New "sixth sense" technology

[john titor]

yeah but it looks really really cool. I can pretend I'm a cyborg and say "hey look I've got uber cool hi tech stuff hanging around my neck, am I not really cool?" And they'd be like "wow you are so cool, you're like a future cyborg type guy" and I'd be like "well hey if you want to be as cool as me you should go down to the store and pick one these babies up, then we can all be cool hurrah!"

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

These things need to go through several generations of miniaturisation -- say 10 years or so -- then they'll be the must-have devices of their age. You'd actually be able to live in WoW, Middle Earth, Discworld, or wherever you could afford to pay for the environment-simulation to be painted on your retinas. You wouldn't have to travel to meet folk -- you'd simply interact with life-like avatars. Haptic feedback (touch) could be made ubiquitous in specially designed robots, clothing, everyday objects, and, for those who want it, sex toys.

The next step after that, of course, is direct neural wire-heading once we get good enough models of sensory preception in the brain (projects are currently ongoing in this area). Probably explains why we don't see any aliens -- they're so busy getting their rocks off in virtual worlds that their civilisations collapse.

 

[john titor]

imagine playing the star trek mmorpg like that, complete immersion, how cool would that be. A million dreams would be fulfilled at last!

 

[plague]

... Probably explains why we don't see any aliens -- they're so busy getting their rocks off in virtual worlds that their civilisations collapse.

This post made me

 

[Jadzia]

imagine playing the star trek mmorpg like that, complete immersion, how cool would that be. A million dreams would be fulfilled at last!

It reminds me of the film eXistenZ, which featured total immersion games. It did not end well, because at some point in the game the real world was mimicked, including the illusion of switching off the game technology. Once a player had sampled that, they could never know if they've truely exited the game.

 

[john titor]

imagine playing the star trek mmorpg like that, complete immersion, how cool would that be. A million dreams would be fulfilled at last!

It reminds me of the film eXistenZ, which featured total immersion games. It did not end well, because at some point in the game the real world was mimicked, including the illusion of switching off the game technology. Once a player had sampled that, they could never know if they've truely exited the game.

well if it were possible to simulate the universe perfectly it would point to the "real" universe being a simulation.

 

[Jadzia]

well if it were possible to simulate the universe perfectly it would point to the "real" universe being a simulation.

Artificial reality wouldn't have to be everywhere perfect to be a convincingly real experience for an average person in an everyday situation. If you see/feel yourself take off your AR equipment and putting it away in the cupboard, you're going to believe you're back in reality, unless something stands out absurdly giving you a reason to judge what has happened and to reassess where you are.

Obvious examples might be the lower quality of the graphics/sound/smells/tactile sensations compared with reality. But what if these were relatively close facsimiles? What would prompt you to say "this isn't reality". How many seconds/minutes would it take to test reality? What would your test be?

Artificial reality may be made more convincing by using the same trick as dreams. Dreams are not perfect, although at the time you believe them to be real, and this is because the judgmental areas of our brains are largely deactivated during sleep, and we are unaware that they are deactivated.

Although that isn't applicable to these sixth sense devices, as we step towards greater AR methods, losing one's sureness about whether or not we've exited the artificial environment, does become increasingly problematic.

 

[think]

As for me the word obsolete comes to mind is that some kind of six sense that I have already built in or is just a redundancy I need to deal with at some point?

 

[john titor]

well if it were possible to simulate the universe perfectly it would point to the "real" universe being a simulation.

Artificial reality wouldn't have to be everywhere perfect to be a convincingly real experience for an average person in an everyday situation. If you see/feel yourself take off your AR equipment and putting it away in the cupboard, you're going to believe you're back in reality, unless something stands out absurdly giving you a reason to judge what has happened and to reassess where you are.

Obvious examples might be the lower quality of the graphics/sound/smells/tactile sensations compared with reality. But what if these were relatively close facsimiles? What would prompt you to say "this isn't reality". How many seconds/minutes would it take to test reality? What would your test be?

Artificial reality may be made more convincing by using the same trick as dreams. Dreams are not perfect, although at the time you believe them to be real, and this is because the judgmental areas of our brains are largely deactivated during sleep, and we are unaware that they are deactivated.

Although that isn't applicable to these sixth sense devices, as we step towards greater AR methods, losing one's sureness about whether or not we've exited the artificial environment, does become increasingly problematic.

you might find this interesting

http://www.simulation-argument.com/simulation.html

 

[CuttingEdge100]

Plague,

Regarding the "sixth sense" device, do we really need more noise? I would rather be free of the data.

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people have trouble dealing with "information overload".


Deuterostome,

The next step after that, of course, is direct neural wire-heading once we get good enough models of sensory preception in the brain (projects are currently ongoing in this area). Probably explains why we don't see any aliens -- they're so busy getting their rocks off in virtual worlds that their civilisations collapse.

You know that reminds me a lot of "The Cage" and the Talosians.


Jadzia,

It reminds me of the film eXistenZ, which featured total immersion games. It did not end well, because at some point in the game the real world was mimicked, including the illusion of switching off the game technology. Once a player had sampled that, they could never know if they've truely exited the game.

That would be a *major* problem. You could not determine reality from fiction...

Artificial reality wouldn't have to be everywhere perfect to be a convincingly real experience for an average person in an everyday situation.

That's true for the most part. Because few people would ever actually say "Is this really real?"

If you see/feel yourself take off your AR equipment and putting it away in the cupboard, you're going to believe you're back in reality, unless something stands out absurdly giving you a reason to judge what has happened and to reassess where you are.

Well, yeah.

Artificial reality may be made more convincing by using the same trick as dreams. Dreams are not perfect, although at the time you believe them to be real, and this is because the judgmental areas of our brains are largely deactivated during sleep, and we are unaware that they are deactivated.

That's a very good point.

Although that isn't applicable to these sixth sense devices, as we step towards greater AR methods, losing one's sureness about whether or not we've exited the artificial environment, does become increasingly problematic.

Probably correct,


CuttingEdge100