do some hardcore first-person shooter with a VR headset on your face, then have at it, you know, like, have fun.
00:35:01.820But don't pretend that you are, like, innovating technology that's going to change people's lives or at least change people's lives for the better because you're not.