SimStim is the as yet still mostly theoretical concept of recording full sensory input from one person's brain - sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, prioproception, balance, together with the possibility of their real-time emotional responses. Such a recording to be stored, and later played back into a second person's brain, delivering the sense data to them, as if it were their own.

Such a system, of complete sensory passive virtual reality has been a potential goal of many research efforts for some decades now, and piece by piece, it is slowly becoming more feasible as a concept.

As with any technology tool of humankind. When it arrives, it will both be used for the common good, and abused / debased for individual greed and corruption.

This article attempts to outline a fair idea of the happier, or more acceptable uses SimStim will be put to, once it is mature enough to be utilised.

Health Care

• One of the greatest uses in health care would be as a replacement for anaesthetic. Instead of putting someone under, give them a SimStim sensory experience. With all of their senses overridden by whatever scene they are experiencing upon all their senses, their body is relaxed and feeling no pain as surgeons operate upon it.
  
  
• Due to the lack of anaesthetic involved, the same scenario as above could even be used in visits to the dentist, or blood tests with individuals squeamish of needles.
  
  
• Surgeons can pass on knowledge of detailed medical procedures by recording their own sensory input and feelings during actual medical procedures. Students can then experience the procedure through the surgeon's own perspective, later. In this way, knowledge of procedures can be passed down through time and each student can say they have 'performed' the operation once.
  
  
• Diagnosis is difficult, but it would be made much easier if the patient could make a short recording of how they are feeling, and giving that to the doctor for them to experience. Rather than having to describe difficult or transitory symptoms, the doctor would receive the exact sensation.
  
  
• For those with malfunctioning bodies, in addition to prosthetics and other treatments, SimStim recordings would offer a break, a chance to experience the world from a functional body, even if it was not their own.

Education

• Record the exploits of great archaeologists, and historians, in the moments running up to a great discovery for playback to an entire class, each student feeling as though it was them that achieved the accomplishment.
  
  
• Rather than watching a documentary on a TV screen feel it, smell it, be there with the wild animals, nature all around you.
  
  
• Physicists walking in a giant mock-up of a complex molecule could look around inside it, point at various points, and be able to give those views to every sensory viewer.
  
  
• Experience the most dangerous science experiments from the body of a trained professional as they conduct it.
  
  
• Schools only have to send a handful of individuals on a field trip for all students to reap the full benefits.
  
  
• Give the best teaching staff the true ability to impart the merest glimpse of the true depths of their passion for the subject, onto their students.
  
  
• Telelearning becomes truly possible, as a recording can be fed remotely as easily as in person.
  
  
• Difficult topics like sex education and drug misuse, become a great deal more potent, when the students get to experience the 'joy' of labour, or the come-down from a really bad trip, in class. Better to experience the sensations without the addiction or the consequences.
  
  

Entertainment

• BE your favourite actor/actress for the duration of an episode of your favourite sitcom. Worked up more thoroughly than today's TV shows, SimStim based entertainment episodes would allow you to see and hear, taste, feel and smell from the sensory system of any of the cast members, throughout the episode. When its over, choose another cast member and replay.
  
  
• Experience news in person, from the sensory perceptions of the reporter. Truly bringing every disaster crystal-clear, to you.
  
  
• Great events, awards shows, even the national lottery draw, via a direct sensory feed from the presenter. Be there, in 'person' for the event.
  
  
• Experience theatre and cinema first showings from the illicit sensory recordings of a person in the audience.
  
  
• Be your favourite celebrity in a day in their lives, if they allow it.

On the Job Training

• As with all other education, experience training from the direct sensory inputs of someone else performing the task, already qualified. No boring, pointless classroom sessions, see, feel and remember, direct.
  
  
• Supervision takes on a whole new meaning, when it is possible for the supervisor to randomly select a recording of you carrrying out your duties, and 'view' it. No more supervisors hanging over your shoulder. No more doing a sloppy job when unsupervised either.

Law Enforcement

• No need to rely on cameras or third party testimony; every officer's sensory input and emotional response is recorded throughout a shift, for later playback. See as the officer saw, convictions become easier when the judge and jury can share in the officer's experience, together with the lawyers, with less paperwork required.
  
  
• In a dangerous situation, sensation from an officer on the scene could be pumped through to a negotiation specialist, to give them a heads-up, and partnered with remote comms to allow the negotiator to work at a sistance, whilst on the way to a scene.
  
  
• Prison sentences can be remembered events. Feed in a long SimStim recording, sped up if at all possible, of all the memories and events of a 20 year prison sentence, full of suffering and regret. Process prisoners in half the time, but with deep experiences lasting for life.
  
  
• Start of 'lifelogging' taking on a whole new meaning as some people record their own sensory input 24/7 to prove they were not breaking one law or another.
  
  
• On the flip side of the above, convicted prisoners under house arrest and curfew have their experiences logged 24/7 to prove whereabouts and lack of any illicit activity.