8 ms·

> Be it by train or by plane, it offers an unparalleled opportunity to selectively tune out your environment and sink into an engaging activity like watching a

by latexr 2y ago

> Be it by train or by plane, it offers an unparalleled opportunity to selectively tune out your environment and sink into an engaging activity like watching a movie or just working on your laptop. The more time passes, the less I can shake the feeling that the world would be better if we tuned out our environment less. > But damn, based on how well it all works now, you can just tell by the 4th or 5th generation, Apple Vision Pro will be on the face of every frequent flyer. If it even gets that far. I’d almost be willing to take that bet, but 5 generations for this device could mean more than a decade so I don’t think any of us can say for sure. All that said, I haven’t read the full review yet and I doubt it’ll do anything to convince me, but still I appreciate you writing it up and putting it out there. From what I’ve read so far it looks well thought out and it clearly took some effort, so kudos.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
39896880 2y ago
>The more time passes, the less I can shake the feeling that the world would be better if we tuned out of our environment less. Depends on what environment that is. I mean, is there some value in hearing an ambulance siren at full volume while I'm walking down the street? Or the sound of people trying to get my attention to hand me some flyer? Or the sound of the BART?
- luismedel 2y ago
  I like to be able to ear any siren around me, to be honest. They're the way they are for a reason.
  - renewiltord 2y ago
    This is kind of why I like living near highways and train tracks. Most people live in suburbs and they don’t hear the noise of the city. They just miss out on so much environment. Sadly, my wife hates this (she is not in tune with her environment) and so we moved from a place where there were crazy people screaming to a place which is relatively quiet. Sometimes I’m at home and there aren’t any sirens or bells or people screaming and I just think about how out of touch we are with the environment. This has spread to everyone. Paul Graham has lost his connection to the environment and instead writes about silence. What a fool! If only he was more in touch with his environment.
    - chasd00 2y ago
      > Sometimes I’m at home and there aren’t any sirens or bells or people screaming and I just think about how out of touch we are with the environment. at least in the suburbs you can engage with and experience the leaf blowers.
      - rootusrootus 2y ago
        Anecdotally, I heard way more leaf blowers while living in the city than in the suburbs. Lots of times in the suburbs people just leave them on the ground. But it gets to be a gross mess pretty fast in an urban environment so they are cleaned up relentlessly through the fall.
    - JoshTriplett 2y ago
      I genuinely can't tell if this comment is serious or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law .
  - 39896880 2y ago
    They are designed to be heard at a distance and through automobile glass, not walking beside it on a sidewalk. Besides, the siren is not a meaningful signal to me: I’m not on the road.
  - Dylan16807 2y ago
    "at full volume"
- realreality 2y ago
  Yes, it would be wonderful to be able to tune out the wretched poor people. Maybe a future headset will include a forcefield to actively repel potential muggers or oncoming vehicles.
  - 39896880 2y ago
    This is an astoundingly uncharitable attempt to make my otherwise personal assertion classist. Am I to meet my overstimulating environment head on, further exasperating my anxiety and mental exhaustion simply to please others who think my condition is actually a signal of wealth? I am not able to do so, and I am not apologetic about it.
- adamc 2y ago
  I think there might be some psychological benefit just in experiencing life and being in the moment, even though it isn't all pleasant. I listen to books or music during a lot of my daily walks, but I've noticed that when I don't, I sometimes experience life differently.
  - chasd00 2y ago
    i agree but i think what the parent and other folks up thread are saying makes sense. It's nice to have the choice to tune in or tune out but no one wants that decision made for them. No one wants to be forced to engage with 100+ random people in very close proximity with really no option to standup let alone leave like on a plane. Another way to look at it is imagine the person to your left and to your right are super fans of the political party opposite to yours. That wouldn't be very fun unless you like to fight for 3hrs.
    - adamc 2y ago
      I wasn't arguing (and didn't really see others arguing) for compulsory mindfulness, which I don't think is even a thing.
mtalantikite 2y ago
