The Apple Vision Pro and the future of workspaces
herman.bearblog.devThese days, "cyberdecks" are Raspberry Pi computers in janky cosplay shells, but William Gibson's original cyberdeck as described in the Sprawl trilogy had no display: it interfaced directly with your mind.
Apple Vision Pro may be the first precursor to an actual cyberdeck worth taking seriously.
Having actually spent a lot of time doing work in VR on a Quest 2 with Immersed, I disagree about the eye projection and AR being gimmicks.
The thing that ruins VR for me is the complete isolation from my surroundings. I want to be able to bring my virtual work into the real world, and I want people to be comfortable speaking to me while I have the headset on.
The benefit of not using AR, but instead using VR, in a workplace is that you can spend less on office space. You can take any room and stuff it with small phone-booths where each worker is in a VR world. You don't have to spend money on a canteen, just feed the worker with a tube in the booth while they are in a virtual restaurant. You can probably get four times as many workers in the same space as the open offices we have today. If the inside of the booths are waterproof they can be simply hosed down with a sprinkler, saving on cleaning expenses as well.
Workers can use VR at home, company spends zero on office space. Worker doesn't have to spend on a car, gas and saves 2 hours commute time. Toxins are not spewed on the way to work. Win-win all around.
Their take on remote working spaces is an interesting one for people who perhaps lack a good work space and I agree the idea is enticing.
I imagine working in a collaborative space with my colleagues but also other friends in other jobs in the same virtual space. On paper it sounds great.
But I worry that spending too much time in a virtual world, will rid the need for people to build and live in their spaces in the real world. I can tell that there will significant monetization of virtual furniture that will be up for sale in the digital world.
Not only will I buy furniture in the real world, but also in the virtual world, which will likely become just as important in some respects. You might not have a great office space at home, but you'll need to fork out plenty of money to access premium workspaces virtually.
If Apple (and companies) can't make money off of the chair you buy in your home study, they'll sure as hell make sure you buy one from them in the virtual world.
It disgusts me how capitalist society would wish to introduce scarcity where there is none. In a just world, one would be able to create their own furniture themselves, without needing to involve the platform owner.
Two 3800 x 3000 OLED screens at 90Hz is nothing to be sniffed at, but it's still just an interesting tech demo lacking real utility.
Most people don't want to spend a lot of time in dorky and claustrophobic goggles.
I would like to see what 3D movies or sports could look like on it though.
Until it has a _SOLID_ BIM integration/Fusion360/Revit AR function set, its not ready yet - but I assume that this will collide with some sort of AI augmentation-steroid and BIMs/360 etc... and I look forward to that.
A relatable stance on the future of workspaces, and where the Vision Pro went right (and wrong).
the “wrong” was highly subjective.
gargoyles won’t care about how cringe something is. (which, using cringe is… pretty cringe.)
the screen in the front is awkward for someone that uses sunglasses as a shield. no need to deride the inverse. it can likely be configured.
not that apple did nothing wrong.
but maybe not so universally relatable.
Easy to predict the future when you write about it after the fact.