In the early 1940s, in a laboratory in Peiping, Xiang Shan sat on the console. Behind him were many experts, including Chen Feng. Most of these researchers came from the field of cognitive science.
Opposite them is a man sitting on a chair. This man is about fifty years old, wearing a goggle device on his head that looks a bit like a cosplay game character. But the device is essentially a decoration.
To make up for the uncanny valley effect caused by his oversized prosthetic eyes - the volunteer's wife and children had complained many times that his prosthetic eyes were "scary" before this.
Early prosthetic eyes were slightly larger than natural human eyeballs.
The man's prosthetic eyes were closed, and the prosthetic ears also adjusted the mode, blocking the sound, and could only "hear" external voice signals. Xiangshan picked up the microphone and said to the volunteer: "Mr. Pan, this is the last time.
Once, I repeat for the last time, this experiment may cause you some physical discomfort, and it will last for a relatively long period of time. If you can't bear it, you can quit at any time."
"I know, it's written in the contract." The man said nonchalantly.
This Mr. Pan is from Zhili (place name) and usually works as a massage artist. When he was born, his mother had a difficult delivery and his retina was damaged, which caused congenital amblyopia. For him, the world only has a weak sense of light. Under the sun
, people or vehicles are "little black balls flashing by." And last year, when he was worshiping his ancestors in his hometown, because of his poor eyesight, he did not leave in time from a large firecracker with thousands of rings, which caused a serious accident.
Hearing damage.
It was at this time that the company founded by Xiang Shan developed the first generation of prosthetic eyes and ears, and entered the trial stage. They extensively solicited volunteers and launched a series of cognitive science research. Mr. Pan heard
After hearing the news, I signed up immediately.
The company would provide volunteers with sensory prostheses, which were still hard to find at the time, free of charge. These volunteers would need to cooperate in a series of experiments.
These artificial senses have already obtained reliable data in primates. However, scientists still want to explore the role of "perception" in human cognitive processes.
After Mr. Pan received prosthetic eyes before, he regained his "vision". At the beginning, he could indeed see things, but he could not distinguish colors and did not know what he saw. He could not even distinguish "far and near".
He may even feel that the ground under the fifth-floor window is "touchable". He cannot describe his vision.
The process of him mastering vision is similar to the process of a baby mastering vision, only faster - he only needs to connect the existing experience with visual signals.
Mr. Pan’s process of “mastering vision” also left behind quite important research materials.
But now, it has been a year since this formerly amblyopic person mastered vision. What he is currently participating in is the "auditory and visual replacement" experiment.
Early psychologists believed that if the outer terminals of the optic nerve were connected to the ears and the auditory nerves were connected to the eyes, humans would be able to hear lightning and see thunder. But in fact, human senses are much deeper than this.
Much more complicated, visual processing and auditory processing are not implemented by the same neural activities.
"Vision" is not presented in the form of "video" in the brain. External light will arouse the excitement of the cone cells and rod cells on the retina. This excitement is converted into a continuous neural signal. The "vision" processed by the brain
” is actually a “signal” rather than an “image” itself. How this signal constitutes the world that humans perceive is what scholars are interested in.
In this experiment, the image received by Mr. Pan’s prosthetic eye, after being converted into nerve signals, will not be sent to the optic nerve, but will be forwarded to the router, which will then be connected to the prosthetic ear and enter the brain along the auditory nerve;
After the stimulation received by the prosthetic ear is converted into nerve signals, it will also pass through the router and enter the optic nerve from the prosthetic eye.
However, when this experiment was conducted on monkeys, nearly two-thirds of the monkeys showed abnormal mania, so Xiangshan repeatedly warned.
After the routine procedure, Xiang Shan looked at Chen Feng.
Chen Feng nodded and said: "The experiment begins."
"It's now 9:45 in the morning, the first test." Xiang Shan said as he hit the enter key.
The instructions written long ago start running.
Mr. Pan's vision and hearing have been reversed.
Mr. Pan's first sentence was "It's so noisy."
And the second sentence is "Is this my voice?"
The third sentence is "Why is this so green? Ah - ah? Ah, ah! Oh! Ouch! Woo! Rub! This sound... is so cool!"
Then, Mr. Pan raised his hand to indicate that he wanted to stand up. Xiang Shan said: "Permission."
