Peeking ever so slightly even into someone else's feel of the world, let alone a full-blown immersive 'in my shoes, in my mind' experience swap has been a sci fi fixation for as long as I can recall and further.
From Julian Z Savarin's 'mnem-dretts ' in 1971 'Archives of Haven' (Lemmus Trilogy) to Philip K Dick's 'We can Remember it for you Wholesale' adapted in 'Total Recall' , to the elicit VR experiences Neo is alluded to be selling in The Matrix... and many, many more, this is a compulsive 'yearning for' wish-list technology that is almost certain to become real, and equally certain to be mostly banned when it does. It would create an underworld of illicit, illegal, prohibited trade in forbidden virtual immersion experiences...
The 'braindance' concept is an unstoppable idea; that humans want to intrude, feel, 'guest' or even take over or be taken over by someone else's visceral first-hand corporal experience, nerves and emotions and physicality combined and vicariously live another's 'rush', pleasure, pain, violence, affection, desire, bodily exertion, or their cerebral and chemical fix.
Full-immersive-all-sensation VR will be the ultimate drug, the ultimate thrill and the ultimate 'otaku / hikikomori ' distraction in a future society. Sharing an all consuming 'being there' individual or group experience created from another mind, plugged in, and feeling that exact same set of sensations will be the arena for shock and awe, the breaking of the isolated barrier of each person's prison of a locked-down-sealed-shut mind. It will be so addictive it will make any other sensory or chemical product experience feel tame as a result.
As such Governments, and people alike will, and should be incredibly scared of it.. it's the ultimate fairground ride, into both the Land of Wonder and the Stuff of Nightmares. If we worry about the social and mental effects on society of the current pandemic driven 'lockdown' isolation, then technology which will allow anyone to record their full sensory array memory of ANY experience in all it's adrenaline and gut wrenching or heart tugging intensity, and distribute it to others to 'live it again' in their own minds and bodies, that will be a whole new ball game.
I think Pondsmith is clearly amongst those who can see not only the glorious and the practical in such technology but also the looming darkness, chaos and runaway rebellion against the accepted 'norms' that might result from such experiences.
venturebeat.com
