Another example: Video-on-demand was pushed for decades and essentially laughed at outside of a narrow niche where it found purchase… until one day it ate the world.
The issues with video-on-demand were network connectivity, image quality, etc. It wasn't hard to imagine a future where all issues were fixes, and see all the benefits over the brick and mortar video rental. You take an existing common use case, add significant benefits without drawbacks and it becomes a no-brainer.
For VR/AR however? Are we going to get to Black Mirror level of a weightless device that projects a huge AR screen without block your field of vision for the rest, and without making you look like a goof?
Even if that's the case, the benefit over using a phone screen wouldn't not be as big as getting a huge library of movies to be rented in seconds directly from your living room (compared to driving to Blockbuster during opening hours for a much smaller selection).
> compared to driving to Blockbuster during opening hours for a much smaller selection
And the best movies all being rented out! That's a concept that doesn't even exist anymore. A bit tangential, but good technology has that effect, of making scarcity disappear.