I generally agree with this sentiment of people being too tethered to technology and not paying attention to the world around them, but I don't see a problem with it on a flight. You're generally going to be seated in one place for hours at a time. It's much more infuriating to be walking out of the subway here in NYC and people are just in zombie mode walking up the stairs slowly while staring at their phones. Or down busy streets. Or driving in their cars. I coincidentally demoed the Vision Pro this past weekend and expected to hate it, but was pretty impressed with it. I definitely don't want people walking around NYC with it strapped to their faces, but on a long plane or train ride I can see it being pretty nice.
- bbor 2y ago
  Well put! Though I would argue that the issue being discussed is not short-term distraction in highly dangerous situations like driving a car or sharing a sidewalk in NYC, but rather the long-term psychological effects of filling every spare moment with entertainment. Ever since being forced to bus an hour+ to high school (sans smart phone! Can you imagine?!) I've learned to appreciate what long stretches of contemplation can do for a person. Or, at least, do for me. Of course, my attention span typically maxes out around 2h unless I'm in a particularly thoughtful place in life, such as my bus ride to a new city after undergrad graduation, or the flight home after a big family event. And, of course, being in the window seat is a must -- you'd have to be something of a zen master to peacefully "raw-dog" a flight by just starting at the seat in front of you! Rant aside, I absolutely agree that being stuck in place for hours at a time is good reason to want some form of entertainment, and this is arguably the perfect application for VR. Being stuck on a long bus/train/plane without entertainment can feel downright claustrophobic, and it's not like there's any communication with others anyway. Other than the nice flight attendants, which we still have, for some weird reason -- I thought it was a nice touch to clarify that talking to them with the headset for more than a phrase or two feels disrespectful.
  - latexr 2y ago
    > Though I would argue that the issue being discussed is not short-term distraction in highly dangerous situations like driving a car or sharing a sidewalk in NYC, but rather the long-term psychological effects of filling every spare moment with entertainment. Correct. And I also had in mind how those individual psychological effects affect our interactions with the rest of reality and other living beings, which collectively shapes society. I’m reminded of something I read years ago (I don’t recall the source at all and am likely adding details) which argued that US politics were less aggressively divisive in the past because politicians from both sides regularly saw each other and spent time together, meaning they could form more empathy and see the opposition as real human beings and not caricatures. As they spend less time together, it’s easier to fall into the trap of seeing the other side as a “them” unworthy of respect. > I thought it was a nice touch to clarify that talking to them with the headset for more than a phrase or two feels disrespectful. Agreed.
nordsieck 2y ago
> The more time passes, the less I can shake the feeling that the world would be better if we tuned out our environment less. That may or may not be true in general, but air travel is one of the most oppressive environments people regularly find themselves in. Being in an extremely crowded environment with very little personal space is psychologically uncomfortable for a lot of people. And it's basically not possible to escape that environment until the plane lands, which is typically hours of time. If it's OK to tune the world out anywhere, it's got to be in an airplane.
- latexr 2y ago
  > That may or may not be true in general, but air travel is one of the most oppressive environments people regularly find themselves in. What do you think is going to happen if, as the author predicts, “Apple Vision Pro will be on the face of every frequent flyer”? My prediction is that the experience would get even shittier. Since everyone would be tuned out, there’d be even less reason for the airline to care.
  - tesch1 2y ago
    My prediction is that airlines will start offering VR headsets much like they added seatback screens.
    - latexr 2y ago
      Lovely, just what we need: cheap devices with a motion-sickness-inducing laggy passthrough, poor resolution screens (when they work at all), covered in other people’s face grease.
      - tesch1 2y ago
        Solution: bring your own!
      - JoshTriplett 2y ago
        Devices owned by someone else pointing a camera at your eyes and doing eye tracking...
keiferski 2y ago
