RadixJournal - May 17, 2023


Fear Goggles


Episode Stats


Length

35 minutes

Words per minute

145.18053

Word count

5,112

Sentence count

336

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Toxicity

4

sentences flagged

Hate speech

5

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

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?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 I don't know if everyone else is going to be excited to talk about this.
00:00:03.700 But I actually wanted to talk about the rumored Apple headset, which apparently is going to be announced in June.
00:00:19.960 And I think this is real.
00:00:21.640 Now, a lot of things get, there are a lot of rumors about things that Apple is going to produce that never come about.
00:00:31.340 But the headset is real.
00:00:33.380 So I have to say, I am rather shocked in a way that Apple is doing a headset.
00:00:43.880 And 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.
00:00:57.440 And 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.
00:01:13.240 And 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.
00:01:25.220 So it all does relate to something bigger.
00:01:29.560 But I think it's good to set it up with how this is relevant to the current day.
00:01:36.680 So I can remember even when I was a kid wearing a virtual reality headset.
00:01:41.300 I 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.
00:01:48.540 But it's basically like a big arcade and restaurant, and they've got some pool tables.
00:01:54.720 But it's pretty nice.
00:01:56.900 And I would go there.
00:01:58.800 I actually played pool with my grandfather.
00:02:00.720 I remember tons of birthdays were there.
00:02:02.580 So it's kind of like an adult or classy version of Chuck E. Cheese, I guess you could say.
00:02:10.880 But I remember they had this VR headset station in the arcade.
00:02:20.260 I remember putting it on.
00:02:21.560 It made me dizzy.
00:02:22.960 You were in a kind of Tron-like environment.
00:02:26.480 And there was the promise even then, this is probably in the late 80s, early 90s, that this is the future and blah, blah, blah.
00:02:33.600 And VR headsets have definitely been discussed and talked about in science fiction and so on.
00:02:44.280 And I think often, very often, in dystopian ways, there was actually a pretty good film that came out five or so years ago.
00:02:53.060 It was based on this kind of best-selling book that I think was almost like a self-published bestseller or something.
00:02:59.000 It's called Ready Player One.
00:03:00.960 Spielberg directed it.
00:03:02.160 And I think the image of online gaming and virtual reality was extremely dystopian, and I think properly so.
00:03:15.240 So it was, you put on these, you're living in these tiny, like, I don't know, 50-square-foot apartment stacked on one.
00:03:26.360 You know, it's almost like you're living in a mobile home stacked up like a skyscraper.
00:03:32.180 And 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.
00:03:53.000 So it was a kind of dystopian.
00:03:55.560 And the image of virtual reality was, properly speaking, false.
00:04:01.360 It was a way of not touching grass or gaining human connections.
00:04:08.680 And 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.
00:04:24.840 And they, like, reduced game usage to two hours a day or on the weekends or something.
00:04:32.020 And the hope was that you would actually connect in the real world.
00:04:36.580 Recently, Mark Zuckerberg has pivoted to virtual reality in a way to try to save his company.
00:04:48.860 I think he recognizes that as sticky as something like Facebook is, in the sense that it just seems to always be around.
00:04:59.920 You'll everyone here, whether you use Facebook or not, you'll get some link to Facebook to sign up for something or whatever.
00:05:05.540 That it is on its way out.
00:05:11.620 There's going to be something that replaces it.
00:05:14.240 And the thing that he found was the so-called metaverse.
00:05:19.960 And he actually renamed the entire company and suites of apps, which include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and et cetera, that this will all be meta.
00:05:29.900 But he was really making this huge bet on the metaverse.
00:05:35.100 And a year and a half later, this has been a complete disaster.
00:05:40.820 So he has, I don't even know what the numbers are.
00:05:43.900 It doesn't matter.
00:05:44.640 He has simply lost billions.
00:05:46.720 There is no excitement for the metaverse outside of a few early adopters and various tech nerds.
