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Tuesday, 27 January 2015
quote [ My feet did not want to move. And I kept willing myself... I had been thinking about this for two months! I was certain that I would be able to do it. ]
Clay in our hands - an interesting technique for creating a treadmill like environment for walking in VR.
NSFW! VR Porn Reactions on Oculus From First-Time Virtual Reality Viewers | Complex
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steele said @ 2:11pm GMT on 28th January
Presence capable is pretty close to the matrix situation. After your brain has enough time to associate your movements with what's happening in the vr world your grasp on it being illusion slips away. At this point we already know it's possible, it's inevitable. And even if we're not there yet, there are tricks to getting there. Remember the brain builds our reality through a weighting of our sensory input, the simplest way to power up our audio/visual illusions is to nullify the senses we aren't using. See: blind people with better hearing, meditation or dreams with stillness of the body, or internal hallucinations in a sensory deprivation tank. Matter of fact, the sensory deprivation tank is a very good example of how presence works, by nullifying the senses you aren't using the hallucinations take on the illusion of reality. That's why they're capable of becoming such emotional experiences, it's basically giving your imagination presence capabilities.
Hard to manipulate doesn't mean impossible. ;) Remember in my projections I'm taking into account the fact that one day we'll be able to get EEG feedback (imagine if fMRI ever became that convenient. drool) on the fly. Combine that with data mining techniques and in a dynamic illusion, if a "footshock" doesn't work the illusion can reconfigure itself till it finds something that will.
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If you're interested I made a comment on reddit a while back on how something simple like eye tracking could be used. It's very simplified, but it gets the point across.
Keep in mind, I used "ads" for simplification in this example. The reality of the situation is that in the future the "ads" will probably take on the form of dynamic avatars that will adjust over time till they embody a form you would find irresistible. Imagine if you were in a metaverse environment like WOW or something, walking through a crowd and the software is tracking every avatar you glance at, which features your eyes linger on, and how they effect your mood. Suddenly an avatar comes up to you that's a total knockout, drop dead gorgeous, your mouth has gone dry, your palms are sweaty... And she wants to know if you're happy with your long distance provider :P
And sure it might not work the first time, but the more data get they more they can refine their approach. They might notice you make purchases or "decisions" immediately after you switch from excited to bored. So they might create scenarios that would change your mood in that way to make you more approachable. Targeted advertising instead becomes targeting the version of you that they're looking for to serve their purpose.
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The idea of free will really falls apart when you consider what the words 'decision' or 'choice' imply. You have to remember those words are meant to be metaphors, representations of the behaviour of a single entity, our body. But you and I both know that that our brain isn't under the control of one single entity, neural networks are weighted systems. They're basically giant games of tug of war enacted on a very small scale over large periods of time. The word choice implies that there's a tiny homunculi sitting in our brain with his hand on a toggle or dial switch determining which things we're going to do, but then you have to figure out how the homunculi makes his decisions! It becomes a homunculi all the way down problem. The reality is we're much more like a disused suit filled with wee free men (or smurfs if Pratchett isn't your thing) fighting over what should be done and our neighboring disused suits are so busy with their internal battles that they don't notice how disjointed our behaviour is :)
I do agree with you though, I'm very much in the pro-change-via-VR camp and have been looking forward to what's coming for quite some time. I've literally been researching all this stuff with these purposes in mind for about half my life. Just been waiting for the tech to catch up. I've even been talking with some doctor and physical therapist friends on some techniques that may be usable in "powering up" physical therapy techniques for cerebral palsy patients (and I've got one that might work for MD, but it's a total long shot.) But that's also why I think we need to put a reign on facebook and the data they'll be allowed to collect, because I can come up with some real nightmare scenarios :(
Oh, and in case you're wondering why I keep bringing up data mining algorithms. With data mining we don't necessarily have to know HOW we would train the user to do what we want them do, we just have to know WHAT we want to train the user to do and provide enough iterations and feedback data for the algorithms to adjust the approach until the job gets done. It's basically using a neural network to train another neural network. That's why I'm so confident in my assertions, whether my techniques work with pinpoint accuracy is irrelevant because as long as the brain has specific processes it uses to learn and behave, proper data mining techniques will be capable of taking care of the rest. Data mining's versatility is part of what makes it so dangerous.