> The more time passes, the less I can shake the feeling that the world would be better if we tuned out our environment less. Agreed 100%. Apologies for linking to my own essay, but I think this can be more generally stated as a difference between "isolated" and "integrated" arts. A device like the Vision Pro (and most tech devices, for that matter) is pushing society further and further into isolated chambers, and thus further incentivizing media and creators to focus on creating isolated aesthetic experiences, not ones that are integrated with the environment. This is such a baseline unquestioned assumption that we have about the structure of the tech economy, that to think a company like Apple would make a device that brings people together in the real world seems absurd. I wrote a bit more about this idea here: https://onthearts.com/p/modern-culture-is-too-escapist-part https://onthearts.com/p/modern-culture-is-too-escapist-part
- bbor 2y ago
  Thanks for sharing, I for one found it relevant! I've always found it somewhat monstrous how much art is in museum archives -- surely "showcasing stuff behind glass" is something our civilization can manage?? I'd quibble that what you're really pointing to here is capitalism, though. Architecture isn't monotonous because of our cultural attitude towards architects/Architecture, it's monotonous because capitalists build most buildings, and they're predictably interested in perceived efficiency above all else. There's good reason to argue that beautiful surroundings augment worker productivity so it's not even a clean tradeoff, but in practice, only the richest companies and universities end up taking that risk with beautiful structures[1][2][3] and/or sculptures/fountains/gardens/etc. Obviously, the same dynamic applies to the exclusivity of contemporary art galleries and private collections. In Apple's(/"tech"'s) defense, I think they'd absolutely love to sell integrative products whenever possible. The Nintendo Switch was originally marketed[4] as such, and despite being a bit goofy, I imagine it helped sell a lot of units. That's why Apple spent ungodly amounts of money trying to make real AR work before compromising with "passthrough" -- they know that people are social creatures, and that a huge driver of their sales is perceived social value.[5] Again: the problem is the system of incentives, not individual bad actors. [1] Google's newest 'Bayview' campus: https://blog.google/inside-google/life-at-google/bay-view-campus-grand-opening/ https://blog.google/inside-google/life-at-google/bay-view-ca... [2] Huawei 'Ox Horn' campus: https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1fuo1tt/huawei_has_built_an_entire_europeanstyle_town_as/ https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1fuo1tt/huawei_has_bu... [3] Vanderbilt University's main campus: https://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2021/06/20181108JR003-scaled.jpg https://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/4... [4] "The rooftop party" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzJdYXk6tjA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzJdYXk6tjA [5] The iPhone's status among teens: https://www.phonearena.com/news/Heres-why-iPhones-are-so-popular-with-teens_id150951 https://www.phonearena.com/news/Heres-why-iPhones-are-so-pop...
nonameiguess 2y ago
It's obviously hyperbole. I'm a fairly frequent traveler at this point and probably will continue to be in another decade, and there is no plausible future in which I'm strapping on a VR headset for the duration of a flight. Sometimes I'll read a book but not consistently. More often than not, I watch the landscape pass and get a thrill out of recognizing landmarks from high above. I also like to count the rubberized tracks in a city as it consistently surprises me how many there are when I can never seem to find one to run on where I actually live. On the other hand, I try to take a middle ground here. As much as I get annoyed and shake my fist at clouds these days when I'm trying to run past people on the sidewalks and they've got their faces buried in phones and don't see me coming, I can recognize a lot of people seem to have a deep-seated need for non-stop mental stimulus they don't seem to get from the real world for whatever reason and I'm not going to judge them for that. They're just different from me and that's fine. But I do exist too and it'd be nice if reviewers like this didn't typical mind everyone, either.
dagmx 2y ago
What environment on a plane would someone be better out not tuning out? It’s a multi hour flight. I don’t know anyone around me, most are asleep. Many people already tune out the noise with their noise cancelling audio products. Why would it be weird to tune out the visuals too? The Vision Pro lets me also see people while wearing it and they can see my eyes. If I’m tuned out and someone approaches me they fade through. Meanwhile someone with the headset can watch movies on a larger screen and feel less claustrophobic.
- jayd16 2y ago
  Well they probably mean it would be nice if people were bored enough to be friendly.
  - dagmx 2y ago
    That would require a serendipitous level of - sitting next to someone who you get along with and don’t run out of things to talk about for the entire duration of the flight - neither one of you wanting to sleep or do anything else for the duration of the flight either - not caring about the other passengers around you who might also want to sleep
