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  4. How immersive can we make VR?
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How immersive can we make VR?

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Offline Lewis Thomson (OP)

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How immersive can we make VR?
« on: 13/01/2022 10:42:08 »
Avinash would like to know more about the following.

"Can humans use this technology that receives nerve electrical signals to construct a full dive VR where we can use a headset or any equipment to simulate the brain to be in a game or virtual space like that?"

What do you think? Discuss in the comments below...
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Offline Eternal Student

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Re: How immersive can we make VR?
« Reply #1 on: 13/01/2022 14:31:45 »
Hi.
   Is this a thread where we can present some waffle and just chat a bit?

   There's some actual science involving "connectomes" or the wiring diagrams of the brain.  You can google that if required.

   In principle we can imagine that you could connect an electrical system to this connectome so that you can deliver all the inputs required that are going to be inputs from your sensory organs.  Similarly you can collect all the outputs for your motor functions.

   I don't think we have the actual engineering required at the moment.  Also there is still some more work to be done mapping the connectome.  It's just a thing "in principle".  There are films and books already based on these sorts of ideas.  "The Matrix" is one that comes straight to mind.

    There's also the possibility of discussing the ethics.   At the moment you are allowed to read a book, you are free to imagine that you are in the book or one of the main protagonists in the story if you wish.  No one really sees this as a problem - that's just reading a good book and immersing yourself in it.   Similarly you can watch a film on TV, or put the existing headsets we have for VR on and try them if you want.   Somewhere there may be dividing line where you should not plug yourself in entirely and have all your senses and motor functions replaced by something artificial.  I don't know.

Best Wishes.
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Online evan_au

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Re: How immersive can we make VR?
« Reply #2 on: 18/01/2022 21:30:06 »
Quote from: Eternal Student
"connectomes" or the wiring diagrams of the brain
The current research is trying to find out the general principles of the connectome...
- What structure of neurone connections can generate a memory unit in the hippocampus?
- What structure of neurone connections can analyse scenes in the visual cortex?
- What structure of neurone connections can analyse sounds in the auditory cortex?

These raw connections are guided by genetically-sourced markers on the developing neurones (so they are quite similar across humans). But they are pruned by individual experience. So I suspect that the right place to insert the visual or auditory signals may be quite individualized.

A recent natural experiment sheds light on this:
- COVID-19 is able to invade and kill nerve-supporting cells like astrocytes (astrocytes express the ACE2 receptor for the viral spike protein to gain entry)
- This often affected the sense of smell, sometimes for a month or so
- Being exposed to the "outside world" through the nasal passages, these nerves are quite robust, and do tend to grow back
- But in some individuals, they don't grow back to exactly the same place in the brain, so the sense of smell is scrambled - some previously favourite dishes are now unbearable.
- This suggests to me that even within a single nerve bundle, even within a single individual, the detailed connections are somewhat random, and must be learned on an individual-by-individual basis.

Speculation: in a more cyborg-oriented future, perhaps implanting babies with a standardized interface would encourage learning standardized signaling...??
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