00:05:58.700 It has not taken on, it has not captured the imagination of the public at large.
00:06:05.580 And I can see why.
00:06:06.860 The introductory video for the metaverse was just totally bizarre.
00:06:16.260 And it's like you can have some Tony Stark home that you can live in with all your stuff.
00:06:25.660 And you can walk around in this Pixar version of yourself.
00:06:29.420 And I remember looking at this thing where, you know, this was how they were pitching it to the public.
00:06:36.420 And it was just all these just kind of weird Silicon Valley nerd types who are disconnected from reality and rather contemptible people, ultimately.
00:06:50.860 I mean, Zuckerberg being paramount among them.
00:06:53.440 And they were like meeting up in a space shuttle to play cards or something like this.
00:07:00.620 And one of them was a robot.
00:07:02.660 And it just, there was, I don't know how to describe, I can't put into words.
00:07:07.140 I guess Uncanny Valley is one of them where it's like you're, it's like bad technology, but then bad real life.
00:07:16.020 It's like the worst of both worlds.
00:07:18.220 It's like you're not, you're not even seeing technology as something that's advancing your life.
00:07:23.340 You're seeing technology as this dorky, kind of scary and creepy, in many ways, replication or re-presentation of real life.
00:07:37.540 And it's just extremely unattractive.
00:07:40.800 I mean, I don't, I'm surprised meta hasn't collapsed more than this.
00:07:45.340 And 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.
00:07:58.000 I 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.
00:08:05.820 And, 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?
00:08:16.240 And this is, this is either theoretically interesting or completely ridiculous, depending on your perspective.
00:08:22.020 But, 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.
00:08:36.360 They were drinking, I guess, metaphysically drinking vodka and harassing this woman and trying to push her into a private room.
00:08:47.340 And I think if, so in a way, I mean, again, I won't, is this legal, is this legally an assault or something?
00:08:54.640 I don't know. 0.97
00:08:55.340 So, 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. 0.71
00:09:09.640 It'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. 0.81
00:09:23.520 But in fact, you're just reproducing in another realm, all of the problems of contemporary society.
00:09:31.400 And 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.
00:09:41.500 It's still about connecting people.
00:09:43.420 And it's like, does anyone feel like we're more connected now, after this social media revolution?
00:09:53.740 I mean, you know, to be fair, in many ways, we are.
00:09:57.700 Many 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.
00:10:18.700 And so that is kind of an amazing thing.
00:10:22.340 But obviously, the serious issue of living in a post-social media environment is loneliness, sexlessness, and suicide.
00:10:33.920 And, 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.
00:10:47.520 But, 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.
00:11:11.540 And 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.
00:11:32.060 So, I don't know, it's like, these things, yeah, there are obviously great things about the internet.
00:11:39.200 I 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.
00:12:03.060 I, 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.
00:12:16.720 So, 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?
00:12:33.860 And, 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.
00:12:45.480 And 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.
00:13:03.700 So, 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?
00:13:13.500 And, 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.
00:13:28.600 I think that's pretty minor in comparison with this technological transformation that's occurred, yes.
00:13:35.820 Yes, and that's what he was saying, he goes, what else has changed, you know?
00:13:40.460 I 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,
00:13:51.580 the most popular video on Instagram is of a woman eating a banana.
00:13:56.820 I think it's the most watched video on Instagram.
00:14:03.280 So, is she eating it in a provocative way? Is that what is going on, or is it actually more mundane?
00:14:09.160 I believe, I believe, he didn't expand. I just, I assumed it was, you know, provocative.
00:14:14.080 And the other thing, I'm going to need to see that video to make a determination about its quality.
