This video is a beautiful, meticulously designed, and gorgeously rendered piece of art. 

It also heightens an inner dread that began forming the first time I saw Logan's Run, roundabout 1978. My fear of a homogonized, sterile society has been compounded over the years by films like THX 1138, The Island, and Minority Report.

In fact, I was in a meeting just yesterday where – once again – Minority Report was referenced as an aspirational benchmark for interactivity. When I tell you this is a common reference, I'm not kidding. Clients and coworkers, from bankers to high tech to retai, they are all obsessed with that fucking movie. And it's not even the film or Tom Cruise that's got them foaming, it's just that one scene where Cruise's character John Anderton is swiping files and videos and whatnot, apparently in the thin air.

I love scifi, I really do. And I love Spielberg – but this vision of the future is almost a decade old, and in my view, it is absolutely NOT an appropriate basis for reimagining an antire lifestyle; one wherin everybody is constantly working, even the 9-year-old girl. 

In this vision, only the appearance of human connectivity is required. What could be more fulfilling than sharing recipies with your daughter from the cool confines of a sterile hotel room? And nothing says collaboration like trading monotone graphics between thin, translucent sheets of plastic.

Technology is supposed to enhance real life – not take it over.

As an interactive designer, I appreciate the effort put into this vision of minimalist, quiet, usable design. But while it's all very tasteful, it's utterly without flavor. What's missing is the less-polished, more visceral human context.

How will Microsoft's tech bring me closer – actually physically closer – to my family? My guitars? My pens, pencils, and woodworking tools? How will their stunning, transparent, etherial technology help us to craft a future where the richness of human life is valued more than endless, ceaseless, constant "productivity."

I love a good scifi blockbuster. I'm a huge nerd. But maybe it's time to retire Spielberg's decade-old visualization of Philip K. Dick's story, and take a closer look at the lessons within the tale itself.