By Fr. Joseph of St. Jude Parish
Two big leaps in technology happened in the last few weeks. The first is Neuralink’s announcement that it has successfully implanted its first brain-computer interface chip, which purports to allow a seamless connection between technology and the human person. This could potentially allow a person to control a computer through their mind, and allow a computer to augment a person’s brain activity, as well.
The second leap is Apple’s “Vision Pro”, which came out – and it touts itself as a game-changer, up there with the iPhone in terms of a radical cultural shift. Now, for the first time, we have “spatial computing” – no longer a computer in our pocket disguised as a phone, it’s now a 3-D, totally immersive event where we can actually leave this world with our five senses, and enter a new one.
There are four huge, huge problems with this. First, we are becoming ever more disconnected with the real world. As a blogger wrote, “We are living in unreality!” As we continue to blur the lines between what is real and what is only digital, we are apt to miss the “sacrament” of this world – that this physical world, with all of its rainy days and stubbed toes, family dinners and squirrels frolicking, is actually a medium through which God communicates Himself to us. The beauty of nature, the way in which we see Providence at work, the very fact that we live in a creation far vaster than we can ever imagine or discover, is itself a revelation of God. To detach from the real world and instead inhabit, more and more, an unreal world which we ourselves have created, will continue to alienate us from God.
Second, it alienates us from one another. Imagine trying to have a conversation with someone who is wearing Vision Pro – you have no idea if he’s paying attention to you or a cute cat video he found on the internet! One may say, “But it doesn’t have to be used that way!” But who among us hasn’t seen people sitting across from one another at a restaurant, each buried in their own screens and completely ignoring the living, breathing Image of God across the table? San Mateo County in California just declared “loneliness” as a health emergency. As we retreat into our digital worlds, will this not continue to increase?
Third, living amongst such “augmented reality” makes actual reality seem flat, boring by comparison. This was the insight shared by a writer from “Vanity Fair” who had tried the Vision Pro – he found that real life was boring, because he had become so accustomed to the constant dopamine-hits of novelty and control that he had while wearing the headset. This constant stimulation fragments our attention span, so that we can’t have sustained quiet, prayer, or study. Reading a book becomes tremendously boring. Mass is not nearly as thrilling as watching a 3-D movie. We wonder why it’s hard to have a prayer life, or why many young adults would rather retreat to the world of video games and porn than actually have a dating life – because real life is not as thrilling and doesn’t offer as much novelty or dopamine as the “augmented reality” promised by this new technology.
And, of course, ultimately it’s the age-old temptation – we seek to become gods who have the power to create reality as we want it. Rather than receiving reality as a gift and uncovering the hidden truths and principles that God has written upon the structure and the wonders of this world, we want to write our own meaning in the worlds we are designing.
There are so many other dangers that we could write about (how many “ads” will pop up in our headset or brain with this technology, proving that really all is for sale? Will these technologies be vulnerable to hackers? Etc). But suffice to say that this is a huge step away from a truly Christian society, and all Catholics serious about a relationship with God and with one another ought to avoid such technologies, or at least be exceptionally wary of their dangers.
