GAME OF MINDS: VIRTUALITY Vs REALITY

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself—Well ... How did I get here?

-Unknown Author

Science fiction is always my favorite genre among the Hollywood movies. I always dream about those fictions coming true. My most predominant favorite fictions are time turner and simulated reality. In this post I discusses about simulated reality. Simulated reality is nothing but creating an imaginary world as good as real one using technology..!

Though many movies has used the concept of simulated reality, the most important movies are The Matrix and Inception. For those who haven't saw those movies,  

The matrix:

 

The Hollywood movie Matrix is about Anderson alias Neo, a software programmer for one of the leading software companies in the country. Shortly after his computer started conversing with him, Neo meets a mysterious woman named Trinity who’s not only beautiful, but has this fluid relationship with the laws of physics. Neo isn’t sure what’s going on, either with her or with his own life, but he’s convinced that a notorious rebel with the name Morpheus can help him figure things out. He was right. Eventually, Neo follows a white rabbit of sorts down one very peculiar rabbit hole and meets the elusive sage Morpheus, Then Neo learns the truth: Reality isn’t what it’s seems to be. In fact, the world we live in isn’t even real. It’s a computer generated illusion created by the machines that dominates the actual world and thus they keep humans in the real world and their mind in the other imaginary world.

 

Inception:

 

Where as in another Hollywood blockbuster Inception Dom Cobb is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious mind during the dream state, when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb's rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible-inception. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse: their task is not to steal an idea but to plant one. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. 

Science behind those movies?

Most of us enjoyed watching these two movies and discussed greatly about the action sequences, cinematography, graphics etc.. etc...! but how much we discussed about the science behind Matrix and Inception? The above movies applies the concepts of stimulated reality and extraction of thoughts to a great extend which everyone considers to be extremely under the basic stage of development or even absurd. 

Concepts used in Inception:

Okay. Lets explore various concepts told in the movie Inception now. For clarity I will rate each aspect on a 1-5.

Rating: 

1- Pure science

2- Strong Science with Some Embellishment

3- Some Science with Lots of Fiction

4-more fiction with very basic science

5- Pure Science Fiction

Extraction:

Rating: 3–Some Science with lots of Fiction

In the movie, Leonardo DiCaprio is skilled in a technique called dream extraction, namely the process of delving into the target’s dreaming mind to find hidden secrets.

While learning specific and secret information from an ongoing dream is currently pure science fiction , there are some technologies that hint at the possibility of (someday) being able to “extract”  the brain contents. The field of Brain Computer Interfaces might be one of these pioneers– researchers have created a full EEG headset that can “spell out” your thoughts into words and phrases, albeit very slowly (you need to think each individual letter for up to a minute or so!!).

 Inception:

Rating: 3- Some Science with Lots of Fiction

Can we actually implant thoughts into some one’s mind while they’re asleep? This is the Inception concept of the title, and it’s portrayed as being much harder to achieve than Extraction. In reality, though, it’s a bit different. Two teams of scientists have found ways to create false memories, and implant them into the brain at will - although for now, the technique only works in mice. Memories are stored in a surprisingly small number of brain cells - and the teams could 'control' the cells to create 'synthetic memories.'The research raises the possibility that humans could be made to remember things that have not happened - or even 'taught' whole new skills using electronics or chemistry. One technique used a drug to 'turn on' a memory of a different room in mice - making them remember a 'safer' room while in one where they had been given electric shocks. 'We’ve essentially created a synthetic memory,' says neuroscientist Mark Mayford of the Scripps Research Institute and the University of California, San Diego in La Jolla. The other technique used pulses of light delivered to cells in a mouse's brain. 'The expression of a specific memory, can be generated in a mammal by highly specific physical activation of a specific small population of brain cells,' says Susumu Tonegawa, Professor of Biology and Neuroscience at MIT. Tonegawa's team used a light-activated protein to 'tag' the tiny group of cells a memory appeared in as mice were given electric shocks in a new environment. The researchers found that they could trigger the same reaction again simply by applying light to the group of cells. The brain cells 'switched on' and the mice immediately went into a defensive crouch. 

 Send Me To Sleep Injection:

Rating: 2 – Strong Science with Some Embellishment

It’s easy to fall asleep in the Inception universe: tap a vein, drip an IV cocktail of chemicals into your arm, and you arrive in the dream world.

