Virtual Reality

What happens when we run our hand over something? We feel the texture, temperature and other physical conditions of the material. This various sets of information are transported from our receptors to the brain using the nervous system. These electronic impulses are received by the brain and voluntary or involuntary actions (rather reactions) are taken. In short all we know about some things or someone is based on what we sense about them. In fact all we know about ourselves, our family n friends, and about the whole world around us is just what we sense and experience about them.

This raises an obvious question in our mind. Is what we see, hear, smell, taste and feel really true? Or is it just an illusion?

Let us consider a perfectly healthy person for this experiment. Let us plant a microprocessor in his brain, at the part where the nerves are connected. I suppose it’s somewhere near the medulla oblongata. This microprocessor should be able to receive signals from my computer and relay them to his nerves. In short, I’ll be able to feed this person with information regarding t the sense of feeling in his body. By proper programming, I can send him specific signals causing pain where it doesn’t exist or minimizing pain by numbing his nerves where it exists. Thus, I have complete control over one of the five senses in his body. By connecting this microprocessor to other elements of his brain, I’ll be able to control his other senses as well.

Now this is a major breakthrough. With the help of this implant, we’ll be able to induce a completely different world around this person. In short he’ll be in a virtual reality zone, where everything is an illusion. If we induct several other humans into the same zone, they will interact and ‘live’ in a virtual zone altogether. We can complete the rest of the world using other humans, or simply programs. If this person goes near a programmed fire, we can send him ‘sensations’ about its warmth. In short he can live his whole life there. Of course, his real body will have to be provided protection and nutrition.

We can also change this idea a bit by introducing two-way communication. It will be a tricky business of changing thoughts into impulses, but I’m sure that scientists can come up with a solution. Thus a person will be able to access systems which can be accessed by the machine.

This theory can have several applications:

-In the entertainment industry, we could have real life-like games, where nobody gets hurt!

-Education will reach a new level where we could literally see and feel places/animals/plants, which we could not normally. We could reconstruct a dinosaur and be able to study it without efforts.

-Medicine will have a boon in the form of a new anesthetic device.

-Training Counter Terrorists will reach a new level.

This list can go on and on.

Of course, this also has a drawback. Any new idea is like a double-edged sword. We can hit as well as get hit. And as any other idea, this theory can be a boon as well as a curse. Some miscreants and anti-social elements may try to hack into these systems to manipulate other people’s lives.

Thus, this theory can be put to some really good use, if we police it responsibly.

More is to come about this theory. I propose to show a completely new angle to it. So, stay tuned.

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