Okay, so I haven't tried it yet. But Apple Vision looks pretty awesome and the people who have tried it seem to be very impressed by it. The best article that I have read, so far, is this one here by Ben Thompson (of Stratechery). He gets into some of the tech details and explains why Apple is probably the only company in the world that could have created a device like this.

For those of you who are interested, Apple Vision is still technically a VR device, even though it is being marketed as an augmented reality (AR) device that allows you to stay engaged with the world around you. This last part is true, but it is all done digitally through 12 cameras that capture the world around you and then display it back to you.

So experientially, yes, it is an AR device; however, the tech behind it is actually just exceptional VR.

But this is not the point of today's post. The point I would like to make is one that Ben raises at the end of his article. After praising Apple Vision's achievements, he goes on to argue that the arc of technology is one that is leading toward "ever more personal experiences." In other words, it is increasingly about individual, rather than group, use cases.

And this is one of the first things that I thought of when I watched the Vision Pro keynote. "Wow, this looks like a really cool way to watch and experience a movie. But how do I do that with my partner? I guess we both now need Vision Pros. And what about families with a bunch of kids? That is a lot of Vision Pros."

But maybe this doesn't matter. Ben's point is that it's probably not an accident that this technology arc is happening at the same time as a larger societal shift away from family formation and toward more feelings of loneliness. Indeed, the number of single-person households has been steadily increasing in the US since the 1960s. The current figure sits at more than 1 in 4 households.

So there is an obviously dystopian narrative that we could all tell ourselves here. It is one where everyone works from home, plugs into virtual workplaces, and then flips over to other, more exciting, virtual worlds when it's time to unwind from the stresses of the former. And if you think about it, this isn't that much of a stretch compared to what many of us do today.

Whatever the case, in my mind, none of this is any reason to become bearish on cities. Humans will still be humans. And none of this tech is going to replace the feeling of enjoying a perfect pesto gnocchi in an impossibly narrow laneway in Milan, or drinking a caipirinha on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro while being surrounded by shockingly beautiful people.

Or at least let's hope so.