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comment by veen
veen  ·  2168 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Sci-Fi club, let's get some new faces in here

Jaron Lanier has done some cool experiments regarding remapping and expanding our motor sensory inputs/outputs. IIRC he also discusses them on the Ezra Klein podcast if you want something less academic. (It’s very readable though.)





OftenBen  ·  2168 days ago  ·  link  ·  

That was a really fun read. I assumed any discussion down these lines with regard to the human neural map would bring up the homonculus idea pretty quickly.

As with most research, they used college students and graduate students for their subjects. I never realized what a limitation this was until after I graduated. The world is so much bigger and weirder.

I wonder if there would be any measurable difference if we used subgroups of people who have either a ton of experience in virtual bodies or almost none. Say, your average World of Warcraft player compared with say, people who report never having played an MMO or similar kind of game. I imagine that like most human traits homoncular flexibility varies from person to person, group to group.

What a fascinating and infuriating time to be alive.

veen  ·  2165 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I'm pretty convinced our brains are more flexible and adaptable than most people think - it's just that our opportunities to use this flexibility are few and far between.