The virtual loneliness of mixed reality

AUGMENTED reality (AR) is advancing further upon us and our faces. Initial reactions to Apple’s mixed-reality headset, the Vision Pro, have been of awe and wonder, if also some ambivalence. While Apple’s first stab at this space is unlikely to achieve mass adoption, its subsequent iterations might well do, given its track record of making category-defining devices. But before it does, before it succeeds at making smaller, cheaper and more useful computers that the rest of us will want to strap to our faces for extended periods of time, it bears considering if this is something we ought to want.

The Vision Pro is a misanthrope’s dream wrought in aluminium and glass. Its most compelling features turn your gaze inwards towards an immersive meditation experience, or elsewhere towards a football game happening several time zones away.

Already, some reviewers have noted how lonely it can feel in there, and Apple has been assiduously steering the Vision Pro around this drawback. Its promotional video stresses how the headset, which allows the user and those around them to see each other, means you’re “not isolated from other people”. It is debatable whether the current Vision Pro successfully avoids this pitfall and uncertain whether future headsets will.