Who needs real things when everything can be a hologram?

Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said recently on Theo Von’s “This Past Weekend” podcast that everything is shifting to holograms.

A hologram is a three-dimensional image that represents an object in a way that allows it to be viewed from different angles, creating the illusion of depth.

Zuckerberg predicts that most of our physical objects will become obsolete and replaced by holographic versions seen through augmented reality (AR) glasses. The conversation floated the idea that books, board games, ping-pong tables, and even smartphones could all be virtualized, replacing the physical, real-world versions. 

Zuckerberg also expects that somewhere between one and two billion people could replace their smartphones with AR glasses within four years. 

One potential problem with that prediction: the public has to want to replace physical objects with holographic versions. So far, Apple’s experience with Apple Vision Pro does not imply that the public is clamoring for holographic replacements. 

Apple Vision Pro, released in 2024, is Apple’s first spatial computer, and it’s already changing how people interact with digital objects and experiences. The device lets you pull 3D objects out of apps and view them from every angle, as if they’re floating right in front of you. That  means you can replace physical items like chess boards with holographic versions that appear on your real table and respond to your gestures and gaze. You don’t just see a virtual chess board; you can play on it, move pieces, and even have a virtual opponent seated across from you — all anchored in your actual space. 

Apple Vision Pro also enables the replacement of a big-screen 4K TV, a very large computer monitor, a ping-pong table, a whiteboard, board games, and other objects. The $3499 price of an Apple Vision Pro is far less than the price of buying all these physical objects, yet most consumers have not felt the high-tech headset is worth the money.

Of course, this comparison isn’t quite fair for three reasons. First, you can’t replace a TV with an Apple Vision Pro because only one person can watch at a time. Second, there’s a network effect at play. Unlike with a real chess game or board game, you can’t play another person using Apple Vision Pro unless they have one, too, and that’s statistically unlikely. Third, Zuckerberg talks about a future where our holograms will be delivered by lightweight, everyday glasses rather than giant, heavy, bulky contraptions like the Vision Pro. 

Still, we live in a world where 100% of the most popular consumer electronics products are not holographic, and 100% of the holographic products are not popular. 

The hologram state of the art

A number of companies have rolled out a variety of hologram related products, including:

Looking Glass Factory, which sells the Looking Glass Go, a pocket-sized holographic display that folds up like a cell phone. The company’s software even lets you convert ordinary digital photographs into 3D holograms to be displayed on the Go. 

Holloconnects, which makes two holographic product lines: the Holobox and the Hologrid. These are interactive hologram displays designed for stores, letting shoppers see 3D projections of products or even try on clothes virtually. Some implementations use them for AI assistants. 

Proto, which sells a holoportation product called the Proto Epic, a full-size hologram booth that can display life-sized, real-time 3D images of people. The booth is used for remote meetings, performances, and events, allowing a person to appear as a hologram anywhere in the world. Proto booths are installed in airports, conference centers, and retail locations in the US and Europe.

Leia, which sells the Leia Lume Pad 2; it’s a tablet-like device that creates 3D content without glasses. According to the company, it is aimed at creators, educators, and professionals who need portable 3D visualization. 

zSpace, which offers holographic services and products. The company’s technology offers realistic 3D visualization using a proprietary stereoscopic display, trackable eyewear, and a direct-interaction stylus. Users can manipulate digital objects as if they were physical, enabling natural navigation, grabbing, slicing, and exploring of 3D models. zSpace targets the manufacturing, architecture, engineering, medical, and research industries. 

Hypervsn, which develops 3D holographic display technology, creating high-resolution, floating images without glasses. Its product range includes the SmartV Wall — a modular, scalable 3D holographic wall for large-scale displays — SmartV Solo for interactive 3D visuals, and specialized solutions like the Holographic Human and SmartV Slots. Hypervsn displays are used for advertising, events, and retail spaces.

Light Field Lab, which sells the SolidLight; it’s built from modular, directly emissive panels capable of producing dense, converging wavefronts of light. This allows the creation of “real images” — holographic objects that appear to float in mid-air and can be viewed from multiple angles, with correct motion parallax, reflections, and refractions, according to the company. SolidLight is targeted at entertainment and themed experiences; immersive advertising and digital signage in public spaces; virtual concierge services and product showcases for corporate and retail installations; and large-scale performance events and cinemas, according to the company. 

Voxon Photonics, which produces the VX2 and VX2-XL, advanced volumetric displays that generate interactive 3D holograms using millions of points of light in real-time. These displays offer a true 360-degree viewing experience without the need for glasses or headsets, making them ideal for shared environments like museums, education, entertainment, and corporate settings, according to the company’s website.

And Realfiction, which specializes in mixed-reality and 3D holographic displays, with products like Dreamoc and DeepFrame. Their Directional Pixel Technology (DPT) enables glasses-free 2D and 3D views, including look-around capability, for multiple viewers simultaneously. Realfiction’s ECHO technology delivers immersive, glasses-free 3D experiences for several users in retail, expos, automotive, and collaborative environments. 

What all of these products have in common is that they’re all shipping — and that you probably have never heard of any of them. 

Holographic products and services have existed for years, but have failed to transcend the realm of novelties, parlor tricks, or marketing gimmicks. 

Still, Zuckerberg is describing not an enterprise product for retail marketing but an ecosystem of holographic content delivered on everyday, all-day glasses worn by just about everybody. And that’s very different. 

The big question: Is fake better than real? 

I have no doubt that holograms will increasingly become ubiquitous in our lives. But I doubt that a majority will ever prefer a holographic virtual book over a physical book or even a physical e-book reader. The same goes for other objects in our lives. 

I also suspect both Zuckerberg’s motives and his predictive powers. 

For starters, Zuckerberg appears to believe that the future of social networking is people socializing with AI. In an April interview with Dwarkesh Patel, he said, “The average person wants more connectivity, connection, than they have” — and suggested that the gap could be filled by “virtual friends” such as AI chatbots.

He’s also criticized the “stigma” associated with people forming friendships with AI, saying that it will become socially acceptable in the future. 

(Meta offers AI-powered video avatars for creators, customizable AI chat avatars that converse via DMs across Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, and WhatsApp; the AI Studio platform for building custom AI personas; the “Imagine Me” tool for generating digital avatars from user photos; and generative AI profiles that mimic human accounts with bios, profile pictures, and content sharing capabilities.)

Adding all this up, Zuckerberg’s vision for the future is the somewhat discredited idea of the “Metaverse,” where people have fake friends, live in fake environments, use fake objects, read fake books, play fake chess games, and generally just take the blue pill and plug themselves into the Matrix.

One way to look at this world is that people stop paying Disney and movie theaters for experiences, stop paying Amazon to buy consumer goods, and stop paying bars and cruise ship companies for social spaces, and instead pay Meta for holographic versions of all of it. 

I can see how this could be appealing for Zuckerberg. 

But a holographic revolution is more likely to create a backlash against the fake, causing the public to appreciate and prefer the real. 

I do believe that AR glasses plugging everyone into AI will improve everyone’s lives. But not because virtual objects will replace real ones. 

Augmented reality should augment reality, not replace it.