This post is mainly influenced by one of my favorite movies , “Strange Days”, a 1995 cyberpunk movie directed by critically acclaimed director, James Cameron. I think the movie is brilliant but it seems to have been largely forgotten by the critic community. Most lists I see on IMDB don’t ever list the movie and I rarely speak to people who have also seen it. Without going any further, if you haven’t seen the movie and enjoy a 90s y2k cyberpunk film, you’ll love it. Now to get to the main reason why I am referencing this movie in the first place.

The movie is heavily centered around a device called a SQUID, which allows the user wearing it to capture and save moments in their life to experience at a later time. This isn’t like capturing a movie, this is like capturing a full experience of someone’s life. When you playback the experiences you see everything they did, you feel everything they felt at the time. The device essentially merges your consciousness with another’s to bring you an experience you otherwise might have never had. After the first time I watched this movie, my mind was kept up for hours thinking of the possibilities and impact such a device could have on the world. In fact much of the technology discussed in the movie was based off real life technology being developed at the time. For example the SQUID, which stands for a superconducting quantum interface device, actually exists. It doesn’t let you relive or capture your experiences like in the movie, but it does measure extremely subtle magnetic fields.

Let’s, for a second, imagine such a device could be created in the future and released to the masses for consumption. What would you do with the device? What is even possible with a device like this? The movie does a good job delving into the dark side of things like porn, rape, committing criminal acts and other terrible things that small niche might be interested in, with the obvious exception of porn which lets face it would be a massive industry. I wanted to focus more on the light hearted possibilities this technology would have in the general public, but I will also focus on some of the drawbacks such a technology would have as well.

Giving Disabled And Elderly Comfort In Their Old Age

There is a large industry in the United States where people are sent to care facilities without the possibility of ever leaving. Especially amongst the elderly population who are basically just given a place to die in. These are miserable places and no one wants to be there, to the point where depression and medication is near unavoidable. What if retirement was just the beginning for these people? What if they could live their lives with a new experience every day? Sure in the real world they are paralyzed or too old, but with the SQUID they could live simple experiences like riding a bike or taking a tour of the Eiffel Tower. Anything they desire could be achieved and a massive industry would prop up to record the memories to meet the demands of these people. Sometimes even just walking the beach at sunset could be a memory worth reliving. With the SQUID the entire care industry would change overnight.

Vlogging Your Life, Reliving And Sharing Your Own Experiences

Have you ever wished you could relive an experience in life and the joy it brought you? Well with the SQUID, like modern Vloggers, you would be able to capture every memory you ever had and relive them at any point in your life. Imagine going back to the night you lost your virginity or the vacation with your father, who has long passed away, when you were a child. The possibilities are endless because there are an unlimited amount of experiences happening at once. This brings up the possibility of sharing what you witnessed in your past to your loved ones or to friends and family. Imagine telling your kids about when you saw a famous band live, but rather than just telling them, you let them experience it for themselves. Families would be brought closer together with how they would be able to relate to their parent’s lives. Imagine what happens when you inherit a collection from your father and your mother and you can relive their life and help in the grieving process. You can see yourself as a child being born or share the moments you had together. This is the idea that excited me the most.

Possibility For Therapeutic Use

A massive part of modern therapy is using the practice is slowly exposing patients to their fears to slowly get over them. You could essentially let someone relive a memory in a safe and protective place in order to help them move past it. In addition you could also just create calming memories for them that would ease their anxiety and stress in the real world. Basically used as a supplementary tool in therapy, the SQUID could be invaluable.

Some Possible Drawbacks

With everything in live comes drawbacks, the SQUID would be no exception as there are multiple things it could be used for to make the world worse off. One problem I would foresee happening would be the lack of people working and just sitting in SQUID dens, unlike the opium dens of past China, just reliving others experiences. People won’t strive to have their own lives because they can just live someone else’s. A large amount of people might decide to stop working, but if certain experiences cost money, they would be motivated to work and buy them. Also at the point this technology is created, human beings as a work force might be close to being irrelevant. Ideas like a mandatory income might be implemented and people would just be enjoying their lives.

I hope maybe this inspired a little thought of the possibilities of what could happen with this technology and maybe convinced some of you to go watch the film. I hope you enjoyed the write up and let me know what you think about the future this technology could have in the real world.

-Calaber24p