Explore Topics:
AIBiotechnologyRoboticsComputingFutureScienceSpaceEnergyTech
Gadgets

‘Hyper-Reality’ Is a Psychedelic Glimpse of Our Future on Digital Overload

Andrew J. O'Keefe II
May 27, 2016
91197-hyper-reality-is-a-psychedelic-glimpse-of-our-future-on-digital-overload

Share

If you could choose between a countless number of realities — would you choose this one?

The visceral experience of hopping between and mixing digital and physical worlds is beautifully depicted in a new crowdfunded short film, “Hyper-Reality.” The film’s creator, Keiichi Matsuda, says virtual reality, augmented reality, wearables, and the internet of things will soon infuse our lives with technology as never before.

“It will be the glue between every interaction and experience, offering amazing possibilities, while also controlling the way we understand the world,” Matsuda says. “Hyper-Reality attempts to explore this exciting but dangerous trajectory.”

If the future of augmented reality is anything like the above experience — security may not be the only issue. Will a future of seamless augmented realities become just another escape from the ordinary world? And what role will distraction play?

As each new piece of technology comes along, the uphill battle for balance only becomes more difficult, requiring more mindfulness.

“Ultimately, we each have to choose how we interact with technology and what our own comfort levels with it are,” Alison Berman writes. “The greater awareness and honesty we have about its strengths and weaknesses, the better we can make healthy decisions about how to use it in our own lives — individually and collectively.”

No matter what new technologies may come next, the interior world we inhabit is still our own choice—and there’s great value in curating a healthy personal worldview despite outside circumstances.

While he was still alive, the author Robert Anton Wilson frequently explored the idea of subjective worlds or “reality-tunnels” as he called them. The preface to his book, Cosmic Trigger,  expresses what control we have in creating them.

Be Part of the Future

Sign up to receive top stories about groundbreaking technologies and visionary thinkers from SingularityHub.

100% Free. No Spam. Unsubscribe any time.

Wilson writes that since we’re all constantly creating our own reality tunnels, “I prefer to create for each hour the happiest, funniest, and most romantic reality-tunnel consistent with the signals my brain apprehends.” As for those struggling with a negative, sad or a hopeless reality tunnel, “try to show them how to break the bad habit, but don't feel any masochistic duty to share their misery.”

While the future of augmented and virtual worlds is still just forming — spending some time thinking about what worlds we’d like to inhabit probably wouldn’t hurt.

What world would you inhabit if you had the choice?


Image credit: Hyper-Reality

Andrew operates as a media producer and archivist. Generating backups of critical cultural data, he has worked across various industries — entertainment, art, and technology — telling emerging stories via recording and distribution.

Related Articles

A digital render of a person in profile made of blue foliage.

Logging off Life but Living on: How AI Is Redefining Death, Memory, and Immortality

Patrick van Esch
and
Yuanyuan (Gina) Cui
A new tool helps developers build new regenerative living spaces and ecovillages

Inside VillageOS: A ‘SimCity’-Like Tool for Regenerative Living Spaces

Aaron Frank
The AI industry expects 2025 will be the year AI agents take over

Is 2025 the Year AI Agents Take Over? Industry Bets Billions on AI’s Killer App

Edd Gent
A digital render of a person in profile made of blue foliage.
Future

Logging off Life but Living on: How AI Is Redefining Death, Memory, and Immortality

Patrick van Esch
and
Yuanyuan (Gina) Cui
A new tool helps developers build new regenerative living spaces and ecovillages
Future

Inside VillageOS: A ‘SimCity’-Like Tool for Regenerative Living Spaces

Aaron Frank
The AI industry expects 2025 will be the year AI agents take over
Future

Is 2025 the Year AI Agents Take Over? Industry Bets Billions on AI’s Killer App

Edd Gent

What we’re reading

Be Part of the Future

Sign up to receive top stories about groundbreaking technologies and visionary thinkers from SingularityHub.

100% Free. No Spam. Unsubscribe any time.

SingularityHub chronicles the technological frontier with coverage of the breakthroughs, players, and issues shaping the future.

Follow Us On Social

About

  • About Hub
  • About Singularity

Get in Touch

  • Contact Us
  • Pitch Us
  • Brand Partnerships

Legal

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
© 2025 Singularity