Living in simulations

Discussion in 'Intelligence & Machines' started by Norsefire, Jun 15, 2008.

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  1. Norsefire Salam Shalom Salom Registered Senior Member

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    If we could figure out how to recreate or "spark" a sense when, physically, there is no reason for it to occur, wouldn't we then be able to create fully simulated worlds and live in them? And wouldn't that be grand?

    To clarify: think of a fire. You can look at it and you see it, in a dark room. You can touch it and it is hot. You can smell it and (I dont know how it'd smell). You can hear it cracking.


    These messages are sent from our sensory organs to our brain and then our concious mind senses them. But is it possible to sense this fire, without it being there?

    Effectively what I mean to say, could we trick our brain and conciousness and senses into experiencing a whole new world?
     
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  3. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    I don't know about it being grand but todays virtual reality simulators for the military, airlines and other groups are very close to reality. Virtual reality is what your looking for I think and it is going to be even better in a few more years when they add smell to the simulations as well.
     
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  5. Norsefire Salam Shalom Salom Registered Senior Member

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    Yea, but that's different. They are experiencing it through a medium, i.e, the computer.


    But when you touch a real fire, it's not through a computer. So, couldn't it be possible to reproduce the signals sent by sensory organs to the brain when touching a fire, so one experiences it without ever actually going through it? Experiencing it as in, actually living through it.
     
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  7. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Again virtual reality is the closest thing we have developed so far as to what you are thinking about. Perhaps one day in the future they will be able to have tactile senses somehow , like in the Hollodeck on STNG.
     
  8. kmguru Staff Member

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    When you dream, the brain disconnects your motor functions from the dream simulation so that you can walk, fly, eat, have sex etc. without walking out of the front door.

    Theoretically we can do that using an external device connected to your brain. That technology is not here yet...wait for another 25 years.
     
  9. Reiku Banned Banned

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    We already live in a simulation. A maya of the mind, which is neither the outside world, nor physical. Only physical in the sense of the materialistic effects on consciousness... like brain chemistry.
     
  10. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Still here?
     
  11. Reiku Banned Banned

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    Yeh... i think so. A few people asked me to stay, so i did.
     
  12. Xelios We're setting you adrift idiot Registered Senior Member

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    You should read the book Vurt by Jeff Moon.

    I think tricking the brain into thinking it's experiencing something its not will turn out to be much easier than building up all the external tools to 'fake' a virtual environment. We wouldn't need things like tactile holograms to fake an environment, we just bypass the senses entirely and recreate them in the brain. Just like lucid dreaming, except you're awake and fully in control of the environment.
     
  13. Norsefire Salam Shalom Salom Registered Senior Member

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    That's EXACTLY what I meant, thanks for putting it into words for me.


    So, can we do this?
     
  14. Xelios We're setting you adrift idiot Registered Senior Member

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    We have drugs that'll give you simulations, just no way of controlling or preprogramming them

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    It's still a long way off, though I still think it'll be more practical than fooling your senses externally. I think when it happens it'll be a mix between technology and biology, like how it's depicted in the Ghost In The Shell series.
     
  15. Norsefire Salam Shalom Salom Registered Senior Member

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    But how would it be done? Are there projects today working on such a thing?
     
  16. Michael 歌舞伎 Valued Senior Member

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    Norsefire,

    You should try lucid dreaming. There are machines which help put you in the right head space.

    MII
     
  17. Zephyr Humans are ONE Registered Senior Member

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    Haven't you seen The Matrix? That's the dark side of the same idea.

    We shouldn't become so enamored of fantasy that we forget the importance of reality.
     
  18. q0101 Registered Senior Member

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    Reality sucks. I wish I had the option of taking the blue pill.
     
  19. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

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    You might think Reality sux, however it's what you have to deal with now. You could perhaps imagine it like one of those games you might immerse yourself in, however realise that should a game over pop up "there is no room to insert more quarters".

    What that basically means is that you control your own reality to an extent. If you eventually end up in a dead end job, wasting your life away to increase your material possessions tenfold that's your prerogative, that is your personal game plan.

    What your plan should consist of is:
    • Living as long as you can
    • Not killing others (No PKing in Reality please, otherwise you might get barred from future levels)
    • Commiting suicide is not allowed. (Everyone else has to finish the level before moving on, you're nothing special. Again this would get you barred from future levels)
    • You can task yourself with having a career, making lots of money, becoming famous, owning stuff.... it doesn't matter what just remember not to step on the little people [No TKing] (Otherwise you'll regret it when you level up!)

    So go out there and make your life worthwhile....
     
  20. siledre Registered Senior Member

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    I don't think you would want to go that far into tricking the brain, keep in mind if the brain thinks it's being burned it starts telling the body to do things that might end up being counterproductive to your life, so it would probably be okay to trick your body into thinking it tastes smells or feels something non damaging but you would have to come up with ways to suppress the brains reaction if it thought minor or major damage was occuring.
     
  21. Norsefire Salam Shalom Salom Registered Senior Member

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    Stryder how do you know there are other "levels"?
     
  22. Zephyr Humans are ONE Registered Senior Member

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    So why did you type this in reality instead of just thinking it?

    There are pills for those who have had enough of life, but nobody knows what they experience after the suicide. Probably nothing.
     
  23. EntropyAlwaysWins TANSTAAFL. Registered Senior Member

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    It's a metaphor.

    He is describing an approach to life, specifically; treat it like it's a video game.

    An expansive, MMORPG with destructible environments, a massive player base of over 6 billion, in-game mini games and the most realistic graphics engine ever.

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