Social media pioneer Jack Dorsey fears mixed-reality headsets equivalent to the Apple Vision Pro and the Meta Quest 3 will turn Americans into socially-distant couch potatoes.
The Twitter co-founder said he is anxious that society is heading toward a dystopian future much like the one depicted within the 2008 Pixar film “WALL-E,” through which people spend their days sitting in mobile floating recliners and stare at virtual screens.
“I’m super frightened and anxious with how out of touch it would make people and the way it distances us even further,” Dorsey said during an appearance this week on the “Breaking Points” podcast.
“That’s the long run we’re driving towards, with everyone in floating chairs, drinking their food out of straws and constant 24-7 entertainment,” Dorsey added. “You may see that the entire world is headed this manner.”
Apple joined the battle this month with its “Vision Pro” headset — the corporate’s first major product launch in nearly a decade — with a $3,499 price tag.
Jack Dorsey fears the VR headsets over “how out of touch it would make people and the way it distances us even further.”REUTERS
CEO Tim Cook has touted the device as a “spatial computer,” with potential uses including an enhanced virtual meeting experience, interactive sporting event experiences and video gaming.
Meta is about to launch its own, cheaper headset, the Quest 3, later this 12 months.
The device will start at $499 and connect users to Mark Zuckerberg’s version of the metaverse, dubbed “Horizon Worlds.”
Dorsey acknowledged that mixed-reality headsets are “phenomenal for gaming” and represented an “obvious user interfaced evolution” in comparison with the phones and computers in widespread use today.
“You may see that the entire world is headed” within the direction of “drinking their food out of straws and constant 24-7 entertainment.”AP
Apple’s Vision Pro headset costs a whopping $3,499.via REUTERS
Nonetheless, he noted he was “skeptical about a few of the advantages” posed by the advanced technology.
“I hope we now have an honest conversation about a few of the harms around increasingly more social distancing,” he added.
Dorsey’s remarks got here days after Zuckerberg took his own jabs on the Apple Vision Pro during an all-hands meeting with Meta employees last week.
Mark Zuckerberg wears one among Meta’s VR headsets.Bloomberg via Getty Images
“Every demo that they showed was an individual sitting on a couch by themself,” Zuckerberg told employees, in line with The Verge.
“I mean, that may very well be the vision of the long run of computing, but like, it’s not the one which I need.”
Zuckerberg contrasted Apple’s device with Meta’s approach to the metaverse, which, he argued, is “fundamentally social” and focused on keeping users “lively” somewhat than pure entertainment.