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Comment by cubefox | Hacker News Reader

That the device will, if successful, make us even more lonely.

That's certainly an observation (and one I agree with), but it's a stretch to call it "sharp".

Everyone and everyone's mother has already made the claim that VR is dystopian. Snow Crash was written in 1992. For literally decades before it's been even implemented, VR has been the quintessential symbol for the irony of technology both bringing us together while keeping us apart.

And to be clear, I'm not even criticizing the product. I think the Vision Pro could be very cool. I'm criticizing the idea that this blog said anything insightful.

As if the skyrocketing rate of anxiety, depression and self-harm that started with the release of the iPhone and Facebook weren't bad enough, now we're going to mediate human relationships even more immersively through silicon and megacorps. Mass alienation is rat poison for civilization.

Yes - that mental picture of a divorced dad watching old family photos come to life, while sitting alone on his couch - is just gutting. Like a literal punch in the gut.

But having said that, is "loneliness" the correct (or only) takeaway on that? I mean, there are people toying with the idea of uploading emails and documents of the deceased to an LLM so relatives can still "talk" to them.

I don't have a word for what that kind of world looks like.

Given how good Apple is at crafting images, I can't believe no one caught how sad and pitiful the scene can look. Surely they could have made the dad a grandfather and made it look much less bleak?

While I think the "divorced dad" thing is one use case, I don't see it as the primary one. Granted we're a ways from this reality, but, especially if Apple releases standalone cameras or builds recording for these moments into iphones/ipads, it seems to me that the use case for this feature is not to replace human connection, but to have a facsimile of it when circumstances prevent you from being able to do something in the real world.

I can very much see a future where that technology is a useful tool in helping people through grief and loss, or for experiencing parts of the world that you otherwise can't (prohibitively expensive; you have disabilities that prevent accessing it).

Examples:

- Replaying interactions with a beloved pet who has died. Reliving taking your dog to the dog park or playing with your cat.

- Replaying interactions with parents/grandparents/friends who have died, or have been altered by a debilitating illness such as ALS or Alzheimer's

- Reliving memories of taking a trip somewhere that you couldn't easily go to again (different country, national park, etc)

- Spatial experiences of beautiful parts of the earth that you've never been to

In the current world, we rely on our own imperfect memories and the inadequate still photos and 2D videos. This type of thing could end up a gamechanger in 5-10 years.

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