Using the ultimate (or perhaps next year's ultimate) in miniaturization, mount a video camera on a large, live butterfly, facing forward. View the signal through VR goggles.
I'd imagine that those so inclined could save considerably on money and suffering as compared to chemical-based means of achieving similar effects.-- beauxeault, Aug 17 2001 There is a down-side http://www.depressi...ights/darkness.html'But the butterfly sees only superficial things and will never be free from the torment she feels.' There's always one, isn't there? [angel, Aug 17 2001, last modified Oct 17 2004] VR contacts http://www.halfbake.../idea/VR_20contactsinstead of VR goggles [rrr, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004] I expected this to be a way of experiencing the world as does a butterfly. As it is not, I wonder how the result would be significantly different from that obtained by using a more robust vehicle for the camera, such as a duck.-- angel, Aug 17 2001 angel - a duck as a "robust vehicle" - what a delight! I've been admiring your turns-of-phrase, and this one takes the cake.
I agree - if it is just a camera, and it gives our familiar tv-like video experience, then it's not very interesting. Nor would it be of a psychedelic nature.
beauxeault - you've apparently not enjoyed "chemical-based" effects, otherwise you would know that the visual experience described in your idea isn't evocative of drug-induced states.-- quarterbaker, Aug 17 2001 Watch a butterfly in flight sometime. Maybe there are instances when they fly like ducks, but not many. When they are close to the ground, looking for food, or being pursued by another butterfly (or a duck), they do not fly like ducks at all. A human view from a butterfly's flight path would be something like viewing the world under a strobe light, but the view swivels about 80 degrees on any random axis between blinks, and instead of darkness between the blinks, there would be a lightning-fast pan to the next view.
I confess that I have survived so far without the benefit of drugs stronger than those prescribed by the doctor or the bartender. My intent, though, is not to suggest this as a way to reproduce the effects of any specific drug; I merely sought a colorful way to suggest that one's brain might experience the ride as a dangerous but entertaining destabilization of perception coupled with loss of control and overstimulation. Try producing this effect with your head and see if it doesn't give you a buzz.-- beauxeault, Aug 17 2001 [All around the world, employers are scratching their heads in confusion, wondering why that employee (who never gets any work done, by the way) is violently jerking his (or her) head all over the place.]-- PotatoStew, Aug 17 2001 Ah, I see (so to speak).
I hadn't quite thought about the b-fly's erratic flight pattern.
BTW - where is the "about 80 degrees" from? Do you know of any computer modelling of butterfly flight? I know that there are computer models of bird-flocking and fish-schooling, with really simple individual tropism-algorithms behind very complex group behavior. Links, anyone?-- quarterbaker, Aug 17 2001 i'm getting dizzy just imagining what this would be like, and you'll probably have many more people feeling nauseous as well. you'll have to find a way to get the user's inner ear to move along with what is being projected, or there will be a lot of cleaning up to do.-- mihali, Aug 17 2001 Interesting! I have seen sketches of typical flight patterns of different species of butterflies (presented as an aid to identification), so their flight has been studied to some extent. On the same sort of topic, I'd like a bunch of Vulture Cams, but pointing straight down instead of ahead.-- Dog Ed, Aug 17 2001 Oh yeah, that closeup of rotting coyote carcass is just the thing to develop an appetite...-- StarChaser, Aug 18 2001 Yeah, those moths are just fly-by-nights...-- StarChaser, Aug 18 2001 I sort of thought someone would know more about butterfly flight, and of course it would be Rods Tiger.
StarChaser: Oh, the rotting coyote carcasses would just be the frosting on the cake. I think that most of the time a vulture-cam would show long wheeling pans of landscape far below, kind of like an endless flyby from 300-500 meters.
Watching the Butterfly Cam: "Nice garden somebody's growing, there...Hey! That's my broccoli! Get off! Damn, now I'm going to have to pick cabbage worms off the plants."-- Dog Ed, Aug 18 2001 How do you get the camera back??-- Onalee, Aug 19 2001 Dog Ed: I know, but it wasn't funny like that...-- StarChaser, Aug 19 2001 Having established that the butterfly requirement relates to the flitting-about-in-a-random-looking-way deal that these beasties have, I see no reason not to pastrify. May I also request a mole-cam.-- angel, Aug 20 2001 Perhaps they could even make this kind of thing into an I-max theme, and of course it wouldn't be complete without azimuthal rumble seats that are guided by the accelerometers on the butterfly.-- quantum_flux, Sep 09 2007 random, halfbakery