I agree it is unfortunate that you can't tell where someone's eyes are at when talking with sunglasses on and I also agree that it detracts from the socialization experience.

I do not feel that this loss makes it rude to have an outside conversation wearing sunglasses in a sunny environment.

So, I still think that AR will find its way in. I'm not saying it won't reduce the socialization experience further. It'll just be perceived as semi-necessary, understandable, and life will move on.

Except what is the benefit that it’s providing, that people asked to have solved?

I feel like if you went up to someone and asked “how can we improve this social interaction?” Literally nobody would suggest strapping a screen to your face anywhere in the list of improvements.

Here’s some other technology improvements:

What would make your TV experience better?

* make it bigger * allow it to use the internet to watch infinite shows * make it cheaper * make the colors brighter

What would make your analog home-phone experience better? * make it portable * make it smaller * allow me to save contacts within it * allow me to take other notes * now that I have this little thing in my pocket anyways, make it do more stuff

Then when we think of the problems that lead to AR being the solution, it’s almost entirely related to business problems. Surgery, manufacturing, carpentry, construction… all would benefit from a HUD that tells you what to put where. Those are real benefits.

But anything that people would do in a social situation? Almost never will the answer to a human interaction problem to be “attach a screen to your face”. In that scenario, all of the solutions are really in search of a problem.

> Then when we think of the problems that lead to AR being the solution, it’s almost entirely related to business problems. Surgery, manufacturing, carpentry, construction… all would benefit from a HUD that tells you what to put where. Those are real benefits.

I think you're on to something. Glass was an expensive flop from the word "go" but the second generation did live on in these specialized sectors.

I suspect that - at least for this decade - AR is still going to be the specialized/industry tech and that VR is going to be the consumer oriented tech.

I think a convincing example is to show a heads-up display of what two people last talked about as to enrich the conversation.

I already do this but more manually. For example, I don't try to remember everyone's birthday. Instead, I put their birthday's in my calendar, get a notification when it's close, and use this information to enrich our relationship.

It seems reasonable to believe this could be extended much further if the barrier to recording and recalling the information was reduced.

> I think a convincing example is to show a heads-up display of what two people last talked about as to enrich the conversation.

Perhaps. It might be a generation or two before the "that's ... creepy" vibes fade. Reminds me a bit of that scene in minority report after the eye swap and the protagonist passes by a billboard and the avatar asks him about how the pants he purchased worked out.

I do something similar to the calendar thing too. I reach out a few days ahead of time so it doesn't seem like I'm just doing it reflexively like an unfeeling robot because facebook prompted me to do so day of.

Sunglasses may detract but they actually serve one purpose -- it's too damned bright out.

Having AR glasses on is totally different.

It's not totally different. It's very similar.

The main difference is that there might be any number of equally-or-more-valid reasons to have AR/MR glasses on than "it's too bright".

Like, "I'm on call for blahblah" or "I'm watching the baby monitor" or... whatever, a million possibilities.

So yes, AR glasses detract, but no, it's not different.

Also, lots of wearers consider that social interaction complexifier a feature, not a bug. Which is why you see a lot of cops wear sunglasses all the time, even with no sun. For a deep, heart-to-heart conversation with somebody important? Sure, take them off. For anything else...

Your arguments are from the PoV of the wearer. Sure, as a wearer, you know that you are paying attention to whoever you are talking to, but as someone on the other side, I don't know that.

That's not a problem with sunglasses because it's inherently impossible for you to be doing something else.

The issue that people have with AR glasses (and to some extent, people wearing sunglasses unnecessarily) is that AR glass wearers are thinking more about themselves than the perspective of other person. And then to defend AR glasses saying "I could be doing something important but actually I'm paying attention" is like doubling down on that lack of awareness.

I'm not opposed to AR glassses. I'm just explaining why they are a bit of a faux pas and the people who think they are OK are also the reason why they are not OK.

Maybe for this generation, but give it time. I think expectations will shift.

Children used to be told "don't sit so close to the TV" and now we're strapping monitors to our heads.