Apple CEO Tim Cook on Virtual Reality: “There’s No Substitute for Human Contact”

Why does VR need to be solitary and why does it need to be any different?

For some people, these technologies represent an advancement over good old human contact. Although this example is AR, Pokémon Go helped a number of children with autism and Asperger's syndrome helped a number of children explore the outside world and it facilitated a tech-augmented human contact.

In some ways it can be superior. It's great that you have the luxury of being able to interact with such an international group of friends. That doesn't extend to everyone. Like the Internet, VR allows people to interact globally.

As a kid who grew up in a somewhat undesirable neighborhood and had limited meat space friends, I know personally that virtual relationships can be just as important as traditional ones. I'm wasnt limited to the somewhat closed minded people that were within biking distance. This was well before the time of social media, so their looks, their popularity, their gender, their race/ethnicity did not matter. Really, the only way one could be biased was if they were a grammar nazi.

Think about what this can do for children who are physically disabled or have autoimmune disorders or are living in totalitarian regimes where being different can lead to persecution.

it depends on the context. Slack is replacing human contact for me, today, because I've decided not to show up at work since I can communicate (sometimes more effectively in writing than in speech) with my cofounders on our product development.

And the same can be said for social media, email, etc. They are different experiences, perhaps inferior to human contact if certain things the experience offers (again, depending on the context) matter more than what you get in other experiences.

My sister is studying in Europe. It will be fun to VR chat with her, rather than use a phone or WhatsApp.