    - latexr 2y ago
      I was on a flight not too long ago where the two people sitting next to me had apparently just met. They were from different countries travelling for different reasons. They had a friendly chat for a while about where they were from, why they were on that plane, and some things they enjoyed to do. The whole interaction lasted maybe twenty minutes, from sitting to take off. Then they said “cheers”, one of them went to sleep and the other began watching something on the phone. They didn’t speak again until we landed and from the outside it didn’t feel any of them felt awkward for even a second. I’m not suggestion you strike up a conversation with your seat partner on a plane, but if you do you don’t have to feel beholden to them.
      - Dylan16807 2y ago
beepbooptheory 2y ago
There is something subtle going on with the "passthrough" feature. All the marketing and fans continually point to it in a way that feels like tacit acknowledgement of this very point wrt "tuning out." We are all primed for full VR Wall-E experience machines to suck us up into our own world, but the future seems to be more and more about the overlay. Not replacing one picture with another, but just painting and filtering ontop of the original. Not "I am somewhere else right now", but "I am here, but I am doing something you can't see." Which, I gotta say, is an even darker formulation at the end of the day! Like at least if we all plugged in and went the Oasis we are truly sharing some base experience of the place; or if its going to be solitary experience machines, at least those experiences would be holistically directed towards me in some consistent package; but with this stuff, you start to think about how much more ground these crooks can still take in stratifying the experience of simply the world itself as we perceive it.
tyfon 2y ago
We're getting closer and closer to the world Solaria in Asimovs universe. I'm personally trying (and to some degree failing) to disengage from screens and other digital interactions. My advantage is that I live quite remotely and can just hop into my boat and go fishing or something without the phone, but the craving that result in are scary.
leeoniya 2y ago
> it offers an unparalleled opportunity to selectively tune out your environment and sink into an engaging activity like watching a movie or just working on your laptop. https://southpark.fandom.com/wiki/Buddha_Box https://southpark.fandom.com/wiki/Buddha_Box
plandis 2y ago
> The more time passes, the less I can shake the feeling that the world would be better if we tuned out our environment less. I’m curious what you do on a 6 hr plane ride that’s not tuning out your environment?
- latexr 2y ago
  Read, sleep, think, stare out the window… While you can argue reading and sleeping are tuning out the environment, I’m never completely disengaged from my surroundings. Even if you stare at a screen with headphones on¹, someone can still get your attention via your peripheral vision. Either way, I get why people do it, I was making more of a general point. It’s common for me to be walking down a street and see other people, also walking, so glued to their phones they notice nothing around them, to the point they have no reaction to near collisions. I also find it telling that while the author mentioned (and I quoted) planes and trains, all of the many responses so far has centred on planes. ¹ Which I don’t do but won’t criticise anyone for it either.
vunderba 2y ago
> The more time passes, the less I can shake the feeling that the world would be better if we tuned out our environment less. While I appreciate the sentiment behind the statement, try living in an area where 90% of the environment is car stereos with subwoofers cranked so loud that you can practically see the air vibrating around you and get back to me. Given that (at least in the west), noise pollution is never really going to be properly legislated, the ability to tune it out is a god send.
- latexr 2y ago
  On the flip side, continuously tuning out discomfort is a vicious cycle. You need to feel some of it to be motivated to do something to change your situation. I’m not advocation for never taking a break, I’m saying that we keep doing more and more of it and should perhaps consider dialling it down. Or at the very least not take tuning out as a slam dunk desired benefit without adverse consequences.
aspenmayer 2y ago
I read recently that Apple is working on foldables for 2026 and AR/XR glasses for 2027, and a non-pro Apple Vision I think next year? https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-10-13/apple-smart-home-plans-new-os-smart-displays-vision-pro-integration-robots-m27kw5m7 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-10-13/apple-...
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