00:14:19.120 Yeah, right. But, you know, this might be old at this point.
00:14:24.980 Like I said, this was probably about four or five years ago that I was listening to this interview,
00:14:30.000 and he said something like, every time you post, it is a, like, signal.
00:14:35.840 You're signaling something. Like, you're always telling the world, like, you know, like, you could say, like, you know,
00:14:41.900 rest in peace, mom, or whatever, or, but it's always, fundamentally, he was saying, it's always, like, a me thing.
00:14:49.120 And there's always anxiety-related, there's always a release of dopamine, and therefore anxiety.
00:14:58.900 And what a lot of people, like, don't talk about when they talk about dopamine is that it is,
00:15:03.840 it's basically increased in anticipation when you are feeling anxious, or it, or I'm sorry,
00:15:10.920 let's just say this, it increases, with the dopamine increase, I believe, there is an increase in anxiety.
00:15:20.040 But basically, like, every time you post, there is this, like, oh, who's going to see this?
00:15:25.120 Oh, how are they going to react kind of thing?
00:15:27.000 And it creates, like, obviously, unhealthier people, but also very narcissistic people.
00:15:33.500 Or it at least selects for these kind of people.
00:15:38.340 Yeah, there's no question.
00:15:39.600 I think it has increased a certain, obviously increased anxiety, and it has increased a certain type of narcissism as well.
00:15:49.800 The caring about what happens on social media and how you're viewed on social media, as opposed to the real world.
00:15:57.220 I mean, yeah, it's kind of created a certain dysphoria, I think might actually be the right word. 0.92
00:16:05.200 And it's certainly been connected to the increase in gender dysphoria.
00:16:12.380 Again, I think the spiteful mutant thesis is something that everyone should pay attention to.
00:16:17.720 Like, there's no question.
00:16:19.020 But I think it is just, like, dramatically overshadowed by technological changes.
00:16:26.100 Yeah.
00:16:27.220 And 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.
00:16:37.180 I mean, I think it's that kids are being exposed to social media so early on.
00:16:42.420 And they are, you know, the world is inducing dysphoria. 0.99
00:16:47.720 Yeah, I definitely agree.
00:16:53.780 I'll have to dig up that interview, but he was basically saying, you know, the same stuff that you've been saying.
00:17:00.160 Like, they all know this.
00:17:01.240 Like, Mark Zuckerberg and company know that this is, you know, just a disaster for people's mental health, etc.
00:17:11.680 But, you know, in a lot of ways, it's a, I mean, it's obviously a monkey, a monkey, moneymaker, rather.
00:17:21.120 And 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.
00:17:33.560 There was a book that came out about four years ago.
00:17:36.020 Yeah.
00:17:36.460 It's kind of another topic.
00:17:38.020 But anyway, you know, just as far as, like, the data mining is concerned and all that, that's, I'm derailing now.
00:17:47.160 No, no, it's fine.
00:17:48.140 Yeah.
00:17:48.420 I have not read that book.
00:17:49.860 It's actually quite humongous.
00:17:52.580 But that notion of surveillance capitalism has entered the discourse.
00:17:57.840 And we all know what's happening.
00:18:00.240 Yeah.
00:18:01.560 Okay.
00:18:02.000 Let me talk a little bit about Apple.
00:18:05.940 And I guess kind of, like, why I am surprised that they are doing this.
00:18:14.260 Now, again, we don't know what this thing is.
00:18:17.140 I think it is pretty much guaranteed that it is going to be announced in the next two weeks or so.
00:18:23.640 But that is a headset of some kind.
00:18:27.220 But we don't really know what it is.
00:18:29.040 I actually listen to a kind of, like, podcast with this guy named Mark Gurman.
00:18:34.260 I remember hearing about him, like, it must have been a decade ago.
00:18:40.700 So he was, at the time, he was this kid.
00:18:43.040 Now he's, like, a Bloomberg columnist.
00:18:45.020 And all he does is Apple leaks and rumors and discussion.
00:18:50.520 But I remember he was this, like, kid in college, I believe.
00:18:53.860 And he clearly has some friend of his family who works at Apple who's giving him these leaks.
00:19:00.540 Because I think he was, like, in college in the Midwest or something.
00:19:03.980 And he was getting all of these leaks right.
00:19:07.180 You know, he pretty much told you what the outline of the new iPhone, you know, the iPhone 7 or whatever, was going to be 10 years ago.
