Rethinking Reality: Apple’s Quest to Digitize Everyday Objects

I’ve always thought that Apple has a talent for spotting things in the world that it can swap out with digital versions.

Think about it: the iPhone replaced a bunch of stuff we used to carry around – phones, music players, cameras, flashlights, GPS devices, compasses, and even tape measures. And they did it again with the Apple Watch, finding a way to make a digital version of something we’re used to seeing in the physical world.

Now, here comes the Apple Vision Pro. What are they trying to replace this time? Well, glasses seem like the obvious answer. But it’s not that simple. Glasses help us see better, right? But this new thing? It’s more like strapping a mini computer screen to your face. Not exactly the same function.

Apple seems to be saying, “Who needs screens and keyboards when we can just slap them onto your eyeballs?” It’s a bit of a departure from their usual game plan. They are replacing televisions and computers but with the form factor of glasses.

I’ve got a theory, though. This thing will only catch on when it does what glasses do, but better. Imagine if these augmented glasses could give you better-than-perfect vision and maybe quite a bit simplified and lighter – looking a lot more like glasses now. That’d be something. And it looks like Apple might be heading in that direction, teaming up with Zeiss Optical to make lenses for folks who need prescription glasses.

But until that day comes, the idea of folks walking around with screens in front of their faces feels incredibly dystopian. To be completely uncritical of broader effects, they’re ugly – and to truly catch on, they likely have to be fashionable as well as functional. I’m hopeful for the future, but I have to hope that only tech enthusiasts try these things out just as a novelty. We’re not ready, nor should we be, to disconnect from our natural vision of other people and the real world.