One of the joys of being a writer is taking your characters and throwing them into a worst-case scenario that they can’t possibly get out of, and then watch them squirm as you bring it to a boil. Of course, one of the hardest things about being a writer is that you have to devise an ingenious way for your characters (or at least some of them) to survive so the story can actually continue to the end. A lot of characters end up facing their worst nightmares along the way, transforming them from pig-farm boys into prophesied heroes, or some other maturation of morals and skills.
What if you had to face your worst nightmare? And what if, as you fought it down, it only got worse?
Virtual Reality machines are used for a lot of therapy these days, helping people confront traumatic memories and such. But a new system has been developed that monitors the VR user’s physical state, including level of sweat, heart rate, breathing, etc. to know when they are relaxed or at their most frightened. How could this be used (aside from non-sanctioned torture?)? The article gives examples like teaching people to work well under stress and such. It also mentions games. I’ve posted a few blogs on how computer games can sometimes have great stories to them, as well as other tech posts on how games are currently being linked to brain activity. So what if a game evolved as you played it based on your body’s feedback, so it could tell the best moments to frighten you? Scary thought. Though I guess that’s the whole point.
As writers, how could we use something like this? Hah. As if we could afford it, first off. But let’s imagine…we could live out a scenario for a character and experience something of the same emotions they might. It’d be the ultimate in immersive research. Oh, and you know that as soon as eBooks become mainstream, VR books will become the next big publishing trend. I’ll bet a dime on it.
I see that smile.
Now where did that other comment go to? Did I comment on this before? Did you erase it, or is my mind playing planks.. no.. pranks on me again?
I forgot what I was going to say…