Cyber ​​Heroes

Chapter 242 Seeing Thunder

In the early 21s, in a certain laboratory in Beiping, Xiang Shan sat on the console.And behind him are many experts including Chen Feng.Most of these researchers come from the field of cognitive science.

Opposite them was a man sitting on a chair.The man is about 50 years old and wears a goggle device that looks a bit like a cosplay game character on his head.But the device is essentially an ornament, used to compensate for the uncanny valley effect caused by his oversized prosthetic eyes - the volunteer's wife and children had complained many times before that his prosthetic eyes were "scary".

Early prosthetic eyes were slightly larger than natural eyeballs.

The man's prosthetic eyes were closed, and the prosthetic ear was also adjusted to block the sound, and he could only "hear" the voice signal input from the outside.Xiang Shan picked up the microphone and said to the volunteer: "Mr. Pan, this is the last time. I will repeat it for the last time. This experiment may bring you some physical discomfort, and it will last for a relatively long period of time. .If you can't stand it, you can always quit."

"Got it, it's written in the contract." The man said nonchalantly.

This Mr. Pan is from Zhili (place name) and usually works as a massager.When he was born, his mother had dystocia and his retina was damaged, which caused congenital amblyopia.For him, the world has only a faint sense of light.Under the sun, people or vehicles are "little black balls passing by".And last year, when he was offering sacrifices to his ancestors in his hometown, because of his bad eyesight, he didn't leave in time from the huge firecrackers, which caused serious hearing damage.

It was at this time that the company founded by Xiang Shan developed the first generation of prosthetic eyes and prosthetic ears, and entered the trial stage.They widely recruited volunteers and launched a series of cognitive science research.When Mr. Pan heard the news, he immediately signed up.

The company will provide volunteers with sensory prostheses, which were hard to find at the time.These volunteers need to cooperate with a series of experiments.

These artificial senses already have solid data in primates.However, scientists still want to explore the role of "perception" in the process of human cognition.

After Mr. Pan obtained the prosthetic eye, he regained his "sight".At first, he could indeed see, but couldn't distinguish colors and didn't know what he was seeing.He can't even distinguish "far and near", he even feels that the ground under the window on the fifth floor is "touchable".He cannot describe his vision.

His process of acquiring vision is similar to that of infants, only faster—he just needs to associate the visual signal with the experience he already has.

Mr. Pan's process of "mastering vision" also left behind quite important research materials.

But now, it has been a year since the former low-sighted person mastered vision.What he is currently participating in is the experiment of "auditory and visual replacement".

Early psychologists believed that if the outer terminal of the optic nerve was connected to the ear and the auditory nerve to the eye, humans should be able to hear lightning and see thunder.But in fact, human senses are much more complex than this, and visual processing and auditory processing are not realized by the same neural activity.

"Vision" is not presented in the form of "video" in the brain.Extraneous light will arouse the excitation of cone cells and rod cells in the retina.This excitement translates into a sustained neural signal.The "vision" processed by the brain is actually a "signal" rather than an "image" itself.Scholars are interested in how this signal constitutes the world as humans perceive it.

In this experiment, the images received by Mr. Pan's prosthetic eye will not be sent to the optic nerve after being converted into nerve signals, but will be forwarded to the router, and then connected to the prosthetic ear by the router, 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 carried out on monkeys, nearly two-thirds of the monkeys showed abnormal mania, so Xiang Shan warned again and again.

After the routine procedure, Xiang Shan looked at Chen Feng.

Chen Feng nodded and said, "The experiment has begun."

"It's 45:[-] in the morning, the first test." Xiang Shan said while pressing the Enter key.

The instructions written earlier 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! Hey! Woo! Rub! This sound... so fucking cool!"

Then, Mr. Pan raised his hand to signal that he wanted to stand up.Xiang Shan said, "Permission."

Mr. Pan did not understand.He shouted: "What is this? A bunch of flowers... Did you say something? Professor Xiang? You were the one who spoke just now?"

"Yes." Xiang Shan replied tentatively.

