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takyon writes:

Researchers from Sussex University Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science have applied a modified version of Google's DeepDream algorithm to panoramic video:

The researchers used a modified version of Deep Dream to process a panoramic video of the university campus. Then they showed it to 12 volunteers, finding that the visual hallucinations were similar to those brought on by psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms.

The volunteers were asked questions like whether they felt a loss of control or a loss of their sense of self, and whether they saw patterns and colours. Their answers matched up closely with the results of a 2013 study [open, DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2063-13.2013] [DX] into the experience of taking psilocybin.

In a second experiment, 22 participants were asked whether they felt any sense of temporal distortion, or a warped sense of time. In this case the responses were similar to those recorded after watching control videos.

That would seem to suggest the researchers' machine can replicate some, but not all, the effects of being high on psychedelic drugs. However, only a few volunteers have been tested so far, and they were a different group to those quizzed on psilocybin back in 2013.

This is just the beginning for the technology – the system is very flexible and can be tweaked in all kinds of ways. In the future, participants could even get to adjust the parameters of the experience themselves.

With better hardware, the algorithms could be run in real time and applied to an augmented reality view instead of a pre-recorded panoramic video.

Also at Newsweek.

A Deep-Dream Virtual Reality Platform for Studying Altered Perceptual Phenomenology (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-16316-2) (DX)

Related: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Study Suggests Psilocybin "Resets" the Brains of Depressed People

Original Submission

1. "takyon" - https://soylentnews.org/~takyon/
2. "DeepDream" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeepDream
3. "to panoramic video" - https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-build-a-hallucination-machine-for-drug-free-brain-trips
4. "psilocybin" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybin
5. "a 2013 study" - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/38/15171
6. "DX" - https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2063-13.2013
7. "Newsweek" - http://www.newsweek.com/hallucination-machine-gives-users-experience-trip-without-drugs-722607
8. "A Deep-Dream Virtual Reality Platform for Studying Altered Perceptual Phenomenology" - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-16316-2
9. "DX" - https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-16316-2
10. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=15/06/20/1640240
11. "Study Suggests Psilocybin "Resets" the Brains of Depressed People" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=17/10/14/1238206
12. "Original Submission" - https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=23539

printed from SoylentNews, Hallucination Machine: Psychedelic Visuals in VR on 2026-03-09 21:44:34