steele said @ 10:18am GMT on 28th January
Presence capable is pretty close to the matrix situation. After your brain has enough time to associate your movements with what's happening in the vr world your grasp on it being illusion slips away. At this point we already know it's possible, it's inevitable. And even if we're not there yet, there are tricks to getting there. Remember the brain builds our reality through a weighting of our sensory input, the simplest way to power up our audio/visual illusions is to nullify the senses we aren't using. See: blind people with better hearing, meditation or dreams with stillness of the body, or internal hallucinations in a sensory deprivation tank. Matter of fact, the sensory deprivation tank is a very good example of how presence works, by nullifying the senses you aren't using the hallucinations take on the illusion of reality. That's why they're capable of becoming such emotional experiences, it's basically giving your imagination presence capabilities.
Hard to manipulate doesn't mean impossible. ;) Remember in my projections I'm taking into account the fact that one day we'll be able to get EEG feedback (imagine if fMRI ever became that convenient. drool) on the fly. Combine that with data mining techniques and in a dynamic illusion, if a "footshock" doesn't work the illusion can reconfigure itself till it finds something that will.
---------------------------
If you're interested I made a comment on reddit a while back on how something simple like eye tracking could be used. It's very simplified, but it gets the point across.
Keep in mind, I used "ads" for simplification in this example. The reality of the situation is that in the future the "ads" will probably take on the form of dynamic avatars that will adjust over time till they embody a form you would find irresistible. Imagine if you were in a metaverse environment like WOW or something, walking through a crowd and the software is tracking every avatar you glance at, which features your eyes linger on, and how they effect your mood. Suddenly an avatar comes up to you that's a total knockout, drop dead gorgeous, your mouth has gone dry, your palms are sweaty... And she wants to know if you're happy with your long distance provider :P
And sure it might not work the first time, but the more data get they more they can refine their approach. They might notice you make purchases or "decisions" immediately after you switch from excited to bored. So they might create scenarios that would change your mood in that way to make you more approachable. Targeted advertising instead becomes targeting the version of you that they're looking for to serve their purpose.
---------------------------
The idea of free will really falls apart when you consider what the words 'decision' or 'choice' imply. You have to remember those words are meant to be metaphors, representations of the behaviour of a single entity, our body. But you and I both know that that our brain isn't under the control of one single entity, neural networks are weighted systems. They're basically giant multi-teamed games of tug of war using a net enacted on a very small scale over large periods of time. The word choice implies that there's a tiny homunculi sitting in our brain with his hand on a toggle or dial switch determining which things we're going to do, but then you have to figure out how the homunculi makes his decisions! It becomes a homunculi all the way down problem. The reality is we're much more like a disused suit filled with wee free men (or smurfs if Pratchett isn't your thing) fighting over what should be done and our neighboring disused suits are so busy with their internal battles that they don't notice how disjointed our behaviour is :)
I do agree with you though, I'm very much in the pro-change-via-VR camp and have been looking forward to what's coming for quite some time. I've literally been researching all this stuff with these purposes in mind for about half my life. Just been waiting for the tech to catch up. I've even been talking with some doctor and physical therapist friends on some techniques that may be usable in "powering up" physical therapy techniques for cerebral palsy patients (and I've got one that might work for MD, but it's a total long shot.) But that's also why I think we need to put a reign on facebook and the data they'll be allowed to collect, because I can come up with some real nightmare scenarios :(
Oh, and in case you're wondering why I keep bringing up data mining algorithms. With data mining we don't necessarily have to know HOW we would train the user to do what we want them do, we just have to know WHAT we want to train the user to do and provide enough iterations and feedback data for the algorithms to adjust the approach until the job gets done. It's basically using a neural network to train another neural network. That's why I'm so confident in my assertions, whether my techniques work with pinpoint accuracy is irrelevant because as long as the brain has specific processes it uses to learn and behave, proper data mining techniques will be capable of taking care of the rest. Data mining's versatility is part of what makes it so dangerous.
