http://www.ted.com/…/david_eagleman_can_we_create_new_sense…
David Eagleman is a neuroscientist who provides a new understanding of our brains. In the speech, he mentioned that different species across animal kingdom are born with different biological receptors. For instance, snakes can detect infrared. Dogs' sense of smell is thousands of times more sensitive than human beings. Birds can detect geomagnetic field, sometimes with astonishing accuracy. Each animal has its window and consider its surrounding world as "umwelt". As human beings, we are constrained by our biology, we just can sample a little bit of the world from the receptors giving by mother nature. Although human beings build machines to capture different kinds of signals, some of us still firmly settle at our umvelt. As a daring young neuroscientist, Eagleman's ambition does not stop here.
P.H. model
Eagleman used a classic plastic toy as one of the central symbol in the speech. He believes that P.H. model of evolution as one where brains in general do not change too much from species to species. But they are the peripherals devices. The way different peripheral devices feed data into brains can vary wildly. He said "Your brain doesn't know, and it doesn't care, where it gets the data from". Brains are not seeing or hearing anything, they are locked in darkness inside skull and they can just see electrical chemical signals from peripherals devices outside. What brain does is try to extract patterns and assign meaning.
Sensory Substitution and Sensory Addition
There are plenty of ways to marry technology to biology. Eagleman gave us an example in the speech, he said the traditional way of helping deaf people is through cochlear implant. But cochlear implant is an invasive surgery and it is not cheap for those who lives in poverty. Eagleman worked with his graduate student and built a vest which can transform sound into vibration. With training, the brains of deaf people could adapt the vibration and assign meaning. This vest could actually help profoundly deaf to "feel" the speech. Compared to traditional cochlear implant surgery, his vest is cheaper and safer. Eagleman claims this technology is a game changer.
Eagleman also believes that mother nature already gave us a tool(brain) and we can expand our sense through technology. Remember that our biology receptors are just peripheral plug-and-play devices. We can create new sense such as making astronaut being able to feel the overall health of international space station.We no logger have to wait for mother nature's timescales.
My opinion
Sensory Suppression
Similar to echo cancellation, which is a technology widely used in telephony in order to improve voice quality and user experience. Without this technology, speaker will hear an echo from his own voice with certain round-trip circuit(or network) delay. Echo cancellation works by recognizing original voice and send an opposite sound wave to cancel/suppress speaker's echo. I am not sure whether this idea can be applied to our senses because Eagleman said the material transferred between our brain and biology receptors is just electrical chemical signal. If this measure is feasible, there are many applications for us. For example
1. Suppress appetite to lose weight
2. Suppress distracted thoughts when someone really need to concentrate on something
David Eagleman is a neuroscientist who provides a new understanding of our brains. In the speech, he mentioned that different species across animal kingdom are born with different biological receptors. For instance, snakes can detect infrared. Dogs' sense of smell is thousands of times more sensitive than human beings. Birds can detect geomagnetic field, sometimes with astonishing accuracy. Each animal has its window and consider its surrounding world as "umwelt". As human beings, we are constrained by our biology, we just can sample a little bit of the world from the receptors giving by mother nature. Although human beings build machines to capture different kinds of signals, some of us still firmly settle at our umvelt. As a daring young neuroscientist, Eagleman's ambition does not stop here.
P.H. model
Eagleman used a classic plastic toy as one of the central symbol in the speech. He believes that P.H. model of evolution as one where brains in general do not change too much from species to species. But they are the peripherals devices. The way different peripheral devices feed data into brains can vary wildly. He said "Your brain doesn't know, and it doesn't care, where it gets the data from". Brains are not seeing or hearing anything, they are locked in darkness inside skull and they can just see electrical chemical signals from peripherals devices outside. What brain does is try to extract patterns and assign meaning.
Sensory Substitution and Sensory Addition
There are plenty of ways to marry technology to biology. Eagleman gave us an example in the speech, he said the traditional way of helping deaf people is through cochlear implant. But cochlear implant is an invasive surgery and it is not cheap for those who lives in poverty. Eagleman worked with his graduate student and built a vest which can transform sound into vibration. With training, the brains of deaf people could adapt the vibration and assign meaning. This vest could actually help profoundly deaf to "feel" the speech. Compared to traditional cochlear implant surgery, his vest is cheaper and safer. Eagleman claims this technology is a game changer.
Eagleman also believes that mother nature already gave us a tool(brain) and we can expand our sense through technology. Remember that our biology receptors are just peripheral plug-and-play devices. We can create new sense such as making astronaut being able to feel the overall health of international space station.We no logger have to wait for mother nature's timescales.
My opinion
Sensory Suppression
Similar to echo cancellation, which is a technology widely used in telephony in order to improve voice quality and user experience. Without this technology, speaker will hear an echo from his own voice with certain round-trip circuit(or network) delay. Echo cancellation works by recognizing original voice and send an opposite sound wave to cancel/suppress speaker's echo. I am not sure whether this idea can be applied to our senses because Eagleman said the material transferred between our brain and biology receptors is just electrical chemical signal. If this measure is feasible, there are many applications for us. For example
1. Suppress appetite to lose weight
2. Suppress distracted thoughts when someone really need to concentrate on something
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