Would You Rather Have....

[lethe]

This one might take some explaining.

I assume we all know what a Holodeck is...
Have you heard of the SQUID devices/tapes from the movie Strange Days?
A device that plugs into your mind, like a less-gross matrix. You get tapes or recordings from other people's personal experiences and you feel, see, experience everything exactly as they did. Usually used for extreme or illegal things.

So which would you rather have unlimited use of? A Holodeck? Or SQUID recordings?

With the Holodeck you would have access to all the knowledge the computer on a star ship would have up to this point in history (no future knowledge) and can use it for education and vacation. No nourishing food, though.

With the SQUID you can experience drugs, moments before death, robbery, sky diving, even being another gender (...and stuff...)



And would the answer change if you only had use of these things for one year vs a lifetime?

[Bartender]

This one might take some explaining.

I assume we all know what a Holodeck is...
Have you heard of the SQUID devices/tapes from the movie Strange Days?
A device that plugs into your mind, like a less-gross matrix. You get tapes or recordings from other people's personal experiences and you feel, see, experience everything exactly as they did. Usually used for extreme or illegal things.

So which would you rather have unlimited use of? A Holodeck? Or SQUID recordings?

With the Holodeck you would have access to all the knowledge the computer on a star ship would have up to this point in history (no future knowledge) and can use it for education and vacation. No nourishing food, though.

With the SQUID you can experience drugs, moments before death, robbery, sky diving, even being another gender (...and stuff...)


And would the answer change if you only had use of these things for one year vs a lifetime?

Do I learn things from the matrix like thing or just feel things?

[lethe]

Well, it's not like you plug in a French disc and download French. It's like someone wears a super-charged GoPro plugged into their brain, do something cool while recording, then you play it back in your own brain. About the length of a movie, its just like being in their body. So even if you have no legs you can experience walking, etc. So you kind of learn things, but more as experiences that the Holodeck cannot provide. It's totally safe, you can't get hurt or addicted (physically).

Edit to add: you even feel adrenalin rush, arousal, intoxication, etc.

Edit to add again:

For the SQUID tapes you have access to all tapes you could possibly imagine and are only limited by your own curiosity or fear. For ethical concerns all tapes have already been created and are not special order for you. They exist whether or not you choose to look at them, and those acts were not committed for the purpose of making a tape.

[Bartender]

Well this would have been real easy if it let me download kung fu.

Holodeck for sure though. I would simulate going back in time as well as it could simulate and watch famous historical events. Then kick back and relax all day where ever I wanted and get rid of the negatives since it is a holodeck. So go to the woods and read a book on a log but remove the mosquitos. That would be sooooo awesome.

[Perdix]

I'll take the gross matrix device over a holodeck any day.

[Ptah]

Holodeck. Because I could make in it what I like, whereas with a SQUID I'd be stuck with someone else's shit. I couldn't give a damn about the knowledge of the ship accessible through the holodeck. It would just be a physical canvas upon which to paint what's normally only available to my mind's eye.

[Thoth]

Oh! Braindance, Simsense! Cyberpunk tropes *glee!*

I'd honestly have to believe most thinking personality types would avoid living through another person's experiences ala SQUID/Braindance/Simsense because it would ultimately be too scripted no matter how "real" it felt.

Put me down for Holodeck, I could do some crazy shit with that toy.

[Starjots]

SQUID sounds totally passive, entertainment on steroids. While it might be used for gaining empathy or walking in another person's shoes, the tendency would be to let another person experience extremes for you. And if you have any brains at all you can already walk in another person's shoes by actually talking to them or through fiction by exercising empathy. Humans are extreme copycats already - this sounds too much like drugs to me (easy and empty of mental development).

On a practical note, I question whether anyone could really experience what another person feels without actually possessing that person's brain structure. Our hardware is also our software.

The holodeck could be used to replicate external environments which one could exist in, which is kind of the definition of nourishing I'd think. Also, through programming one could exercise creativity.

So holodeck.

[msg_v2]

SQUID sounds totally passive, entertainment on steroids. While it might be used for gaining empathy or walking in another person's shoes, the tendency would be to let another person experience extremes for you. And if you have any brains at all you can already walk in another person's shoes by actually talking to them or through fiction by exercising empathy. Humans are extreme copycats already - this sounds too much like drugs to me (easy and empty of mental development).

SQUID. I want to see why people believe and do the dumb things they do. It doesn't seem brainless at all. Someone's only going to reveal so much, usually.

[Starjots]

SQUID. I want to see why people believe and do the dumb things they do. It doesn't seem brainless at all. Someone's only going to reveal so much, usually.

We do dumb things because we are dumb