Ha ha, you're looking at the man behind the curtain.

(I thought the same: suspecting it's a kind of crossfade between accreting bodies and finished Earth.)

I instead see these sort of things (add the AppleVision Pro as well) as Apple feeling obliged to respond to "the public" (shareholders?).

"Samsung has this cool foldable phone—they seem to be taking the design mantle away from Apple these days."

"I hear this VR thing is the future of computing. Why isn't Apple in this space?"

I suspect even in the Jobs-era you might point to the iPad as Apple being pressured into responding with a product in the tablet space.

The Apple Watch a reaction to the Pebble?

Once the little square iPod Nano existed a watch was inevitable -

https://www.kickstarter.com/blog/a-new-era-for-design

I don't believe it's really that, but the fact that Apple 1) is profitable 2) holds a lot of cash, and 3) has a proven capability to execute new products.

So by not attempting to enter market niches, they could be potentially leaving a lot of money on the table, while the downside of the product failing to get traction doesn't really kill them.

For hand-made objects, a friend recently turned me on to a kind of German "How It's Made".

301 videos of craftspeople and Handwerkskunst:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLP7j_Ie2Gcc82bpqHPfLf...

It feels like the "Hype Wave" is going through oscillations before it damps down.

You know, it starts with hype about this new thing that is, perhaps, smarter than humans—or at least may soon be. And then the backlash comes and AI's reputation follows in descension.

And from such backlash and hate, some people start to say, "Hey, it's not so bad. It works for me." And maybe AI's reputation begins to swings toward the positive…

I suppose this is to be expected and perhaps ultimately healthy. I know for myself the swings in attitudes regarding AI have caused me to give pause and consider both sides with more regard than I might have. It has blunted some of my criticism and praise, sharpened others.

Is it even a problem if they leave?

(I understand there is at least one Billionaire that wants to occupy Mars—and I am 100% on board.)

"Too high, and indeed investors / entrepreneurs could move away."

Has that happened? Has that been a problem?

We can see a little of that in California and also Norway. So, yes, there is some of that going on.

But has it been a problem?

Yeah, that's kind of where I am: Billionaires appear to be a net-negative for society, the planet.

Regardless of what you even do with the money, simply preventing people from ever having billions is going to be a good thing for the world, democracy, etc.

"$1-2K per US citizen"

I think removing billions from those individuals is the more salient point. Put the money toward high speed rail—who cares.

So no one's arguing though that in fact "the rest of us" are just that tiny slice?

Yeah, the uber-wealthy need a reckoning.

Trivial. Make an exception for farms?