Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey designed a new VR headset that adds the ultimate layer of realism to VR—mortality. Thought to be relegated to dystopian cyberpunk fiction, this new headset comes with the ability to literally kill its user if killed in-game. Its design involves an Oculus Quest Pro, with explosive charges strapped to the forehead, which activate when the headset receives a specific pattern of red color flashes from the game's display-head, to a photo receiver (typically the "Game Over" screen). There's already a game designed for this, "Sword Art Online." a medieval swordplay-based MMORPG, which can be played with the lethal setting enabled.

Mortality replaces visual fidelity and photorealism (or other forms of sensory realism); as the most powerful stimulus. You play the game like your life depends on it—which it literally does. You're on an MMO playing against another human in an unpausable game, where the consequence of losing the PvP duel is losing your head in real life. But first, the good news—the cursed thing isn't in mass-production, and while the US-FDA has approved for certain kinds of pain-stimulating gaming peripherals, it didn't approve killing the user. The product will have to pass through an extremely long line of political, legislative, legal, and philosophical hurdles before it's released to market as something you can buy. Please don't.