11 ms·

I think it would be cool to walk into a room painted entirely with this material. I bet it would be so disorienting that people would fall down and get vertigo.

I think it would be cool to walk into a room painted entirely with this material. I bet it would be so disorienting that people would fall down and get vertigo. So weird.

xeromal 7y ago
Yeah, I'd love to try that out. Imagine waking up in a room painted with that.
- thaumaturgy 7y ago
  How about an anechoic chamber (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXVGIb3bzHI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXVGIb3bzHI) painted in this stuff?
okcando 7y ago
An almost perfectly black and almost perfectly anechoic chamber with almost zero external sound. Peaceful or nightmarish?
- Nextgrid 7y ago
  Wouldn’t a pitch black room achieve the same effect with much less cost/effort? As far as I know the idea of these compounds is to absorb light, but if you get rid of light to begin with then you don’t need them?
  - jbay808 7y ago
    I guess the main difference would be your ability to see your own body, and the light source. Darkness is probably more disorienting, but also more familiar.
  - okcando 7y ago
    OK, wise guy. There's a single bare lightbulb suspended out of reach in the void. The walls feel like ScotchBrite though you can't see them. You aren't wearing any clothes. The room begins to rotate slowly as if it were a large tumble drier, rolling you off your feet. The walls gradually turn red. Peaceful or nightmarish?
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - pygy_ 7y ago
    You don’t experience black in absolute darkness, more of a very dark static-like fizzling grey. In order to experience the deepest black, you need to contrast it with something lighter.
  - jcims 7y ago
    The difference is that you could have a light on in the uberblack room and you wouldn't see the walls.
- bradstewart 7y ago
  Both.
- darepublic 7y ago
  Just need to add lsd
- walshemj 7y ago
  I have been inside a large anechoic chamber and it was very weird experience and it was only a partial anechoic chamber and had a normal floor.
- noneeeed 7y ago
  The last I heard about anechoic chambers, most people can't stay in them for very long, apparently it's incredibly unsettling after a while.
  - Baeocystin 7y ago
    It's really not that bad. Some people find it unsettling, but many find it kind of relaxing. Derek from Veritasium has a good video on it for the interested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXVGIb3bzHI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXVGIb3bzHI
- samstave 7y ago
  With a sensory deprivation pod in the middle would be interesting
axaxs 7y ago
I was thinking about car/plane applications. At first thought, it's "that reflects no light that's a terrible idea". Thinking further, the absolute absence of anything itself stands out from a normal background, day or night. Would be a bit interesting to see.
- weberc2 7y ago
  These things have applications for stealth aircraft as they often absorb radar as well as visible light. But even for visible light, if you're looking at something painted vantablack in broad daylight, you only see a silhouette--much like WWI "Dazzle" camouflage, it's very difficult for the brain to process what you're looking at.
  - axaxs 7y ago
    That's very interesting, I was thinking about stealth bombers. Do you think it would have applications in say, military uniforms? I wonder how it compares to digital camo, mirror based camo, etc in regards to detection.
    - Scaevolus 7y ago
      Carbon nanotubes are similar to asbestos fibers, so it's not something that you'd want to put in a garment.
      - fuzz4lyfe 7y ago
        Rapidly moving lead will kill you faster than asbestos, there might be a few tactical uses for such a garment.
        yellowapple 7y ago
        > Rapidly moving lead will kill you faster than asbestos As will rapidly moving copper, or rapidly moving depleted uranium, or even a rapidly moving wooden stick with a stone point on it. :)
gambiting 7y ago
It would just be....completely dark? I had this experience when working at a mine at one point, and if you went down one of the tunnels and switched off your headlamp.....it was absolute darkness. Like, we think that our bedroom at night is "completely dark" - but that's usually not true, that's always some source of light, after some adjustment you can see at least faintly. In an underground corridor without any lights at all it was very uncomfortable, it was like completely losing one sense of perception entirely.
- newnewpdro 7y ago
  I think they meant an illuminated room, but with absolutely no light being reflected by the wallls/floor/ceiling etc. So all the visual spatial cues would be missing, despite being illuminated, like being in an infinite space. I could see how that might be disorienting and strange feeling.
- elihu 7y ago
  Even well-lit caves (or similar environments) can be disorienting. A few years ago I was walking in a sandy-floored lava tube with a flashlight, and the floor was sufficiently uniform and featureless that I didn't have a clear sense of depth perception. Another time I was flying a radio-controlled glider at the beach on a foggy day. There was a big rock sticking up in the middle of the beach. I thought the glider was closer than the rock, but then suddenly it vanished from sight because it was actually farther away and went behind it. Another flight I thought I was about 20 feet off the ground and then it suddenly struck the sand and slid to a stop.
  - watersb 7y ago
    Flying over water can be dangerous, as it is often impossible to judge distance to the surface, even for experienced pilots,
- ericjang 7y ago
  That reminds me of the flavor text of this Magic the Gathering Card (https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=83822 https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multive...) There's an experience worse than blindness—it's the certainty that your vision is perfect and the horror that there's no world around you to see.
sschueller 7y ago
It would probably be similar to one of those sound "clean" rooms. After a while you can hear the fluids in your ear and you will feel quite uneasy.
acjohnson55 7y ago
Imagine it also being anechoic.
RangerScience 7y ago
You can get Black 2.0 (or wait for 3.0) and do it. As long as you're not Anish Kapoor. https://www.culturehustleusa.com/products/black-v1-0-beta-the-world-s-mattest-flattest-blackest-art-material https://www.culturehustleusa.com/products/black-v1-0-beta-th...
elif 7y ago
It is far easier to block light than absorb it. You can experience that type of absolute darkness with a $10 eye-mask (The new ones that look like tiny bras) from your airport. Your ears will orient you if you let them.
gandalfian 7y ago
London's tate modern did a similar thing. At open ended black chamber. You blindly inched forwards to the back wall feeling as if you were about to trip over something. Then you turned around and realised with the light coming in the open end it actually wasn't that dark on the way out, its just there was nothing to pick up the light. https://www.studiointernational.com/images/articles/b/balka09/20681w_balka1_b.jpg https://www.studiointernational.com/images/articles/b/balka0...
mraudiobook_com 7y ago
You've never been in a room with the lights out?