by latexr 2y ago

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

39896880 2y ago

>The more time passes, the less I can shake the feeling that the world would be better if we tuned out of our environment less. Depends on what environment that is. I mean, is there some value in hearing an ambulance siren at full volume while I'm walking down the street? Or the sound of people trying to get my attention to hand me some flyer? Or the sound of the BART?

luismedel 2y ago
I like to be able to ear any siren around me, to be honest. They're the way they are for a reason.
- renewiltord 2y ago
  This is kind of why I like living near highways and train tracks. Most people live in suburbs and they don’t hear the noise of the city. They just miss out on so much environment. Sadly, my wife hates this (she is not in tune with her environment) and so we moved from a place where there were crazy people screaming to a place which is relatively quiet. Sometimes I’m at home and there aren’t any sirens or bells or people screaming and I just think about how out of touch we are with the environment. This has spread to everyone. Paul Graham has lost his connection to the environment and instead writes about silence. What a fool! If only he was more in touch with his environment.
  - chasd00 2y ago
    > Sometimes I’m at home and there aren’t any sirens or bells or people screaming and I just think about how out of touch we are with the environment. at least in the suburbs you can engage with and experience the leaf blowers.
    - rootusrootus 2y ago
      Anecdotally, I heard way more leaf blowers while living in the city than in the suburbs. Lots of times in the suburbs people just leave them on the ground. But it gets to be a gross mess pretty fast in an urban environment so they are cleaned up relentlessly through the fall.
  - JoshTriplett 2y ago
    I genuinely can't tell if this comment is serious or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law .
- 39896880 2y ago
  They are designed to be heard at a distance and through automobile glass, not walking beside it on a sidewalk. Besides, the siren is not a meaningful signal to me: I’m not on the road.
- Dylan16807 2y ago
  "at full volume"
realreality 2y ago
Yes, it would be wonderful to be able to tune out the wretched poor people. Maybe a future headset will include a forcefield to actively repel potential muggers or oncoming vehicles.
- 39896880 2y ago
  This is an astoundingly uncharitable attempt to make my otherwise personal assertion classist. Am I to meet my overstimulating environment head on, further exasperating my anxiety and mental exhaustion simply to please others who think my condition is actually a signal of wealth? I am not able to do so, and I am not apologetic about it.
adamc 2y ago
I think there might be some psychological benefit just in experiencing life and being in the moment, even though it isn't all pleasant. I listen to books or music during a lot of my daily walks, but I've noticed that when I don't, I sometimes experience life differently.
- chasd00 2y ago
  i agree but i think what the parent and other folks up thread are saying makes sense. It's nice to have the choice to tune in or tune out but no one wants that decision made for them. No one wants to be forced to engage with 100+ random people in very close proximity with really no option to standup let alone leave like on a plane. Another way to look at it is imagine the person to your left and to your right are super fans of the political party opposite to yours. That wouldn't be very fun unless you like to fight for 3hrs.
  - adamc 2y ago
    I wasn't arguing (and didn't really see others arguing) for compulsory mindfulness, which I don't think is even a thing.

mtalantikite 2y ago

I generally agree with this sentiment of people being too tethered to technology and not paying attention to the world around them, but I don't see a problem with it on a flight. You're generally going to be seated in one place for hours at a time. It's much more infuriating to be walking out of the subway here in NYC and people are just in zombie mode walking up the stairs slowly while staring at their phones. Or down busy streets. Or driving in their cars. I coincidentally demoed the Vision Pro this past weekend and expected to hate it, but was pretty impressed with it. I definitely don't want people walking around NYC with it strapped to their faces, but on a long plane or train ride I can see it being pretty nice.

