This Is Your Brain on Apple

On January 19th 2024 at 5am PST, I woke up and submitted my pre-order for the Apple Vision Pro. My laptop was already set up on the floor, ready to go, kind of like how marathon runners lay out their gear the night before a race. I think they do that. I wouldn’t know. I’ve never run a marathon.

Next to me, there was a girl I was dating at the time. She looked confused as I scrambled out of bed and proclaimed something about Apple and history in the making. I went into the other room. This was not the first time I’d inconvenienced friends, family, or lovers to be one of the first people on Earth to buy an Apple product.

I’ve always been an Apple fanboy. Some of my earliest memories involve saving up for an iPod, spending afternoons at the Apple Store, and receiving an iSight camera from my older brother. It’s hard to say whether my love for sleek, chrome gadgets and sexy UIs came from Apple, or if that is just who I am, and Apple was my first true love.

Anyway, I was going to be one of the first proud owners of the revolutionary Apple Vision Pro. Between ordering it and receiving it, I devoured tens of hours of YouTube videos, reviewing every feature.

And when I realized launch day meant I’d have to wait four extra days for delivery, I refreshed the Apple Store site obsessively until a walk-in appointment opened up. I left a ski trip in Tahoe early to drive back to SF to pick it up. Priorities.

I got the fitting done, sped home, and dove in. It was amazing. Truly mind-blowing tech. I showed it to everyone I could, awkwardly narrating them through the clunky “guest mode.” Dinosaurs, spatial photos, IMAX screens floating in midair, it was an instant crowd-pleaser. People were impressed. Then they were relieved when I took it off their heads and put it away so we could get back to real life.

A few months later, I had to admit to myself that I didn’t really use it. I watched movies in it a few times, forcing the habit like a New Year’s resolution, but eventually, it went into the closet. Once in a while I will take it out, wait the requisite 45 minutes for a VisionOS update, and mess around with it just to see what’s new.

Then last week, I watched the new season of Black Mirror. Episode 5: “Eulogy” with Paul Giamatti. In it, Paul is asked to share memories for a funeral service. He uses a temple-worn device that lets him re-enter the memory through a photograph. walk around in it, re-live it. It felt eerily similar to Apple’s Spatial Photos and Videos. Just like my dog, Domino, feels literally within reach when I rewatch old hikes in the headset, this fictional tech didn’t seem fictional at all. It felt inevitable.

I fired up the Vision Pro and re-lived a few old vacations. It really was moving. Profound, even.

I’m confident I’ll live to see the day when this 1.43-pound slab of glass and brushed titanium shrinks down to the size of an AirTag you can suction to your temple. Or maybe just a pair of smart contacts. I’m not picky. It reminded me of the iSight my brother gave me in 2005, so we could stay close after he moved to Colorado. Now, the camera on my iPhone is 160x the resolution. These things scale down. They get smaller. Faster. More essential. The Vision Pro will follow that same arc.

The Brain Is the Next iPhone

The Apple Vision Pro is a wild, impressive, $4,500 science experiment. And like all Apple first-gen products, it’s a gateway drug, an on-ramp. It got me thinking about what’s coming and who’s going to deliver it.

Over the past 18 months, brain-computer interfaces (BCIs, obvs) have gone from weird lab projects to a quietly booming investment category. While AI has sucked all the oxygen out of the room, BCI is building a fire in the corner… quietly.

I think it’s the beginning of the next computing platform.

Where the Money’s Headed (🤣)

The brain-computer interface market is projected to hit $11.2 billion by 2033, and last year (2024) startups raised over $2.3B in funding to help create the temple-widgets we’ll someday don.

The Neural Players I’m Watching

• Neuralink (ugh, yes, Elon’s): successfully implanted its N1 device into three human patients. One of them can now play games with his thoughts. The device has over 1,000 electrodes and aims to help people with paralysis do things like text and browse. The long game? Mind-powered computing.

• Synchron: the quieter, more FDA-friendly competitor. Their “Stentrode” is implanted through the jugular. No open-brain surgery required! It lets users control iPhones with their thoughts. Apple is reportedly circling.

• Precision Neuroscience: founded by a former Neuralink co-founder, their “Layer 7” device is a wafer-thin film laid gently on the surface of the brain. It’s already been used in 37 patients and can translate thought into speech.

• Paradromics and Blackrock Neurotech are developing high-bandwidth implants for patients with ALS and spinal injuries. Meanwhile, MindMaze and Kernel are focused on cognitive enhancement, not just assistance.

Some still write this off as niche medtech. I think it’s the early buildout of the next computing platform. Not headsets, brains. There are some smart companies (and investors) quietly racing to claim the last real frontier: your gray matter.

And really, the dominos are already lined up:

• AI and ML models are (nearly?) sophisticated enough to interpret neural patterns.

• Wearable and implantable devices are getting smaller and safer.

• FDA is signaling real support, not red tape.

• And, as always, business is business and business must grow (The Lorax says so). Investors need new frontiers, valuations need new narratives, and tech needs another trillion-dollar market to chase.

We’re still early. Like iPod Mini early. But we’ve crossed the threshold from Black Mirror plot device to R&D roadmap.

I’ll be First In Line

I still remember that chunky iSight webcam and how it made my brother feel less far away. That was 2005. Now I strap on a headset and surround myself with immersive memories. OK, I don’t do it that often, that thing is so uncomfortable, but I can if I want to and that should blow all of our minds.

The Apple Vision Pro is the foundation of a new interface, one that rewires how we connect, remember, create, and think.

And when the Apple Neural Implant drops, you know I’ll be there. Not with a glowing laptop on the floor, but gently awakened by a hologram of Tim Cook, who takes me retinal scan and confirms my pre-order. First in line.

Up and to the right.