I think it would be cool to walk into a room painted entirely with this material. I bet it would be so disorienting that people would fall down and get vertigo. So weird.

xeromal 7y ago

Yeah, I'd love to try that out. Imagine waking up in a room painted with that.

thaumaturgy 7y ago
How about an anechoic chamber (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXVGIb3bzHI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXVGIb3bzHI) painted in this stuff?

okcando 7y ago

An almost perfectly black and almost perfectly anechoic chamber with almost zero external sound. Peaceful or nightmarish?

Nextgrid 7y ago
Wouldn’t a pitch black room achieve the same effect with much less cost/effort? As far as I know the idea of these compounds is to absorb light, but if you get rid of light to begin with then you don’t need them?
- jbay808 7y ago
  I guess the main difference would be your ability to see your own body, and the light source. Darkness is probably more disorienting, but also more familiar.
- okcando 7y ago
  OK, wise guy. There's a single bare lightbulb suspended out of reach in the void. The walls feel like ScotchBrite though you can't see them. You aren't wearing any clothes. The room begins to rotate slowly as if it were a large tumble drier, rolling you off your feet. The walls gradually turn red. Peaceful or nightmarish?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- pygy_ 7y ago
  You don’t experience black in absolute darkness, more of a very dark static-like fizzling grey. In order to experience the deepest black, you need to contrast it with something lighter.
- jcims 7y ago
  The difference is that you could have a light on in the uberblack room and you wouldn't see the walls.
bradstewart 7y ago
Both.
darepublic 7y ago
Just need to add lsd
walshemj 7y ago
I have been inside a large anechoic chamber and it was very weird experience and it was only a partial anechoic chamber and had a normal floor.
noneeeed 7y ago
The last I heard about anechoic chambers, most people can't stay in them for very long, apparently it's incredibly unsettling after a while.
- Baeocystin 7y ago
  It's really not that bad. Some people find it unsettling, but many find it kind of relaxing. Derek from Veritasium has a good video on it for the interested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXVGIb3bzHI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXVGIb3bzHI
samstave 7y ago
With a sensory deprivation pod in the middle would be interesting

axaxs 7y ago

I was thinking about car/plane applications. At first thought, it's "that reflects no light that's a terrible idea". Thinking further, the absolute absence of anything itself stands out from a normal background, day or night. Would be a bit interesting to see.