00:19:15.880 And so he kind of was one of these, like, creatures of the internet who then went to an institution like Bloomberg.
00:19:22.960 But anyway, even he has said some interesting things.
00:19:28.100 I mean, first off, the price of the headset is very high.
00:19:31.540 Supposedly, the price is, like, $3,000 to $4,000.
00:19:36.020 So it's a big purchase for a product.
00:19:39.220 And it's not something that you need.
00:19:41.740 And 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.
00:19:53.080 This is the public's opinion.
00:19:55.320 And that is very different towards the public's opinion towards, say, a smartphone or a tablet.
00:20:02.060 I think when the iPhone was announced, I was a very early adopter.
00:20:07.560 I actually had the first iPhone.
00:20:09.120 But the public was, at the very least, curious about it and kind of excited for it.
00:20:17.500 It's like, oh, this is, it's like a, because, you know, it's like a cell phone, but it's like a BlackBerry, but it's a lot better.
00:20:22.940 It's just one screen.
00:20:24.060 You can look at the internet.
00:20:25.140 I don't think there was really any negative energy outside of, oh, it's too expensive or, you know, that kind of thing.
00:20:35.340 I mean, that was the only criticism.
00:20:37.020 Everyone is excited about it.
00:20:38.080 Ditto the iPad.
00:20:40.000 Less so the Apple Watch, which I do see people wearing Apple Watches.
00:20:44.340 I have basically no interest.
00:20:46.480 It seems like an interesting device, like, health-wise, but I don't really have any health concerns.
00:20:52.240 And I don't...
00:20:54.000 Anyway, it's just, I have no interest in the Apple Watch.
00:20:57.020 But I can see how people are.
00:21:00.060 And I don't think there's much negative energy around it.
00:21:04.320 But there's a tremendous amount of negative energy around a VR headset, and particularly one that costs $3,000.
00:21:11.300 And so then just the...
00:21:13.220 They've got to overcome this huge obstacle.
00:21:16.400 And it does kind of ask, like, why?
00:21:20.000 So I don't know what this is going to be.
00:21:22.180 There was a lot of speculation.
00:21:23.560 Could 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?
00:21:38.020 Like, you could wear glasses that could show you where you're driving to.
00:21:41.720 I don't know.
00:21:42.600 That's kind of interesting.
00:21:43.860 It's basically what Google Glass was pursuing about 10 years ago.
00:21:48.440 And that turned into a comical disaster that everyone made fun of.
00:21:52.820 Google has not pursued it.
00:21:54.880 They put out a beta that was adopted by super fans, enthusiasts of Google.
00:22:02.700 It was a disaster made fun of, and they never pursued it since.
00:22:07.020 Could Apple pull this off?
00:22:09.260 Like, could you have, like, prescription lenses of, you know, like, are they going to work with Ray-Ban?
00:22:14.920 And, like, you could actually have pretty cool glasses, but then, like, you could, you know, use your map app on your glass.
00:22:23.320 Like, I can kind of see this.
00:22:25.600 But the idea of a headset, I just, like, outside of hardcore gamers, I just don't see anything for this.
00:22:36.700 And that's, I mean, like, Facebook purchased Oculus, which is what made Palmer lucky into a billionaire.
00:22:45.620 And I believe he was pushed out after he was revealed to be a kind of Trump fan of some kind.
00:22:53.420 Maybe there are other reasons.
00:22:54.480 And the latest version of the Oculus, which is, I think, called a MetaQuest or something.
00:23:02.280 I mean, I was at Target the other day buying a Nintendo game for my kids.
00:23:08.500 And I saw that thing, and it was fairly expensive.
00:23:12.940 No one was looking at it.
00:23:14.480 No one had any interest.
00:23:16.120 It's the best-selling VR headset out there.
00:23:20.280 And 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.
00:23:32.780 And I just don't see anything there.
00:23:37.540 I don't, I mean, again, I could be proven wrong.
00:23:40.540 There were many people who talked about the original iPhone of, like, Apple's not just going to walk in here and beat Nokia or something.
00:23:51.200 You know, we've been in the cell phone industry for decades.
00:23:53.420 And Apple, of course, did do that.
00:23:55.100 And they dominate the industry.
00:23:57.340 They dominate in terms of profits.
00:23:59.080 They dominate in terms of what it means to have a phone of any kind.
00:24:05.300 The iPhone paradigm, you know, went further.
00:24:09.940 I just can't see that with a VR headset.
00:24:15.340 And I'm kind of sensing that this might very well be a disaster.
