Cathy came to me with the idea to write this guidebook after we wrote Wearable World: Will Apple Usher In An AI Future With An XR Device? together. [52] I thought it was a great idea, and I was ready to dive deeper into what a post-smartphone, hands-free world would look like. While my VR headset is collecting dust, I couldn’t help but think about how wearables not focused on the metaverse, social media, or gaming could actually be useful in my life. I was taken back to my Bose Frames and the freedom I felt leaving the house with only them and my smartwatch.
We have an opportunity to totally reimagine our relationship with wearables/connected devices and how we connect to other people through them. In one of the Vogue articles I read, Tim Cook asked the author to imagine scanning a dress someone was wearing and your device immediately recognizing it and ordering it for you. Cook said he didn’t see Apple as the database for all the clothes in the world but as the gateway to a company that did want to catalog clothes and AI ordering.
To me, the announcement of Apple offers a convergence of a different kind. The idea of seamless interaction, breaking through the glass (as Helen Papaginnis describes in her book, Augmented Human), and a transformation from social media-driven AI to personal, human AI.
Will all that happen with the release of Apple’s first headset? No, and I wouldn’t expect it to. That’s a lot to put on one company’s shoulders. But Apple is different from other headset makers (Microsoft, Meta, HTC), which gives us an opportunity to see a different evolution of AR.
So, what happens next?
Well, that part is purely up to each one of you and what you decide to do with this knowledge at this specific moment in time. We are at a crossroads where technology can be seen (or even used) as a threat to humanity or it can be leveraged to create a new paradigm shift in how we humans communicate and connect.
We all have a responsibility to create a better future for our children and the generations that will come after us. We can choose to use these new advancements in technology to aid us in the fight to preserve our planet, find new medical treatments, and improve our human relationships– or we can choose to sit idly on the sidelines and let this moment pass us by.
We choose to be in the trenches building the future and we hope you will too.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; we hope that you can see great beauty and progress for humanity on the horizon thanks to human creativity, ingenuity, and curiosity- - and, of course, technology. This is a time for all of us to be curious and immerse ourselves in envisioning that future and most importantly to work together to make sure we build a better future for those to come! This moment is not about tech, it is about the future of humanity.
Once again, welcome to the future! We hope you help us build a better one.
Cathy & Lily