bbor 2y ago
Well put! Though I would argue that the issue being discussed is not short-term distraction in highly dangerous situations like driving a car or sharing a sidewalk in NYC, but rather the long-term psychological effects of filling every spare moment with entertainment. Ever since being forced to bus an hour+ to high school (sans smart phone! Can you imagine?!) I've learned to appreciate what long stretches of contemplation can do for a person. Or, at least, do for me. Of course, my attention span typically maxes out around 2h unless I'm in a particularly thoughtful place in life, such as my bus ride to a new city after undergrad graduation, or the flight home after a big family event. And, of course, being in the window seat is a must -- you'd have to be something of a zen master to peacefully "raw-dog" a flight by just starting at the seat in front of you! Rant aside, I absolutely agree that being stuck in place for hours at a time is good reason to want some form of entertainment, and this is arguably the perfect application for VR. Being stuck on a long bus/train/plane without entertainment can feel downright claustrophobic, and it's not like there's any communication with others anyway. Other than the nice flight attendants, which we still have, for some weird reason -- I thought it was a nice touch to clarify that talking to them with the headset for more than a phrase or two feels disrespectful.
- latexr 2y ago
  > Though I would argue that the issue being discussed is not short-term distraction in highly dangerous situations like driving a car or sharing a sidewalk in NYC, but rather the long-term psychological effects of filling every spare moment with entertainment. Correct. And I also had in mind how those individual psychological effects affect our interactions with the rest of reality and other living beings, which collectively shapes society. I’m reminded of something I read years ago (I don’t recall the source at all and am likely adding details) which argued that US politics were less aggressively divisive in the past because politicians from both sides regularly saw each other and spent time together, meaning they could form more empathy and see the opposition as real human beings and not caricatures. As they spend less time together, it’s easier to fall into the trap of seeing the other side as a “them” unworthy of respect. > I thought it was a nice touch to clarify that talking to them with the headset for more than a phrase or two feels disrespectful. Agreed.

nordsieck 2y ago

> The more time passes, the less I can shake the feeling that the world would be better if we tuned out our environment less. That may or may not be true in general, but air travel is one of the most oppressive environments people regularly find themselves in. Being in an extremely crowded environment with very little personal space is psychologically uncomfortable for a lot of people. And it's basically not possible to escape that environment until the plane lands, which is typically hours of time. If it's OK to tune the world out anywhere, it's got to be in an airplane.

latexr 2y ago
> That may or may not be true in general, but air travel is one of the most oppressive environments people regularly find themselves in. What do you think is going to happen if, as the author predicts, “Apple Vision Pro will be on the face of every frequent flyer”? My prediction is that the experience would get even shittier. Since everyone would be tuned out, there’d be even less reason for the airline to care.
- tesch1 2y ago
  My prediction is that airlines will start offering VR headsets much like they added seatback screens.
  - latexr 2y ago
    Lovely, just what we need: cheap devices with a motion-sickness-inducing laggy passthrough, poor resolution screens (when they work at all), covered in other people’s face grease.
    - tesch1 2y ago
      Solution: bring your own!
    - JoshTriplett 2y ago
      Devices owned by someone else pointing a camera at your eyes and doing eye tracking...

