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Comment by simonvc | Hacker News Reader

No-one's said it yet so i will (but not my idea..) This is going to be super useful for a future Oculus AR headset.

Basically, imagine the current oculus go headset, but with cameras on the front, and instead of showing you the actual world, it shows you a game, based on the existing current world, but morphed to look like Starship Troopers or something.

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Rainbow's End is delves deeply into this idea - everyone can choose their reality and share it with others.

The Diamond Age - Neil Stephenson, touched on this.

I think you mean Syndicate. ;)

You could achieve similar results for cheaper by taking LSD. There's the added benefit that your brain actually believes it's all real instead of merely perceiving it.

Since you mentioned LSD, I wonder if technology like this could one day replace hallucinogenic drugs? At least partially - I'm sure some people will always prefer the chemical experience. I've always been pretty interested in the effects of hallucinogens, but could never bring myself to try any of them due the potential risks.

I wonder how much "your brain actually believes it's all real instead of merely perceiving it" matters... I know there have been a few times where I've gotten so sucked into a movie in a darkened theater that when it ends its incredibly jarring to be brought back to the real world, and the times that's happened to me haven't even been 3D movies, let alone interactive like AR.

Speaking from personal experience with psychedelics, it's not really the visual hallucinations that are impactful, but the way your brain thinks about things in a completely different way. So I don't think you can replace that chemical experience with a visual experience.

What would be interesting is the effect of both together; a sort of Brave New World 2.0. Great fodder for the likes of Black Mirror, at least.

Seeing how we live in an age of decadence and self-indulgence - perhaps just driven by instinct to pursue pleasure/curiosity - I'm sure that this is a possible future development: chemically-enhanced augmented reality experiences. "Augmented" in more than one sense of the word.

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