00:24:20.980 I mean, I could be proven wrong.
00:24:22.760 And 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.
00:24:34.160 But I just don't think I am.
00:24:35.700 I think this sounds like something that people do not want.
00:24:39.280 And they would much rather, I mean, you can purchase a very high-level television for $500 to $1,000 at this point.
00:24:49.080 And I think for consuming media, they would prefer that or, you know, an iPad.
00:24:54.380 The notion of just that all-immersive experience, I'm just, outside of a few hardcore enthusiasts, I don't think it's a thing.
00:25:07.100 And I just think these people who promote this are extremely out of touch.
00:25:13.920 And I would probably put Palmer Luckey in that category.
00:25:19.380 Now, now, let's be nice to my friends.
00:25:21.180 Well, I mean...
00:25:23.560 I think you're not wrong, though.
00:25:24.780 You're not wrong.
00:25:26.220 Yeah.
00:25:26.660 You know?
00:25:27.460 He's a particular type of person.
00:25:29.780 And Apple has always been...
00:25:31.960 It's been fairly niche but mainstream.
00:25:34.640 I mean, I can remember when in the 90s, when I was at the University of Virginia, late 90s here,
00:25:42.540 and I would go into the computer lab, and it would be a, you know, like, bays of PCs.
00:25:50.680 And then, like, in the corner, there would be, like, two Macs or something.
00:25:55.340 So it was separate but unequal.
00:25:59.980 Yeah.
00:26:00.160 And anyway, it was kind of, like, curious why you'd use a Mac at this point in time.
00:26:08.580 And it was a niche enthusiast market of people who probably had been using it for a while.
00:26:14.220 I remember I was...
00:26:15.540 I had a Mac SE, actually, in the late 80s.
00:26:19.140 And I had a Mac Duo, which is, like, a laptop that you would plug into a big screen.
00:26:24.960 Very cool.
00:26:27.620 I was a Mac enthusiast.
00:26:29.500 And so I kind of went through that period.
00:26:31.440 Now, at this point, the Mac is very mainstream.
00:26:34.820 It is still kind of, like, a hipster, quasi-luxury product.
00:26:41.120 But it's just so omnipresent that it's become almost innocuous in a way.
00:26:49.340 So that has always been Apple's constituency.
00:26:53.620 At least back in the day, more women were using Macs than men. 1.00
00:27:00.040 And that notion of, like, it just works, it's easy to use, it's kind of fun, that was something that was really appealing.
00:27:08.180 They also always...
00:27:09.560 I don't think they ever lost the core constituency of, like, graphic designers and more creative types who were...
00:27:19.560 My aunts invented a lot of the fonts for the early iMac.
00:27:26.540 Interesting.
00:27:27.300 Interesting.
00:27:27.660 And so I used to go to those things as a kid with her, all these calligraphy conferences.
00:27:33.520 And Apple was, like...
00:27:35.400 It was, like, if you were a calligrapher, that was, like, the job, right?
00:27:39.240 And it's really interesting.
00:27:41.720 Like, I've seen all these fonts over the years that my aunt or friends of hers worked on.
00:27:47.280 And, you know, there was a sort of obsession there with, like, putting the sex into the machine, you know?
00:27:53.840 Whereas that was really a lot of thing with Microsoft.
00:27:56.340 Well, Steve Jobs did that originally.
00:27:58.980 I mean, as the legend goes, he studied calligraphy at Reed College before he dropped out.
00:28:03.280 And 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.
00:28:15.620 Now, I think people could not imagine using the computer without that kind of basic innovation.
00:28:22.340 A lot of that came over from the Japanese.
00:28:25.560 There's a really great NHK documentary that came out.
00:28:28.580 It's in English about Steve Jobs in Japan.
00:28:32.020 And I highly recommend people have a look-see at that.
00:28:34.080 It's on YouTube.
00:28:34.580 And Steve Jobs, he said this in the iPhone announcement of we're connecting technology with the liberal arts.
00:28:45.240 And there was actually an image of a street sign where it said technology and the liberal arts.
00:28:50.340 And what he was basically saying is that we're, you know, we are innovative and we're kind of creating new paradigms.
00:28:58.220 We're pushing the envelope.
00:28:59.280 But we're not doing it.
00:29:02.520 We're not going after some hardcore tech enthusiast audience.
00:29:07.840 We're actually kind of ironically, I guess, kind of reaching everyone or reaching non-tech savvy people while developing technology at a high rate.