The closest real world parallel to a Send Me to Sleep Injection are sleep pharmaceuticals (Ambien, etc.), which can help people fall asleep and stay asleep (but function less like an on/off switch). They don’t magically drop you into REM sleep either; you normally have to cycle through other sleep phases first. Anesthetics are another parallel, though there’s debate about whether or not you’re actually asleep when you “go under.”

 Dream Control:

2 – Strong Science with Some Embellishment

Another concept is that of dream control:   if you know you’re dreaming, you can alter your surroundings and events.

In reality, this aspect of dreaming is called ‘lucid dreaming‘. During a lucid dream, you become aware that you are dreaming and can then influence the course of that dream (or nightmare). I have played with lucid dreaming myself but have always woken up shortly after taking control of the dream. There is real science and potential in lucid dreaming. 

 

Shared Dreams:

5 – Pure Science Fiction

Achieving control of your own dreams would be amazing – but what if you could share that dream with other real people? In Inception, the concept of shared dreaming is the pivot around which the whole movie turns. Unfortunately, this one is heavily tilted to science fiction..!

But the fast growth of science seems to promise the implementation of the inception concepts in near future where you should start protecting your mind similar to your your jewels that your deep mind secrets may be robbed and your thoughts may be altered technically..!!! 

 

Concept used in Matrix:

Simulated reality

Simulated reality is the skeptical hypothesis that reality could be simulated—perhaps by computer simulation—to a degree indistinguishable from "true" reality. It could contain conscious minds which may or may not be fully aware that they are living inside a simulation.

This is quite different from the current, technologically achievable concept of virtual reality. Virtual reality is easily distinguished from the experience of actuality; participants are never in doubt about the nature of what they experience. Simulated reality, by contrast, would be hard or impossible to separate from "true" reality.

There has been much debate over this topic, ranging from philosophical discourse to practical applications in computing.

Brain-computer interface

In brain-computer interface simulations, each participant enters from outside, directly connecting their brain to the simulation computer. The computer transmits sensory data to the participant, reads and responds to their desires and actions in return; in this manner they interact with the simulated world and receive feedback from it. The participant may be induced by any number of possible means to forget, temporarily or otherwise, that they are inside a virtual realm (e.g. "passing through the veil", a term borrowed from Christian tradition, which describes the passage of a soul from an earthly body to an afterlife). While inside the simulation, the participant's consciousness is represented by an avatar, which can look very different from the participant's actual appearance.

Virtual people

In a virtual-people simulation, every inhabitant is a native of the simulated world. They do not have a "real" body in the external reality of the physical world. Instead, each is a fully simulated entity, possessing an appropriate level of consciousness that is implemented using the simulation's own logic (i.e. using its own physics). As such, they could be downloaded from one simulation to another, or even archived and resurrected at a later time. It is also possible that a simulated entity could be moved out of the simulation entirely by means of mind transfer into a synthetic body.

Emigration

In an emigration simulation, the participant enters the simulation from the outer reality, as in the brain-computer interface simulation, but to a much greater degree. On entry, the participant could use a variety of hypothetical methods to participate in the simulated reality including mind transfer to temporarily relocate their mental processing into a virtual-person. After the simulation is over, the participant's mind is restored along with all new memories and experience gained within (as in the movie The Thirteenth Floor, or when one flatlines in Neuromancer).

Finally, there is the option of a simulated reality being dynamically constructed and modified using real-world matter and energy within an enclosing container or room, such as the "Holodeck" in Star Trek. Upon entering such a space, the real-world person would effectively feel immersed in the simulated environment, with a variety of potential methods being used to convince the user of the presence of motion, gravity, environments, and so on, and with the user presumably able to interact (or not) with the simulated reality.

Intermingled

An intermingled simulation supports both types of consciousness: "players" from the outer reality who are visiting (as a brain-computer interface simulation) or emigrating, and virtual-people who are natives of the simulation and hence lack any physical body in the outer reality.

The Matrix movies feature an intermingled type of simulation: they contain not only human minds (with their physical bodies remaining outside), but also sentient software programs that govern various aspects of the computed realm.

Though the concept of stimulated reality is at the very basic level of development. We can be sure that it will develop to a great extend in future and make a huge impact on us like: we can work , study, go to places we like, experience all the pleasures in the world, meet the stars we want ....etc...etc.... virtually though as good as reality, just sitting on your couch ..!

Thanks for reading :)

Praveen Mohan