Mr. Pan didn't understand. He shouted: "What is this? A ball of flowers...Did you say something? Professor Xiang? Was it you who spoke just now?"
"Yes." Xiang Shan replied tentatively.
But Mr. Pan still didn't understand: "Damn, you know what this color means..."
As he spoke, he stood up impatiently.
Immediately afterwards, Mr. Pan's face changed drastically. He tried to move forward, but failed to control his body posture at all, and immediately fell to the ground, vomiting wildly.
Xiangshan immediately stopped running the program. The first aid team on standby quickly followed up [This is mainly to prevent photosensitive epilepsy, hysteria, and shock caused by severe mood swings]
But in subsequent reports, the researchers came to an unexpected conclusion.
Mr. Pan's vomiting came from a disordered sense of direction. He "heard" the light in front of him and "saw" the sounds on his left and right sides. After he started exercising, this caused severe motion sickness.
In subsequent experiments, the researchers chose to let Mr. Pan wear a covered helmet. The helmet had two prosthetic ears on the front and two prosthetic eyes on the side.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! In the following series of experiments, Mr. Pan maintained this state. For about three days, he was completely immersed in "excitement"
. He will keep trying out his various sounds to see "what" they sound like. Like a baby, he will keep picking up small objects and throwing them on the ground to "see" and "listen"
——He will interact with the world in various ways.
But after three days, boredom gradually developed. He began to become anxious. Because in this state, he could not understand other people's languages. In his "eyes", other people's words were just a blur of light.
.
Mr. Pan was not the only person participating in the experiment. There were dozens of volunteers in the same batch. The vast majority of volunteers quit the experiment at this stage because they could not bear the anxiety. But there were still a few who persisted.
Come down.
The scientists played music to these people, had them try to draw, and let them hum whatever songs they wanted.
According to the report, these volunteers would use "music" to describe their surroundings. To them, incandescent lights are like sizzling white noise. Sunlight is similar to gurgling water. In their eyes, natural scenery is like a
It's like a complex piece of music. When they describe food, they often use sounds such as "gurgling" or "slobbering" that can easily trigger the association of "hungry".
In addition, some people have even learned to "listen to others".
They've adapted perfectly to this strange pattern.
The human brain can be modified through experience and re-establish its own perceptual processing model.
Today's "vision-free training" is based on these early experiments.
The construction of Saussure's Divine Realm allows some functions of the brain to have more advanced and complex connections. Internal skill masters can occupy the brain's neural resources for "visual processing" and use them for "hearing processing". This mechanism is similar to "
The "compensation" of "blind people hearing more acutely" is more controllable.
"I actually have similar seeds, but I have never done the relevant exercises... Songdao and Jadeer just went deeper and more focused... I can do it too." Xiangshan said to himself: "If you want to see thunder,
Hear the flash..."
In his consciousness, the sound of "Storm" turned into a steady flow of black. In this ink...
——"See" it...
He saw more "feet", saw more "prosthetic body outlines", saw "engine vibrations"...
As conspicuous as a few flashes of light in the darkness.
Warriors who are proficient in this in this era do not need to do so "deliberately". They do not need to process the information visually. All this can be done "outside of consciousness".
But for Xiang Shan, this is still progress.
"Countdown...three, two, one..."
With a "boom" sound, another bomb exploded. The sound waves rolled over like a chariot.
Almost at the same time, synchronized, they ran towards the mountain.
Under the cover of Yinlang, he instantly passed between the two rangers who were less than two meters apart.
——Can see...
The troops on the blockade mobilized quickly. Countless teams moved crazily behind him. Bullets roared, suppressing all directions.
But Xiangshan continued to go deeper.
He could hear another retrograde movement among the complex footsteps. That was Jardel.
The two of them marched silently in the sand and dust for about two hundred meters before coming together.
"Beautiful." Jardel said: "But brother, don't you understand this very well? You didn't understand 'no vision' before to test me?"
"No, I just want to learn about the newer theories." Xiang Shan shook his head.
Since the sand and dust were still mixed with quite a bit of metal, they still couldn't use the radio. They could only talk so close to each other.
"All the nearby rangers heard the explosion and will gather together soon." Jadel said: "It is not easy to obtain information from them."
Xiang Shan said: "Let's walk another 200 meters. After 200 meters, we will go find those rangers!"