The Power of Vision Pro

// 02.22.2024

When I was in middle school, I played Minecraft with OptiFine, and it gave you the ability to instantly zoom in like 10x on something by just pressing the 'C' key. That interaction was so useful that I remember instinctively trying to do it IRL and being slightly sad upon realizing I wasn't able to. I care a lot about operating computers at as close to the speed of thought as possible so I do things like using dictation and only having one iPhone home screen with no folders to monopolize my muscle memory. Within 5 minutes of my first Apple Vision Pro demo I was able to close 3 apps in less than a second with my eyes and my hand in my lap. It was the most natural, mind-control superpower feeling HCI I've ever experienced. It just felt right. The impression I got from that demo is that I fear I'll get that same OptiFine feeling, where I'll instinctually try to eye-tracked pinch interact with things irl and miss having those superpowers in the headset. That is the power of XR computing and I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more magic interactions like this in the coming years. I suppose I'll find out soon.