“Vision of the Future” videos have been a thing since the early 21st century, the amazing hologram screen, or people waving their hands in the air to move digital windows around (I mean we have augmented reality for that now). It looks futuristic, sophisticated and innovative, but from an interaction perspective, it is actually incredibly timid.
I agree with what Bret is saying, a tool is supposed to amplify human capabilities, converting what we can do into what we want to do, and if that entire principle is gone, then it isn’t just not a good tool, it is not a tool at all.
Most modern devices ignore the two things hands do best, feeling and manipulating, so how can we call these ideas revolutionary if its going backwards?
Bret’s point about “finger-blindness” is actually terrifying to think about, what we do for granted the future generation may struggle with. If we do not use our hands to feel texture, weight, and pliability, we lose the ability to understand the “inner meaning” of objects. We are building a world where we can spend our entire lives immobile, starting at a “hokey visual facade” that has no physical connection to the work we are doing.
If the future of interaction does not let us see, feel, and manipulate space simultaneously, then it is not a future worth building or investing it.