cceds29@cc.brunel.ac.uk (Student 29) (05/26/90)
If this is a repete of earlier discussions, forgive me as I'm new to S.V-W however it occurs to me that, if it is possable to feed data into the "senses" via direct nureal stimulation, thus bypassing the data recievers (touch/taste nerves etc.) Then the process would be speeded up somewhat (in a simular way to Machine code programming cf Basic), as your talking, or capable of, to the "C.P.U." The upshot of this is that, in addition to causing input problems, information could be "fed" to a subject in a concentrated form. Thus education could be accompleshed with much greater efficiency (faster and with much improved structuring, which if I remember all the memory training books properly, would greatly improve recall) Of course it also means that you would have to let someone else have access to your "mind", somewhat daunting as it would be a simple task to implement conditioning which would, of course affect your future behavior ( The future of criminal rehabilitation ?????) Of course once conditioning became that easy, then you can decide your own personality, will power becomes obselete (why diet when you can program yourself to hate chocolate, why worry when you can program yourself to become dedicated to a task).....I would continue, but I'm sure that I'd have Sci-fi writers sueing my for copyrite fairly soon..... Just thoughts......... Blood and Kisses Kingsley.
mann@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Shannon Mann) (05/30/90)
In article <1520@Terra.cc.brunel.ac.uk> Student 29 <cceds29@cc.brunel.ac.uk> writes: > >If this is a repete of earlier discussions, forgive me as I'm new to S.V-W >however it occurs to me that, if it is possable to feed data into the >"senses" via direct nureal stimulation, thus bypassing the data recievers >(touch/taste nerves etc.) Then the process would be speeded up somewhat >(in a simular way to Machine code programming cf Basic), as your talking, >or capable of, to the "C.P.U." My understanding of the connection of mind and body, brain and senses says that the experience of this flood of information would be devastating to the person experiencing it. Our senses do a tremendous amount of filtering and prefiltering to cut back on the quantity of information our senses receive to leave just the important information (at least we hope that is what is left.) Bypassing this would permit an avalanche of sensory information into areas of the brain not evolved to handle it. There is the further problem with this idea. Much of the learning we do is not the simple intake of information, but its processing into memory... Now, if we could directly insert memories into our brains, The potential for learning would be tremendous. The information would exist in a pre-compiled form, and so, overwhelming sensory input by bypassing our sensory filters. However, there are potential problems with direct memory insertion. Our memories, before they become memories, go through our sensory mechanism, and through this process are given certain kinds of bias. The bias would be those items of information our sensory filters eliminates. How severe the bias, will be is of course entirely unknown. But, it is possible that the memories will be completely unintelligible. Consider. If memories are tied into a persons language, and that language differs from yours, will you be able to understand the meaning? Still, with all the unknowns, memory transfer remains a fascinating possibility. > Kingsley. -=- -=- Shannon Mann -=- mann@watserv1.UWaterloo.Ca -=-