steele said @ 2:46pm GMT on 28th January
Presence capable is pretty close to the matrix situation. After your brain has enough time to associate your movements with what's happening in the vr world your grasp on it being illusion slips away. At this point we already know it's possible, it's inevitable. And even if we're not there yet, there are tricks to getting there. Remember the brain builds our reality through a weighting of our sensory input, the simplest way to maintain presence via our audio/visual illusions is to nullify the senses we aren't using. See: body parts you don't think about unless they hurt, meditation or dreams with stillness of the body, or internal hallucinations in a sensory deprivation tank. Matter of fact, the sensory deprivation tank is a very good example of how presence works, by nullifying the senses you aren't using the hallucinations take on the illusion of reality. That's why they're capable of becoming such emotional experiences, it's basically giving your imagination presence capabilities.
Hard to manipulate doesn't mean impossible. ;) Remember in my projections I'm taking into account the fact that one day we'll be able to get EEG feedback (imagine if fMRI ever became that convenient. drool) on the fly. Combine that with data mining techniques and in a dynamic illusion, if a "footshock" doesn't work the illusion can reconfigure itself till it finds something that will.
---------------------------
If you're interested I made a comment on reddit a while back on how something simple like eye tracking could be used. It's very simplified, but it gets the point across.
Keep in mind, I used "ads" for simplification in this example. The reality of the situation is that in the future the "ads" will probably take on the form of dynamic avatars that will adjust over time till they embody a form you would find irresistible. Imagine if you were in a metaverse environment like WOW or something, walking through a crowd and the software is tracking every avatar you glance at, which features your eyes linger on, and how they effect your mood. Suddenly an avatar comes up to you that's a total knockout, drop dead gorgeous, your mouth has gone dry, your palms are sweaty... And she wants to know if you're happy with your long distance provider :P
And sure it might not work the first time, but the more data get they more they can refine their approach. They might notice you make purchases or "decisions" immediately after you switch from excited to bored. So they might create scenarios that would change your mood in that way to make you more approachable. Targeted advertising instead becomes targeting the version of you that they're looking for to serve their purpose.
---------------------------
The idea of free will really falls apart when you consider what the words 'decision' or 'choice' imply. You have to remember those words are meant to be metaphors, representations of the behaviour of a single entity, our body. But you and I both know that that our brain isn't under the control of one single entity, neural networks are weighted systems. They're basically giant multi-teamed games of tug of war using a net enacted on a very small scale over large periods of time. The word choice implies that there's a tiny homunculi sitting in our brain with his hand on a toggle or dial switch determining which things we're going to do, but then you have to figure out how the homunculi makes his decisions! It becomes a homunculi all the way down problem. The reality is we're much more like a disused suit filled with wee free men (or smurfs if Pratchett isn't your thing) fighting over what should be done and our neighboring disused suits are so busy with their internal battles that they don't notice how disjointed our behaviour is :)
I do agree with you though, I'm very much in the pro-change-via-VR camp and have been looking forward to what's coming for quite some time. I've literally been researching all this stuff with these purposes in mind for about half my life. Just been waiting for the tech to catch up. I've even been talking with some doctor and physical therapist friends on some techniques that may be usable in "powering up" physical therapy techniques for cerebral palsy patients (and I've got one that might work for MD, but it's a total long shot.) But that's also why I think we need to put a reign on facebook and the data they'll be allowed to collect, because I can come up with some real nightmare scenarios :(
Oh, and in case you're wondering why I keep bringing up data mining algorithms. With data mining we don't necessarily have to know HOW we would train the user to do what we want them do, we just have to know WHAT we want to train the user to do and provide enough iterations and feedback data for the algorithms to adjust the approach until the job gets done. It's basically using a neural network to train another neural network. That's why I'm so confident in my assertions, whether my techniques work with pinpoint accuracy is irrelevant because as long as the brain has specific processes it uses to learn and behave, proper data mining techniques will be capable of taking care of the rest. Data mining's versatility is part of what makes it so dangerous.
