There is no question in my mind that over the next few years headsets for XR will become commonplace for anyone who works with text. We need to have deep and wide dialog for what that should be like–it is too important to simply leave to commercial companies–we should all take part in the dialog and experiences of how XR can truly extend the human mind.
We are currently engaged with The Future of Text in XR supported by The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
The importance of Now
The importance of now is huge. I feel quite strongly that it will be important to develop this entirely new, all-encompassing environment as thoughtfully as possible and not only based on the initial commercial explorations of big tech companies. We are the last generation to not work at least part of the time in XR. We should fully unfurl our imagination and support the dreaming of those who will follow us. We cannot afford XR to be as ossified as the PC has become.
It is easy–and important–to criticise news technology and this has been done since the beginning of invention and is being done with XR now, with concerns one one hand about the headsets being uncomfortable and on the other hand that people will spend too much time in the virtual worlds, and more. There are many forums for this aspect of the future but this is not one. This forum is to engage in dialog and experiments to try to discover how powerful working in XR can be.
Issues to overcome
Issues to overcome for VR to become commonplace include hardware work to reduce the screen door effect so that reading text becomes pleasant, reduction in weight for comfort for longer sessions, better battery life and lower cost.
The most important and surprising issue is the lack of good onboarding or information integration. Instant access to the user’s information landscape and colleagues is needed, and I do expect Apple to make some major advances here.
As a developer I feel that I can add real value by simply having my own software, Author and Reader, be able to spawn virtual ‘displays’, not only windows, in a VR environment for example. Initial ‘wins’ for working in VR does not have to be mind benignly advanced, they just need to be mind expandingly useful.
Opportunities
Opportunities initially include space, space and more space to think and work. Beyond this there is almost limitless potential for text and information interaction in general, something we have only started to scratch the virtual surface of. Embodies cognition will be something very different in a decade…
My son Edgar has high hopes for the future of working in headsets. Let’s not disappoint him and only let him work in what benefits Apple and Meta:
the future of text–the future of thought–is richly multidimensional
XR Experiences | XR Scenario | Why XR
On terminology: The development of headsets is likely to continue with all having passthrough to move from VR to AR and some having an AR ‘first’ focus, such as Google Glass had. I don’t think the term ‘XR’ will be used much outside the industry though I fully expect the consumer to refer to ‘VR headsets’ and for this to become just ‘headsets’ over time, with even Apple’s Vision Pro headset being called just a ‘headset’, or the ‘Apple headset’.