But Mr. Pan still didn't understand: "Damn, do you know what this color means..."

With that said, he stood up impatiently.

Immediately afterwards, Mr. Pan's face changed drastically.He tried to take a step forward, but he didn't grasp the posture of his body at all, and immediately fell to the ground, vomiting violently.

Xiang Shan immediately stopped the running of the program.And the first aid team on standby quickly followed up [this is mainly to prevent shock caused by photosensitive epilepsy, hysteria, and violent mood swings]

But in the subsequent report, the researchers knew a conclusion that was expected.

Mr. Pan's vomiting came from the confusion of his original sense of direction.He "heard" the light in front of him, and "saw" the voices on his left and right sides.This caused severe motion sickness after starting to exercise.

In a follow-up experiment, the researchers chose to let Mr. Pan wear a wrap-around helmet.The helmet has two prosthetic ears on the front and two prosthetic eyes on the side.

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 various voices of his own to see "what it looks like".Like a baby, he will constantly grab small objects and throw them on the ground to "see" and "listen"-he will interact with the world in various ways.

But after three days, boredom gradually emerged.He started to get agitated.Because in this state, he cannot understand other people's language.In his "eyes", the words of other people are like a halo of light.

Mr. Pan was not the only one who participated in the experiment.There are dozens of volunteers in the same batch.Most of the volunteers quit the experiment at this stage because they could not bear the anxiety.But there are still a few people who persisted.

The scientists played music to these people, asked them to try to draw pictures, and asked them to hum whatever they wanted.

According to the report, these volunteers would use "music" to describe their surroundings.To them, incandescent lights are like buzzing white noise.Sunlight is similar to gurgling water.Natural scenery is like a complex movement in their eyes.When they describe food, they often use sounds such as "cuckoo" or "saliva" that easily trigger the association of "hunger".

Plus, some have even learned to "listen to others."

They fit perfectly into this strange pattern.

The human brain can be corrected through experience and re-establish its own perception processing mode.

Today's "no-vision training" is based on these early experiments.

The construction of Saussure's domain has allowed some functions of the brain to have more advanced and complex connections.Masters of internal skills can occupy the brain's neural resources of "visual processing" and use them to "process hearing".This mechanism is similar to the "compensation" of "the hearing of the blind is more acute", but it is more controllable.

"In fact, I have similar seeds, but I have never done related exercises...Song Dao and Jadel are just more in-depth. Concentrate...I can do it too." Xiang Shan said to himself: "If you want to see the thunder, heard the flash..."

In his consciousness, the sound of "Storm" turned into a steady black.In this patch of ink...

——"Look" at...

He saw more "feet", saw more "outlines of the prosthetic body", saw "the vibration of the engine"...

It is as conspicuous as a little light in the dark.

In this era, warriors who are proficient in this way don't need to do so "deliberately".They don't need to process the information visually again.All this can be done "outside consciousness".

But for Xiang Shan, this is still an improvement.

"Countdown... three, two, one..."

With a bang, another bomb exploded.The sound wave ran over like a chariot.

Almost at the same time, synchronously, they ran towards the mountain.

Under the cover of Yinlang, he instantly passed between two rangers who were less than two meters apart.

- can see...

Troops on the blockade moved quickly.Countless teams moved frantically behind him.Bullets howled, suppressing the Quartet.

But Xiang Shan continued to go deeper.

He could hear another retrograde movement from the complicated footsteps.That's Jardl.

In this way, the two walked silently in the dust for more than 200 meters, and then they came together.

"Beautiful." Jadell said: "But brother, don't you understand this well? I didn't understand 'no vision' before to test me?"

"No, I just want to learn about a relatively new theory." Xiang Shan shook his head.

They still couldn't use the radio because there was still a lot of iron in the dust.Talking can only be so close.

"The rangers nearby have heard the explosion, and they will gather soon." Jardel said, "It's not easy to get information from them."

Xiang Shan said: "Let's go another 200 meters. After 200 meters, let's go find those rangers!"

(End of this chapter)