<-- Entry / Current Comment
steele said @ 2:11pm GMT on 28th January
Presence capable is pretty close to the matrix situation. After your brain has enough time to associate your movements with what's happening in the vr world your grasp on it being illusion slips away. At this point we already know it's possible, it's inevitable. And even if we're not there yet, there are tricks to getting there. Remember the brain builds our reality through a weighting of our sensory input, the simplest way to maintain presence via our audio/visual illusions is to nullify the senses we aren't using. See: body parts you don't think about unless they hurt, meditation or dreams with stillness of the body, or internal hallucinations in a sensory deprivation tank. Matter of fact, the sensory deprivation tank is a very good example of how presence works, by nullifying the senses you aren't using the hallucinations take on the illusion of reality. That's why they're capable of becoming such emotional experiences, it's basically giving your imagination presence capabilities.
Hard to manipulate doesn't mean impossible. ;) Remember in my projections I'm taking into account the fact that one day we'll be able to get EEG feedback (imagine if fMRI ever became that convenient. drool) on the fly. Combine that with data mining techniques and in a dynamic illusion, if a "footshock" doesn't work the illusion can reconfigure itself till it finds something that will.
---------------------------
If you're interested I made a comment on reddit a while back on how something simple like eye tracking could be used. It's very simplified, but it gets the point across.
Keep in mind, I used "ads" for simplification in this example. The reality of the situation is that in the future the "ads" will probably take on the form of dynamic avatars that will adjust over time till they embody a form you would find irresistible. Imagine if you were in a metaverse environment like WOW or something, walking through a crowd and the software is tracking every avatar you glance at, which features your eyes linger on, and how they effect your mood. Suddenly an avatar comes up to you that's a total knockout, drop dead gorgeous, your mouth has gone dry, your palms are sweaty... And she wants to know if you're happy with your long distance provider :P
And sure it might not work the first time, but the more data get they more they can refine their approach. They might notice you make purchases or "decisions" immediately after you switch from excited to bored. So they might create scenarios that would change your mood in that way to make you more approachable. Targeted advertising instead becomes targeting the version of you that they're looking for to serve their purpose.
---------------------------
The idea of free will really falls apart when you consider what the words 'decision' or 'choice' imply. You have to remember those words are meant to be metaphors, representations of the behaviour of a single entity, our body. But you and I both know that that our brain isn't under the control of one single entity, neural networks are weighted systems. They're basically giant multi-teamed games of tug of war using a net enacted on a very small scale over large periods of time. The word choice implies that there's a tiny homunculi sitting in our brain with his hand on a toggle or dial switch determining which things we're going to do, but then you have to figure out how the homunculi makes his decisions! It becomes a homunculi all the way down problem. The reality is we're much more like a disused suit filled with wee free men (or smurfs if Pratchett isn't your thing) fighting over what should be done and our neighboring disused suits are so busy with their internal battles that they don't notice how disjointed our behaviour is :)
I do agree with you though, I'm very much in the pro-change-via-VR camp and have been looking forward to what's coming for quite some time. I've literally been researching all this stuff with these purposes in mind for about half my life. Just been waiting for the tech to catch up. I've even been talking with some doctor and physical therapist friends on some techniques that may be usable in "powering up" physical therapy techniques for cerebral palsy patients (and I've got one that might work for MD, but it's a total long shot.) But that's also why I think we need to put a reign on facebook and the data they'll be allowed to collect, because I can come up with some real nightmare scenarios :(
Oh, and in case you're wondering why I keep bringing up data mining algorithms. With data mining we don't necessarily have to know HOW we would train the user to do what we want them do, we just have to know WHAT we want to train the user to do and provide enough iterations and feedback data for the algorithms to adjust the approach until the job gets done. It's basically using a neural network to train another neural network. That's why I'm so confident in my assertions, whether my techniques work with pinpoint accuracy is irrelevant because as long as the brain has specific processes it uses to learn and behave, proper data mining techniques will be capable of taking care of the rest. Data mining's versatility is part of what makes it so dangerous.
Teen girls report less sexual victimization after virtual reality assertiveness training