I suddenly was thinking about a simple sensor on something like a Raspberry Pi Zero or similar that would react to the environmental sounds within a dance club or restaurant and output something on either a display or maybe a musical playlist and that would hopefully in turn provide new input as people are reacting to that and so help create a new unique experience for the people going to that particular event/venue. Also for people going back multiple times, each time it would be somehow unique.

It lead me to think of more applications of making technology work to unify us rather than divide/segregate/disconnect us.

Sameness attract

I thought what if there was a simple sensor that output a signal that other sensors of the same make will either recognize as one of their own tribe, or not of their tribe. So a simple LED will indicate are you close to fellow “tribes-people” or not. What would happen at events/festivals where that input might make you come in contact with other people you would either never have interacted with or sought out or would help you/force you to interact with others where you yourself might innately have a problem doing so.

Opposites attract

Given the previous scenario you could flip the logic and make the sensors actively go to the opposite one. So for instance a group might enter and you make the group split up, maybe 50-50 or extreme every single member of the group will split off and go solo. It would be interesting to see what the collective will do, will the sensor win out or will the cohesiveness of the group prevail.

Words have meaning and matter

I also thought about an AR experience where you can leave any message you like, kind of like Dark Souls mechanic. These messages are all anonymous. It would stay up but people do have the power to censor if enough people in ratio to the number of messages can delete a message. This ratio would be capped to a maximum number at some point otherwise it will be impossible to delete. An author could also say they regret posting the message and delete it themselves. This will not actually delete it but only add a header to the message stating: “The author, , regrets posting this. Vote for deletion”. Or something similar. This is of course not known aforehand. It would be interesting to see what happens to the messages over time and in what scenarios the deletion will be quicker or slower. Also interesting to see what a community would create.

Cooperation is key

What if the sensors made it so that it has to be in a certain position to activate. Then all sensors need to be in the right place and a “puzzle” of sorts will be solved. With no instructions on what to do will this puzzle ever get solved. If it does get solved then all phones will get an alert at the same time hopefully scaring the participants.

Gardening

What if there are virtual flowers that either react positive or negative to the sensor if you walk by them. Will there be more flowers that grow and prosper or will the garden die off?

Virtual Identity

The sensor with some simple preferential input will start playing music and if you move to within another group of similar preferences it will start playing their preferential music rather than your own. At random an individual can also penetrate the preference and you might get enticed to walk to them because you like it, or dislike it and move out of their range.

It would be interesting to see if everyone will suddenly clump together because of the shared preferences or if there will be perpetual chaos since everyone is chasing some new impulse and therefore no groups will be formed as it is just one continual moving body of people.

I think these ideas will give new experiences and enhance already known experiences and additionally hopefully bring people more together because of more shared experiences, creating new positive social interactions and bonds. This in contrast to most current social technologies that seem distant and just create more divides rather than make people experience some event in a shared way.

For instance The International competition of DOTA2 is a great example of a positive shared experience for everyone attending it virtual as well as physical. The physical attendance gets the added benefit of the excitement of the room and some electricity in the air and goosebumps as you watch the players do their utmost best to see if it defeats the opposing team's utmost best. The people that are watching it virtually are doing the same thing but without the added atmosphere of the stadium. That does not mean they do not also see the tension on the battlefield of the game itself. So when a play is being made or lost, the shared collective will experience it the same on a basic level. That means millions of people across the world are sharing the same experience which is a thing of beauty.