We need technology that is less immersive, not more

hey there philli here and today I want to talk about immersion and how uh I think that we need technology that is less immersive not more uh this is a blog post that I published about a month or month and a half ago and they this was before Apple Vision Pro okay so this was not um something where I was trying to react to a new VR headset from Apple uh but um this is something that I have been thinking about for many many years and I think it shows in my projects as particularly my my game that is released kns of San Francisco and also the game that I'm working on so I I really this this blog post and there was a bunch of interesting uh talk about the blog post on things like Hecker news and there are some people who uh were confused about like what do I mean by immersive right and um there was that that was my fault because I did not actually Define anything I was I tried to skim because I don't like articles that start with the definition because it seems to me too kind of you know educational or whatever like too you know trying to to sound too smart or something like that uh but I will do it now so I this is my chance to to say basically what I said in the blog post in a more um refined way although also I write better than I speak so you know anyway okay so what I mean by immersion is basically this idea of um how much do you need to work for your to to to see what the author wants you to see right so for example um it's similar to Marshall mcan's hot and cold Media or high and low involvement these are all similar connected terms in my head at least and uh it means that for example if you have lot of the Rings as a book and as a movie then if you are in the movie theater like you don't need to come up with how the orc probably looks like you don't have to you know imagine much because it's right in front of you and you're there and also a lot of the rest of the real world is abstracted like you're in a black dark room nobody's talking to you nothing's other other n no other thing is happening than that particular movie right if you're reading a book uh you can still be immersed in the book as in like you can be cognitively immersed like you are like w this is really cool and you read it and and but but you work more for each of the scenes right you have to imagine these scenes and also uh there's less sensory inmersion because you're literally just reading words on um a piece of paper uh so that's kind of like hopefully obvious and then of course you could say like okay so there's that and then there's immersion like if you're playing a VR game Lord of the Rings then of course you are even more sensorly immersed that that Medium is even hotter or even um uh lower participation like you don't you don't need to I mean higher part participation you you you don't you just immersed more okay so these are two like levels the the sensoric um and the the the the more like cognitive or intellectual immersion and I don't talk about intellectual immersion I know that there are books that can immerse you a lot but that's not what this is about okay so another and this is important this is not just about talking about you know VR headsets and apple Vision Pro or whatever uh this is about talking uh and it's not just about Lord of the Rings and and stuff like this it's about more mundane things as well like for example take newspapers where when you read newspapers if anyone is still reading actual newspapers I don't I don't I don't buy newspapers but if you read newspapers you have to really again you have to read the actual words and then reconstruct the scenes and everything in your head right then you have things like TV you know cable TV came and then you don't need to reconstruct anything in your head you can kind of just sit down and it kind of washes over you there's been people that talking hats and everyone's um have their own opinions and everyone's talking and there's lots of moving pictures right then you have something like Facebook or Twitter where everything is like you you have text but it's part not particularly long most of the time and there's definitely a bunch of pictures and gifts and short videos that again give you a bunch more to you know to to kind of immerse yourself and then you go to something like Tik Tok where it's it's all video and it's all short video and it's all kind of it's not just the medium itself but also the algorithm is trying to pick videos that are super immersive in that even though it's just like a small screen in front of you it's not something that you place on your head uh it's still immersive because something is happening all the time on Tik Tok if if you're you know if if you're scrolling through videos on Tik Tok uh there's never like a slow video like I mean most most of the time it's not and if if it is there's definitely some kind of strong hook to keep you watching that particular video right so that's where I talk what I talk about and that's when I say we need technology that is less immersive not more that's what I mean I don't mean let's write boring books that uh people are not immersed in intellectually I mean maybe uh the fact that a lot of really smart people are working really hard to get us sensoric immersed bigger screens brighter colors uh more VR things more AR things maybe that's not the best thing that we could be that they could be working on okay and this is another controversial thing um it's like how come you you know suggest something like this of course you know free market we should just like everyone should work on anything that pays their money uh and to me it's all right I get it I'm not a communist or anything like this I I get that you know there's free market and obviously if Apple wants to work on an amazing VR headset or if some other company wants to work on an amazing uh phone that is very has very vibrant colors or if a software company wants to work on an algorithm that makes you more engaged therefore more immersed for longer periods of times uh then um by all means they should do it uh I'm talking about like not saying to people that they shouldn't be doing something as in like I don't want to ban immersion okay I'm just saying maybe we're maybe you should correct a little bit like maybe we're doing this too much you know so um the thought experiment here is imagine that you had some magic ability to um to distribute the talent that is currently coming into the market like the the let's say there's 10,000 of the brightest people who are currently starting their careers or you know like yeah really starting their careers let's say in the whole world there is 10,000 of the best of the best creatives uh people people who um are Engineers people who will lead products inventors uh researchers uh all all of these people right so let's say are 10 thousands of them and let's say you magically have the ability to say um how many like to to distribute them to tell them okay so I don't know this many people will be working on this problem this many people will be working on this problem right um thought EXP experiment I know but how many of the 10,000 people would you assign to working on immersive environment like immersive entertainment would it be 50% or or 90% sometimes it feels like you know if you if you really count all the all the really really really smart people work on things like VR headsets and bright displays and things like software things like Tik Tok that increase engagement then it really is the vast majority of of them that that they are they are working on it and then there's a bunch of people who work on things like I don't know just like the more important real life things uh so it might not be true but in Silicon Valley it definitely felt that way that a lot of people were just kind of somehow working on things that let other people be immersed in some kind of entertainment be it uh game uh Netflix or whatever uh or or just uh social media and and kind of the engagement that comes from that right