Sorry but "Mixed Reality" Sounds Like a Salad
Let's all get together and touch some grass.
Hi friends!
How’s everyone doing? I’d like to begin today with an apology on behalf of my homeland, the great nation of Canada. Sending most of our smoke down to the northeastern U.S. this week wasn’t the neighbourly behaviour we are known for. Sorry! But we must also acknowledge the magnitude of the content opp it provided to everyone in New York — turns out nothing unites the city like an apocalyptic sky harkening back to the Valencia Instagram filter.
We at the Burn It All Down editorial board would like it to be on the record that the “all” in the title of this publication is not inclusive of any trees, forests, or other natural delights. Only metaphorical fires for the ephemeral insanities of our times are endorsed over here.
Speaking of, I feel like we all got so distracted for a bit thinking about AI that we dropped the ball on tracking another dystopian classic — everyone putting on ugly goggles to transport themselves into an augmented realm of some lunatic’s creation. Apple brought it back around this week when Tim Cook unveiled the “Vision Pro” headset, a “mixed reality” concept that seems like it wants to bring spreadsheets into your living room.
Tim Cook doesn’t have the black turtleneck or corporate rizz that Steve Jobs wielded to reshape the way we interact with computers. He looks like a high school physics teacher who enjoys gardening as a hobby and simply isn’t the salesman to convince anyone with disposable income to buy $3500 goggles that are giving Daft Punk helmet meets sleep mask meets Homer Simpson’s jury duty glasses. Maybe not the worst possible look considering the aesthetics of the Oculus contraption, but certainly not something a sane person would wear out of the house. And if I’m spending thousands of dollars on an accessory, you better believe it will be hitting the streets.
The men who run tech companies live in a wealthy dork-centric bubble, always seem to forget how vain the average person is, and underestimate what a huge commitment it is to wear their wares on your face… of all places! I remember when unfortunate NYC tech bros were wearing Google Glass around Union Square — the design was so wild, like a pair of ugly prescription glasses procreated with a bluetooth headset. That was a decade ago, when technology still felt exciting, when new ways of communicating were reshaping the world and there was still so much optimism around the power of connectivity.
In 2023 we don’t need wearable tech to enjoy a moment of “mixed reality,” we have been living in it since at least 2012 (were the Mayans right?) and what we crave is a break from the mediation, a return to some semblance of agency over the screens we need to look at to earn a living, absorb information, socialize, be entertained. These launches are no longer an exciting glimpse into a technological future, they’re an inadvertent, boring episode of Black Mirror.
We’ve reached a singularity for convenience, the point at which technology isn’t “optimizing” our world, just making everything weirder. All the minor problems of daily life have been solved and the solutions marketed and sold. One major problem that still needs solving is the most non-negotiable — keeping our planet inhabitable with clean air to breathe. The reality mix is at its worst when our feeds are consumed by the obvious effects of the climate catastrophe we’re living in. We need our most brilliant minds focusing their time, energy and resources towards figuring a way out of the mess we’ve created, not inventing new ways to disconnect and stay isolated from each other while beaming ourselves into a prestige drama series.
So, what’s next? Adding a mood tracker to the operating system? No, babe, let’s go touch some grass. Mommy Earth needs us to stay connected cuz if we don’t figure out a way to take care of her, there will be no reality for the mixing.
Less Lessons More Blessin’s™️
Liz