In my world i want people to live in digital world (something like the matrix or sword art online), and I'm not sure if things I wanna achieve are even possible. I'm talking about a computer who's reading brainwaves, but is it possible to do the opposite to convert electric signals into them. If so what technology is needed to do this?
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1$\begingroup$ yes, it is possible to convert electric signals into brain waves, but I don't know if its is possible to achieve what you want, the required tech is too much far advanced and I am not able to speculate. We are doing great progress in the opposite (convert brainwaves to electric signals). There is an Elon Musk project called Neuralink. $\endgroup$– Stefano BalzarottiCommented Dec 11, 2019 at 15:34
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1$\begingroup$ Wax cylinders. Stanisław Lem wrote a story about simulating human experiencing himself (as we all do) and there all the experiences where recorded on wax cylinders and send wave of electricity into brain. $\endgroup$– SZCZERZO KŁYCommented Dec 11, 2019 at 15:34
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2$\begingroup$ Converting electrical signals into brainwaves is entirely possible. Your computer is sending electrical signals to its screen which convert them to photons which impinge on your retina and get converted into neural signals, which your visual cortex will then forward to the rest of your brain! $\endgroup$– Starfish PrimeCommented Dec 11, 2019 at 15:48
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$\begingroup$ You mean, like this? Can you describe more specifically what you mean by "brain waves"? $\endgroup$– PunintendedCommented Dec 11, 2019 at 17:29
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$\begingroup$ brain waves ARE electrical signals. $\endgroup$– JohnCommented Dec 12, 2019 at 4:36
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2 Answers
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Yes, it is possible. Researches have gone so far as to go brain->computer->brain in a pair of rats. It is a low-bandwidth connection (only a couple neurons) but it shows that the concept is, at least, possible.
Generating a virtual environment from scratch probably presents a number of technically challenges. The most obvious thing to do would be to hijack the signals for the senses that you want to use on their way into the brain. Biology is pretty... creative... with encodings from a programmer's point of view, and it might vary from person to person, so mass production might be difficult.
I would suggest that you need
1) Extremely fine electrodes
2) Bio compatibility in the electrodes
Those two are already being worked on because it is useful to be able to stick circuits in humans for medical reasons.
3) A way to figure out how to encode the signals per-person. Maybe you can use AI for this.
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1$\begingroup$ Heh heh. Be VERY careful which way you apply the "delete *" command. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 11, 2019 at 22:09
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$\begingroup$ @puppetsockreinstateMonica Delete knowledge of all your favorite shows and games and leave note to self to watch them. Of course, it possible your tastes change and you just lose those nostalgia goggles and never reaquire them for that work again. $\endgroup$– DKNguyenCommented Dec 12, 2019 at 2:12
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1$\begingroup$ I'm interpreting this as "an AI that can read your mind and control your thoughts". Not good. $\endgroup$– DKNguyenCommented Dec 12, 2019 at 2:13
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$\begingroup$ @DKNguyen I don't think it is practical (to the extent that the whole scheme is practical at all) to modify the signals already inside the brain. They'd be all mixed up with memory. That's why I suggest hijacking the signals on the way to the brain (I think the location of the plug in the Matrix, for example, implies this is what they do). The job of the AI would be to learn how the images map to electrical signals on the way in, so it can reproduce them to create images for you. This seems much easier and also less scary, for the reason you note. $\endgroup$– ZwuwdzCommented Dec 12, 2019 at 4:51
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$\begingroup$ @puppetsockreinstateMonica This is a good reason to implant somewhere near the bottom of the brain stem, rather than deep inside the brain. Let the computer create sensations and images, not influence memories directly. $\endgroup$– ZwuwdzCommented Dec 12, 2019 at 4:55
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Check our boy Elon out - he's doing cool things!
Neuralink recently had a few small breakthroughs - recently they made a monkey control a computer with its brain. The basic idea is that all thought is just electrical signals interpreted by your brain in different ways, and these signals are transmitted and processed through the many neurons in your brain. In theory, it is possible to map the conditions of a being's brain exactly using neural networks and either simulate or literally duplicate consciousness. We don't have the tech for this yet, but apparently we're working on it.
Neuralink is mostly involved with human-computer interactions through microchips, not so much telepathy-focused. This may actually work with your question better, as you would be able to communicate with machines, and if you can do that, making machines communicate with you isn't that far out of scope. I suggest you look stuff up related to this.
If you have questions about the real technical side of this, look up keywords like Neural Networks, Neuromorphic computing, Artificial Intelligence (if that's where you want to go with this), human-computer interaction, brain-chip technology (not technically a field but something you can search up), and more. If you want to get into the proper theory, any of the above searches can lead you to the hefty coursework that you need to do to know any of this properly. Or you can just ask questions on StackOverflow. I hope this helps!