00:29:21.240 That's the kind of contradiction or kind of balance, you could say, at the heart of Apple.
00:29:27.200 And 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.
00:29:34.540 But it was really easy to use, intuitive.
00:29:36.980 These are the kind of the common cliches that people say about Apple products.
00:29:40.700 And they're correct.
00:29:42.340 I just don't see how any of these things are possible with a VR headset.
00:29:49.280 And I just don't think anyone is going to conceivably want to use such a thing.
00:29:54.420 I 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. 0.87
00:30:13.620 But it's something that does not reach a mass audience.
00:30:19.060 And I don't know.
00:30:21.180 Yeah.
00:30:21.400 Go ahead.
00:30:21.900 I'm with you 100% on this.
00:30:23.340 I think, by the way, people will not want to wear things on their face that makes them less attractive to mates.
00:30:29.280 I think there's something about being like, you know, it's like an anthropological thing, right?
00:30:33.640 Where, like, you know, you think about, like, all these people who like the context lens industry or the laser eye surgery business.
00:30:41.460 And 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.
00:30:49.460 And that was just not the case of all of the other products out there.
00:30:54.660 And, you know, I think when you think of the iPhone, the iPhone is a kind of, like, remote for accessing the world, right?
00:31:01.800 It's a kind of, like, you know, you push buttons and things happen on it.
00:31:05.200 Or you don't even push buttons.
00:31:06.140 You just push the touchscreen.
00:31:07.800 And then the watch, you know, as you say, the health outcomes.
00:31:11.140 But it pains me to see, like, why does escaping the world, like, why is that good for me, right?
00:31:17.860 I can understand why that's good for people who create fake worlds.
00:31:21.000 But that's just not very useful.
00:31:22.920 And I should say, too, like, so Peggy Johnson, who was the head of acquisitions for a long time at Microsoft, she's a good friend.
00:31:30.600 I actually stayed in her home in Colorado at one point.
00:31:34.220 And she was the highest ranking Microsoft executive to have a security clearance, interestingly enough.
00:31:38.960 She worked at Qualcomm.
00:31:40.700 And she works for Magic Leap, which was part of the effort to clean up.
00:31:46.040 She took over Magic Leap from the weird Israelis that were running it. 1.00
00:31:49.220 And 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.
00:31:58.280 Because you can justify the purchases that you make in life if they're actually making your marginal productivity of labor, like, better, right?
00:32:05.540 Yeah.
00:32:06.020 So she's pushed very hard in the AR market, the augmented reality.
00:32:10.340 And my understanding is the Magic Leap product is pretty good.
00:32:13.040 And, 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.
00:32:21.780 And 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.
00:32:27.840 Yeah.
00:32:28.060 So 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.
00:32:38.520 Like, you're going to be able to engage and you're going to be able to become a graphic designer.
00:32:42.400 I 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.
00:33:00.580 And obviously it's the Onion and so it's kind of funny.
00:33:05.300 But, you know, it's funny because it's true.
00:33:08.320 And it's promising something else that you can engage in.
00:33:13.740 Whereas that video that Zuckerberg produced, I guess it was about a year ago or so, announcing the metaverse.
00:33:21.420 I mean, I just watched that and I was like, I want to get, like, I want to get the hell out of the metaverse.
00:33:30.020 Like, I never want to go there.
00:33:32.240 I want to be banned from the metaverse so that I won't even be tempted to check it out.
00:33:38.640 It looks dystopian, horrible, and just, yeah.
00:33:43.660 It was just a gut reaction of just repulsion, basically.
00:33:50.600 The question is always, will the ADL govern the metaverse, right?
00:33:54.520 Like, what will the laws be in the metaverse?
00:33:57.600 Well, that is the question.
00:34:00.660 And it's like the answer to that is yes.
00:34:03.860 You 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.
00:34:16.400 And 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.
00:34:38.480 And, again, everything, I mean, I don't see any redeemable qualities to the metaverse.
00:34:49.280 If 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.
00:35:01.820 But 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. 0.98