Jack Dorsey, founder and former CEO of Twitter, expressed his concern for the future of humans. In a recent interview, he said that the future looks eerily similar to the Disney Pixar Film WALL-E. The film characterizes humans as constant consumers, unable to walk or move, who live on a spaceship because they have destroyed Earth. He argued that Virtual Reality devices, like the new Apple headset, are forcing humans apart, turning them into the ‘blobs’ from the movie that are detached from reality. He warned the listeners to keep this in mind as consumer culture is ever-growing.
DAILY STAR: VR will turn us into WALL-E blobs who ‘drink food out of straws’, warns Twitter founder
By Ciaran Daly; June 14, 2023
Mixed reality headsets like the Apple Vision Pro could turn us all into lazy blobs who drink food out of straws and watch TV 24/7.
That’s at least what billionaire Twitter founder Jack Dorsey thinks. In an interview, Dorsey said he’s worried that we’re moving towards a future that looks like the popular Pixar film WALL-E.
In WALL-E, humanity has spent hundreds of years on a spaceship controlled by AI. Their lives have become so comfortable that nobody has to exercise or work, and instead people just consume non-stop.
Dorsey said: “That’s the future we’re driving towards—with everyone in the floating chairs, drinking their food out of straws, and constant 24/7 entertainment.”
Dorsey said that while he thinks VR is ‘obviously going to happen’ and could be ‘phenomenal for gaming’, it could also cause some real problems once it becomes popular in the way that smartphones have.
He said: “I’m super worried and concerned with how out of touch it might make people and how it distances us further.
“You can see that like the whole world is headed this way and I want to believe that there’s a different answer. So it’s going to happen. I’m skeptical about some of the benefits and I hope we can have an honest conversation around some of the harms of more and more social distancing.”
Last week, Apple announced its £3000 Reality Pro headset.
This ‘mixed reality’ headset combines virtual reality with ‘augmented reality’, meaning you can see the world around you while interacting with apps, games or messages.
Or, for a more isolated experience, you can drop into a full virtual reality experience and watch movies or play games.
It even has eyeball tracking so you can select menu items just by looking at them.
It’s out late next year and while it might cost a bomb right now, it should drop in price over time—which is what could lead us into the WALL-E future Jack Dorsey has warned about.
Photo: Getty Images