keiferski 2y ago

> The more time passes, the less I can shake the feeling that the world would be better if we tuned out our environment less. Agreed 100%. Apologies for linking to my own essay, but I think this can be more generally stated as a difference between "isolated" and "integrated" arts. A device like the Vision Pro (and most tech devices, for that matter) is pushing society further and further into isolated chambers, and thus further incentivizing media and creators to focus on creating isolated aesthetic experiences, not ones that are integrated with the environment. This is such a baseline unquestioned assumption that we have about the structure of the tech economy, that to think a company like Apple would make a device that brings people together in the real world seems absurd. I wrote a bit more about this idea here: https://onthearts.com/p/modern-culture-is-too-escapist-part https://onthearts.com/p/modern-culture-is-too-escapist-part

bbor 2y ago
Thanks for sharing, I for one found it relevant! I've always found it somewhat monstrous how much art is in museum archives -- surely "showcasing stuff behind glass" is something our civilization can manage?? I'd quibble that what you're really pointing to here is capitalism, though. Architecture isn't monotonous because of our cultural attitude towards architects/Architecture, it's monotonous because capitalists build most buildings, and they're predictably interested in perceived efficiency above all else. There's good reason to argue that beautiful surroundings augment worker productivity so it's not even a clean tradeoff, but in practice, only the richest companies and universities end up taking that risk with beautiful structures[1][2][3] and/or sculptures/fountains/gardens/etc. Obviously, the same dynamic applies to the exclusivity of contemporary art galleries and private collections. In Apple's(/"tech"'s) defense, I think they'd absolutely love to sell integrative products whenever possible. The Nintendo Switch was originally marketed[4] as such, and despite being a bit goofy, I imagine it helped sell a lot of units. That's why Apple spent ungodly amounts of money trying to make real AR work before compromising with "passthrough" -- they know that people are social creatures, and that a huge driver of their sales is perceived social value.[5] Again: the problem is the system of incentives, not individual bad actors. [1] Google's newest 'Bayview' campus: https://blog.google/inside-google/life-at-google/bay-view-campus-grand-opening/ https://blog.google/inside-google/life-at-google/bay-view-ca... [2] Huawei 'Ox Horn' campus: https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1fuo1tt/huawei_has_built_an_entire_europeanstyle_town_as/ https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1fuo1tt/huawei_has_bu... [3] Vanderbilt University's main campus: https://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2021/06/20181108JR003-scaled.jpg https://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/4... [4] "The rooftop party" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzJdYXk6tjA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzJdYXk6tjA [5] The iPhone's status among teens: https://www.phonearena.com/news/Heres-why-iPhones-are-so-popular-with-teens_id150951 https://www.phonearena.com/news/Heres-why-iPhones-are-so-pop...

nonameiguess 2y ago

It's obviously hyperbole. I'm a fairly frequent traveler at this point and probably will continue to be in another decade, and there is no plausible future in which I'm strapping on a VR headset for the duration of a flight. Sometimes I'll read a book but not consistently. More often than not, I watch the landscape pass and get a thrill out of recognizing landmarks from high above. I also like to count the rubberized tracks in a city as it consistently surprises me how many there are when I can never seem to find one to run on where I actually live. On the other hand, I try to take a middle ground here. As much as I get annoyed and shake my fist at clouds these days when I'm trying to run past people on the sidewalks and they've got their faces buried in phones and don't see me coming, I can recognize a lot of people seem to have a deep-seated need for non-stop mental stimulus they don't seem to get from the real world for whatever reason and I'm not going to judge them for that. They're just different from me and that's fine. But I do exist too and it'd be nice if reviewers like this didn't typical mind everyone, either.

dagmx 2y ago

What environment on a plane would someone be better out not tuning out? It’s a multi hour flight. I don’t know anyone around me, most are asleep. Many people already tune out the noise with their noise cancelling audio products. Why would it be weird to tune out the visuals too? The Vision Pro lets me also see people while wearing it and they can see my eyes. If I’m tuned out and someone approaches me they fade through. Meanwhile someone with the headset can watch movies on a larger screen and feel less claustrophobic.

