(RightWing.org) – Tech fans are excited about the launch of Apple’s latest gadget, the Vision Pro mixed-reality headset. However, researchers are warning that the device could hold unexpected dangers. Using it too much could actually change the way our brains work.
Apple’s Vision Pro is capable of literally changing how we see the world. The headset, which looks like a set of futuristic ski goggles, contains multiple cameras, microphones, and an array of other sensors. When you’re wearing one, you see a blend of the real world and computer-generated elements, including app windows, media displays, and the faces of people you’re talking to on communications apps.
You can control what you’re seeing with eye movements and hand gestures. Apple started taking pre-orders for the device on January 19, and industry rumors say it’s already sold over 200,000 of them –- despite an eye-watering $3,499 price tag.
However, researchers aren’t convinced mixed-reality headsets like this are safe to use –- even if, unlike at least one idiot, you comply with Apple’s warning that the Vision Pro shouldn’t be worn while driving. Jeremy Bailinson, the chief of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, says the device could actually rewire our brains and change the way we see the world.
According to Bailison, the technology of systems like the Vision Pro is improving fast enough that, soon, everyone who uses them will be living in their own virtual world –- not sharing a common space with the rest of us. The Vision Pro and Meta’s rival Quest can already edit the world users see through them, and future headsets will improve that ability.
Our brains will get used to seeing what we want to see, not what’s really there –- and that will prompt them to make new connections between parts of the brain and neglect new ones. Neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to physically change to handle new ways of doing things, isn’t fully understood yet, but the fact it happens is beyond doubt.
Mixed reality headsets are a new and radically different way of doing things. Spend too long using one, and your brain will adapt to the world it presents in unknown and potentially harmful ways.
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