Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Virtual reality significantly reduces pain-related brain activity

"Virtual reality appears to dramatically change how the brain physically registers pain, not just how people subjected to pain perceive the incoming signals, according to a new study by a group of University of Washington researchers."





I recently had a cavity filled (sans anesthetic) while wearing wireless headphones and watching scuba-diving footage on a flatscreen a couple feet above my head. While watching a passive DVD is a far cry from virtual reality, I was nonetheless able to transfer my senses to the world on the screen with some success. The familiar meat-based "me" that surfs the Web and reads books was lying in a dentist's chair while some other aspect of my self -- a more synaptic, abstract "me" -- was pursuing schools of brightly colored fish through inviting waters . . .

One of my favorite solutions to the so-called "Fermi Paradox" involves VR. Might a sufficiently capable alien civilization transplant itself into a simulated world, severing its ties with the outside universe in the process? I see increasing numbers of people who seem quite literally addicted to their cellphones and personal digital assistants.

Is this the beginning of a silicon-based collective solipsism? Instead of expanding into space, might we instead choose the frontiers of our boundless information ecology?

In my stereo . . .

1.) 2001: A Space Odyssey (soundtrack)
2.) Galore (The Cure)
3.) Out of Time (R.E.M.)
4.) Naked Lunch (soundtrack)
5.) Kid A (Radiohead)

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