
Apple CEO Tim Cook on Virtual Reality: “There’s No Substitute for Human Contact” - aaronbrethorst
https://www.buzzfeed.com/johnpaczkowski/apple-ceo-tim-cook-on-virtual-reality-theres-no-substitute-f
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o0-0o
This past weekend I was at Desert Trip in California, and I got the chance to
talk to neighbors from Austral-Asia, Europe, and the US. This was a diverse
group to say the least, ad we were all camping next to another on 408th and
Broadway. The conversation got onto VR, and we all agreed, without a doubt
that their is no substitute for human contact and that the whole term Virtual
Reality was a contradiction and a not very slick marketing term. No one wanted
anything to do with VR. In fact, the conversation about VR was so disgusting
to all of us, we all had to just drop it. NO ONE wanted VR, and any company
betting on it is betting against the house and the players at the same time.
We all thought the big bets could be used for much better causes. Just some
info.

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yankyou
Countless technologies, including the internet and social media, have become
augments and indeed sometimes substitutes for human contact. Some of the
biggest companies in the world have been built on those technologies.

Why does VR need to be solitary and why does it need to be any different?

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o0-0o
I was referring strictly to virtual reality and not augmented reality.

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yankyou
So was I. VR can be social in the same way Facebook can be social.

You might be able to argue that Facebook-style interaction replacing face-to-
face meeting is a bad thing, but you can't argue it's something nobody wants.

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tummler
AR and VR excel in different areas. AR is a natural fit for most social
contexts because it brings elements of the digital world into the physical
world without completely enveloping the senses. VR isolates the senses, which
provides deeper immersion. A virtual environment can be similar to the real
world or completely removed from it. The rules of the physical world don't
apply in VR.

I agree with Cook that AR will likely be more popular in terms of daily/casual
usage by the average person, but VR will be just as "huge" in terms of
societal impact. And some of his comments about the socially-isolating nature
of VR are a bit short-sighted. Facebook (and others) are already doing a lot
of work on getting people into shared spaces with high-fidelity avatars that
really do give a sense of being with someone who's not physically there.

And with 360° photo/video, volumetric 3D video, 3D scanning/printing,
photogrammetry, etc-- we're quickly moving toward a "mixed" reality world
where the line between AR/VR is blurred anyway.

