Hyper-Reality

Some Thoughts On: A Bleak Future?

Earlier this week Apple made waves by announcing their latest endeavour - the Apple Vision Pro. It’s a ‘mixed reality headset’ that aims to create a truly adaptive and rather ‘grown up’ augmented reality experience.

And, frankly it’s looking pretty darn cool.

The Vision Pro seems to be a play into a few spaces - VR entertainment, metaverse-style business meetings and the next stage of simple, gesture-based interactive computing. (You navigate and select by pressing your fingers together).

The price is high and Apple seem to be catering predominantly to early adopters, likely with the intent of enticing developers to build on the framework and create new use-cases as they did all those years ago with the iPhone.

This raises an initial reflection prompt for us as change leaders:

Question: What would your next initiative look like if instead of providing a complete solution - you merely provided the framework and encouraged your users to create the right solutions?

But let’s not stop there this week, because I have a confession to make. You see, I’ve seen enough Black Mirror to be wary of where this type of seamless, augmented reality could go. In a world where there’s discussion of using satellites to advertise in our skies, it’s not a huge leap of the imagination to imagine a dystopia like the one shown in the video below: ‘Hyper-Reality’. If you’ve never seen it, it’s a wonderfully made and awfully scary 6 minutes. (While you do so, keep an eye out for the gamification, hyper-personalisation, cyber-security risk, productivity apps, rating economy and more.)

And maybe society will end up there, and maybe it won’t. But these recent leaps into generative AI and Augmented Reality should have us reflecting.

Question: How can you embrace and accelerate the pace of change within your organisation without exposing everyone in the process?

Controlled early adoption? Structured pilot programs? Something else?

Either way, it’s only achievable with genuine proactivity and a clear intent to minimise harm. (…On an unrelated note - I still find it amusing that Google removed “Don’t Be Evil” from their ‘Code of Conduct’ a few years ago.)

Final Thoughts:

Winter has arrived here in Canberra. That means lots of puffer jackets (the unofficial uniform of Canberrens), lovely warm fireplaces and annoyingly dry knuckles. If you have a good recommendation of a light, non-greasy moisturiser - please feel free to recommend one my way!

See you all next week.

BB