weberc2 7y ago
These things have applications for stealth aircraft as they often absorb radar as well as visible light. But even for visible light, if you're looking at something painted vantablack in broad daylight, you only see a silhouette--much like WWI "Dazzle" camouflage, it's very difficult for the brain to process what you're looking at.
- axaxs 7y ago
  That's very interesting, I was thinking about stealth bombers. Do you think it would have applications in say, military uniforms? I wonder how it compares to digital camo, mirror based camo, etc in regards to detection.
  - Scaevolus 7y ago
    Carbon nanotubes are similar to asbestos fibers, so it's not something that you'd want to put in a garment.
    - fuzz4lyfe 7y ago
      Rapidly moving lead will kill you faster than asbestos, there might be a few tactical uses for such a garment.
      - yellowapple 7y ago
        > Rapidly moving lead will kill you faster than asbestos As will rapidly moving copper, or rapidly moving depleted uranium, or even a rapidly moving wooden stick with a stone point on it. :)

gambiting 7y ago

It would just be....completely dark? I had this experience when working at a mine at one point, and if you went down one of the tunnels and switched off your headlamp.....it was absolute darkness. Like, we think that our bedroom at night is "completely dark" - but that's usually not true, that's always some source of light, after some adjustment you can see at least faintly. In an underground corridor without any lights at all it was very uncomfortable, it was like completely losing one sense of perception entirely.

newnewpdro 7y ago
I think they meant an illuminated room, but with absolutely no light being reflected by the wallls/floor/ceiling etc. So all the visual spatial cues would be missing, despite being illuminated, like being in an infinite space. I could see how that might be disorienting and strange feeling.
elihu 7y ago
Even well-lit caves (or similar environments) can be disorienting. A few years ago I was walking in a sandy-floored lava tube with a flashlight, and the floor was sufficiently uniform and featureless that I didn't have a clear sense of depth perception. Another time I was flying a radio-controlled glider at the beach on a foggy day. There was a big rock sticking up in the middle of the beach. I thought the glider was closer than the rock, but then suddenly it vanished from sight because it was actually farther away and went behind it. Another flight I thought I was about 20 feet off the ground and then it suddenly struck the sand and slid to a stop.
- watersb 7y ago
  Flying over water can be dangerous, as it is often impossible to judge distance to the surface, even for experienced pilots,
ericjang 7y ago
That reminds me of the flavor text of this Magic the Gathering Card (https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=83822 https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multive...) There's an experience worse than blindness—it's the certainty that your vision is perfect and the horror that there's no world around you to see.

sschueller 7y ago

It would probably be similar to one of those sound "clean" rooms. After a while you can hear the fluids in your ear and you will feel quite uneasy.

acjohnson55 7y ago

Imagine it also being anechoic.

RangerScience 7y ago

You can get Black 2.0 (or wait for 3.0) and do it. As long as you're not Anish Kapoor. https://www.culturehustleusa.com/products/black-v1-0-beta-the-world-s-mattest-flattest-blackest-art-material https://www.culturehustleusa.com/products/black-v1-0-beta-th...

elif 7y ago

It is far easier to block light than absorb it. You can experience that type of absolute darkness with a $10 eye-mask (The new ones that look like tiny bras) from your airport. Your ears will orient you if you let them.

gandalfian 7y ago

London's tate modern did a similar thing. At open ended black chamber. You blindly inched forwards to the back wall feeling as if you were about to trip over something. Then you turned around and realised with the light coming in the open end it actually wasn't that dark on the way out, its just there was nothing to pick up the light. https://www.studiointernational.com/images/articles/b/balka09/20681w_balka1_b.jpg https://www.studiointernational.com/images/articles/b/balka0...

mraudiobook_com 7y ago

You've never been in a room with the lights out?