> If you could time-travel back to the 80s and 90s, plenty of folks would have scoffed that anyone would ever "need" a computer, let alone a computer in their pocket.
Is that true? I feel like people have imagined portable communication / computing devices forever[1]. People maybe couldn't imagine that they could ever be small enough to be practical, but the utility of such a device was pretty obvious. Similarly, I think "VR" as a concept has obvious value and applications. However current implementations fall far short of what is necessary to unlock that value for most people / scenarios.
I guess you're both right. People knew there'd be reasons computers would be nice to have, but scoffed at the idea that it would be realistic, or would become an actual necessity. People now know that there are ways VR could be cool, but many aren't yet convinced it can be done well enough/cheap enough to be worth it, nor are they imagining it being day-to-day tech yet.
It cannot be done well enough or cheap enough or in a form factor people are willing to use at scale. It's a dead end until those all change. Decades at least.
> I feel like people have imagined portable communication / computing devices forever
Another example would be fictional comic-book detective Dick Tracy's wristwatch, which started as two-way audio in 1946 and got upgraded to video in 1964.
Is that true? I feel like people have imagined portable communication / computing devices forever[1]. People maybe couldn't imagine that they could ever be small enough to be practical, but the utility of such a device was pretty obvious. Similarly, I think "VR" as a concept has obvious value and applications. However current implementations fall far short of what is necessary to unlock that value for most people / scenarios.
[1] https://www.geeksandbeats.com/2016/02/star-trek-technology-t...