so yeah I I don't think I don't think that rationally we would be in this in this scenario if we if we really like if we could somehow magically think about like how to assign talent in um in Civilization but it it happens and it happens obviously mostly for for money right like if you want to make money uh you want to work for someone who has money and companies that are good at uh immersing and entertaining people in an immersive way engaged um way are doing much better than other companies right um if uh you uh if you want to have good money as an employee you and I always say this you should focus on doing things that rich people want to buy right so if if you let's say you are an inventor and you invent something that makes lives of many poor people a little bit better uh un fortunately you will make less money than if you are in the same inventor who makes stock trading a little bit better because as if your if your customers are very rich people obviously they will pay you more they will be able to pay you more especially if you if they if you have something that makes them even more money right so that's that's the way it is and I'm not complaining about this although some people might but um but so but this is like kind of a natural gravitational force that keeps smart people going into this direction that might not be the best for society and uh and Humanity in in general right so um what am I saying is and again I'm I'm not saying that we should ban VR or anything like this I'm I'm saying that U there there is a disbalance in my opinion on what people are focusing on and how many really talented people are working on things that are maybe not as important for the future of uh Humanity I guess all right so um now the the solution is in my opinion not going to be banning someone or something or you know involvement from the government or whatever uh but it is going to come from people as is often the case and so the only reason I wrote this article and the only reason I'm doing this weird video is that I think a lot of the really really talented people have the ability to just say you know what I'm not going to I'm I'm going to choose a thing that's not about immersion I don't know if I'm making sense but what I'm saying is maybe up until now you didn't realize that there is even such a thing as working on things that are immersive versus working on other things uh and all just by like giving you this idea all this this dichotomy or this this kind of scale uh where you can land can give you um kind of a a more informed way to think about your career and about what what you want to be doing right so I'm basically I'm talking to you as someone who is probably possibly going to be one of the 10,000 people who are uh going to be a big deal for society in terms of invention and in terms of engineering and stuff like this right um and you who can of course end up working on immersive technology and that's fine but I think it's also good to if you do that to realize that you are like to to do this in a way that is conscious consciously know that I'm okay this is what I want to do I want to work on immersive technology on High uh involvement technology engagement technology right Tik toks and stuff like this um versus I could be working on something else and that's all and I think for like especially in the tech industry right we are not Starving Artists a lot of the times people who happen to be good at programming will do just fine in terms of income so I think so I'm not asking anyone hopefully um you understand this that it's not like oh you should feel bad uh because uh it much it would be much better if you stopped working on whatever you're doing and just starve to death no I'm talking about things like okay so you have two Carri Parts in front of you you can do a bunch of of money and you can do you can make a bunch of money or you can make a even more bunch of money and one of them is about less immersive stuff and one of them is about making people engaged a lot and I think um just make the decision like you know like you can do it you don't need to just follow the the path that gives you more money right you obviously understand this all right so I I feel like this is controversial people will think that I'm an idiot and that's fine I they already think that um but I still want to say what I'm not saying uh just to be completely clear right I'm not saying that VR is useless I know that VR is very um uh very useful in many ways and and also I'm not saying that entertainment is useless that we should not be working on entertainment at all or that we should not be talking working on immersive entertainment at all that's I'm not saying that okay I'm I'm I don't say ban U this kind of research uh or I I'm also not saying that we should all just stop working in uh companies and start working in Nos and saving uh you know starving kids uh this is by the way I'm this is a direct direct reaction to someone on Hacker News who's like well this is all good but like of course there's always something to to do we we can't all be uh saving starving kids I'm like I'm not that's not what I'm talking about I'm I don't say I'm I'm not like I think there's this reaction that some people have where they when they feel feel a little bad about some information they will immediately take that uh argument that they're not comfortable about about and then they will just like pull it to its complete extreme right like oh Philip is actually talking about us uh we we don't deserve to have good things and we should all just go uh to um humanitarian organizations and nothing else is uh is good enough right and that's not obviously hopefully you understand this this is not what I talking about and it's kind of silly that someone thinks that that's that's what people are talking about small small um decisions like okay will I work for uh a big company that does a lot of you know engagement for engagement because they want to self ads because that makes a lot of money or do I go to this other company that is maybe uh a little less about that and a little more about something else that's what I'm talking about I'm not talking about you just leaving your life um and going to Africa or uh Middle East to to uh care for kids okay cool so in summary imersion is cool I I do it right like once in a while I play games that are immersive I'm don't have a VR headset but I have played with VR headsets before it was amazing I love it cool yeah uh being able to immerse yourself in a high involvement medium feels great and nobody's disputing it and it's cool it's cool uh but perhaps perhaps uh giving it a little perhaps we're giving it a little more weight than we should um maybe you know uh maybe this is not what parents want to see most of the time I'm I'm just I'm joking it's it's uh this is not the um you know this again I'm kind of like going towards VR because it's the classic thing to talk about but maybe the the higher resolution screens and the more vibrant colors and the uh the Facebooks and twitters and and Tik toks of the world aren't as important to like really give them what feels like 80% of the talent that is currently in the world uh in terms of like creativity and stuff like this right so and I think that hopefully you'll agree that there are other arguably more important and more rewarding problems to work on well uh that has been a little bit of a rant uh but I hope that it gives you a little bit of food for thought uh please do comment in the comments or send me an email or whatever I do want to talk about this this is something that I really care about and have been caring about for literally years um and so I may be completely wrong about these things and that's fine uh I just need to to know that that's the case cool well see you next time cheers

Channel: Filip Hráček

Views: 2,174

Keywords: vr, ar, apple vision pro, vision pro, mcluhan, engagement, tiktok

Id: V_YrU2CD0Z8

Length: 23min 43sec (1423 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 05 2024