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Comment by brabel | Hacker News Reader

In the late 90's I think, there was a movie where a neural device was created that allowed anyone to "record" their brain activity so that it could be replayed later by anyone with a device for that. But it became like a drug as people got addicted to it and couldn't stop living the virtual experiences of others (this was a long time ago so I hope I remember the story correctly)! Some people wanted to experience murdering someone, or having sex with a famous person... cool stuff :D Anyone knows which movie was that?

Anyway, this feels like the beginning of that.

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> Anyone knows which movie was that?

Strange Days: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Days_(film)

Which, amusingly, required development of a customized camera to film:

> The film's SQUID scenes, which offer a point-of-view shot, required multi-faceted cameras and considerable technical preparation.[5] A full year was spent building a specialized camera that could reproduce the effect of looking through someone else's eyes.[5] Bigelow revealed that it was essentially "a stripped-down Arri that weighed much less than the smallest EYMO and yet it would take all the prime lenses.

It's an unfairly forgotten film. Much like Blade Runner, it suffers from a clunky plot but has quite smart world building.

Film geeks still talk about Strange Days. It has a cult following.

Thanks so much, I had tried in vain to find this movie before, but it's truly forgotten! I loved it at the time, it made a serious impression on 17yo me, will see if I can get to watch it again after so many years.

Out of curiosity I pasted your comment into ChatGPT and asked it which movie you were referring to and it got it correct.

I find GPT quite useful for those “tip of your tongue” type queries, and have used it to name movies and actors quite a few times.

Ha, I don't know why it didn't occur to me to ask AI :D. Will remember that next time.

Wow what a loop close. I’ve also been wondering randomly about this movie with no idea what it was called. I remember this film and it left an impression on me. I’ll even bring it up to people from time to time. Didn’t occur to me for some reason to have a GPT try and guess it.

What’s funny is that there are others out there that are thinking the same thing regarding that film. Cheers!

In Neuromancer(1984) it's called Simstim. I think Strange Days got it from there.

Fragments of a Hologram Rose (1977) also by Gibson already had this.

Does anybody know even earlier instances?

cyberpunk on Netflix did it most recently

Yes it’s called “brain dance” in the Cyberpunk 2077 lore which that show is based on.

Brainstorm (1983)?

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0085271/

No, you are all wrong. I had this idea first!! When I was 8.

That's a movie I haven't thought about in awhile. Decent flick.

I saved a newspaper clipping from a local theater showing "BRIANSTORM". My father's name is Brian. 7 y/o me thought the misspelling in the ad was hilarious.

Could be Brainstorm (1983) perhaps?

Also, see the last episode of season one of Black Mirror.

And "brain dances" in Cyberpunk 2077.

You mean every other plot involving brain computer interfaces since the 1950's?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirehead_(science_fiction)

As others are pointing out, it was Strange Days... even though it may seem like a common plot, that movie is pretty unique IMHO in how far it takes the concept.

Going a bit farther back, we had Brainstorm (Natalie Wood's last movie): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorm_(1983_film)

There was a scene, where one of the researchers looped a porn scene, and they busted down his door, to find him in bed, twitching.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1003017-brainstorm

is underrated, the visual depiction of the lab is like Crichton's Looker. In my mind Research Triangle Park is as cool as it is this movie, in real life it falls short only a little.

We will probably go through:

Thoughts -> (electric signal) -> LLM decoding and calling a generative model -> (electric signal) -> Brain

I don’t think this is the movie you’re referring to, but Until the End of the World has a similar device to record images from the brain. At first it is used to help a blind woman see. But later people start using it to record their dreams and then watch them—which becomes addictive.

It's either STRANGE DAYS or EXISTENZ - maybe BRAINSTORM but that was early 80s

Strange Days. Tom Sizemoore's best. "The issue's not whether you're paranoid, Lenny, I mean look at this shit, the issue is whether you're paranoid enough."

I think that it’s a Black Mirror episode: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Entire_History_of_You

Strange Days.

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