jayd16 2y ago
Well they probably mean it would be nice if people were bored enough to be friendly.
- dagmx 2y ago
  That would require a serendipitous level of - sitting next to someone who you get along with and don’t run out of things to talk about for the entire duration of the flight - neither one of you wanting to sleep or do anything else for the duration of the flight either - not caring about the other passengers around you who might also want to sleep
  - latexr 2y ago
    I was on a flight not too long ago where the two people sitting next to me had apparently just met. They were from different countries travelling for different reasons. They had a friendly chat for a while about where they were from, why they were on that plane, and some things they enjoyed to do. The whole interaction lasted maybe twenty minutes, from sitting to take off. Then they said “cheers”, one of them went to sleep and the other began watching something on the phone. They didn’t speak again until we landed and from the outside it didn’t feel any of them felt awkward for even a second. I’m not suggestion you strike up a conversation with your seat partner on a plane, but if you do you don’t have to feel beholden to them.
    - Dylan16807 2y ago

beepbooptheory 2y ago

There is something subtle going on with the "passthrough" feature. All the marketing and fans continually point to it in a way that feels like tacit acknowledgement of this very point wrt "tuning out." We are all primed for full VR Wall-E experience machines to suck us up into our own world, but the future seems to be more and more about the overlay. Not replacing one picture with another, but just painting and filtering ontop of the original. Not "I am somewhere else right now", but "I am here, but I am doing something you can't see." Which, I gotta say, is an even darker formulation at the end of the day! Like at least if we all plugged in and went the Oasis we are truly sharing some base experience of the place; or if its going to be solitary experience machines, at least those experiences would be holistically directed towards me in some consistent package; but with this stuff, you start to think about how much more ground these crooks can still take in stratifying the experience of simply the world itself as we perceive it.

tyfon 2y ago

We're getting closer and closer to the world Solaria in Asimovs universe. I'm personally trying (and to some degree failing) to disengage from screens and other digital interactions. My advantage is that I live quite remotely and can just hop into my boat and go fishing or something without the phone, but the craving that result in are scary.

leeoniya 2y ago

> it offers an unparalleled opportunity to selectively tune out your environment and sink into an engaging activity like watching a movie or just working on your laptop. https://southpark.fandom.com/wiki/Buddha_Box https://southpark.fandom.com/wiki/Buddha_Box

plandis 2y ago

> The more time passes, the less I can shake the feeling that the world would be better if we tuned out our environment less. I’m curious what you do on a 6 hr plane ride that’s not tuning out your environment?

latexr 2y ago
Read, sleep, think, stare out the window… While you can argue reading and sleeping are tuning out the environment, I’m never completely disengaged from my surroundings. Even if you stare at a screen with headphones on¹, someone can still get your attention via your peripheral vision. Either way, I get why people do it, I was making more of a general point. It’s common for me to be walking down a street and see other people, also walking, so glued to their phones they notice nothing around them, to the point they have no reaction to near collisions. I also find it telling that while the author mentioned (and I quoted) planes and trains, all of the many responses so far has centred on planes. ¹ Which I don’t do but won’t criticise anyone for it either.

vunderba 2y ago

> The more time passes, the less I can shake the feeling that the world would be better if we tuned out our environment less. While I appreciate the sentiment behind the statement, try living in an area where 90% of the environment is car stereos with subwoofers cranked so loud that you can practically see the air vibrating around you and get back to me. Given that (at least in the west), noise pollution is never really going to be properly legislated, the ability to tune it out is a god send.

latexr 2y ago
On the flip side, continuously tuning out discomfort is a vicious cycle. You need to feel some of it to be motivated to do something to change your situation. I’m not advocation for never taking a break, I’m saying that we keep doing more and more of it and should perhaps consider dialling it down. Or at the very least not take tuning out as a slam dunk desired benefit without adverse consequences.

aspenmayer 2y ago

I read recently that Apple is working on foldables for 2026 and AR/XR glasses for 2027, and a non-pro Apple Vision I think next year? https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-10-13/apple-smart-home-plans-new-os-smart-displays-vision-pro-integration-robots-m27kw5m7 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-10-13/apple-...

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