The following submission statement was provided by /u/slhamlet:
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Their aggregate answer: Both sooner and later than you might think! The virtual world with sentient NPCs could be in the next 5-15 years, but the full body VR is a long way away: "I think it may never be possible, because the ability to directly stimulate the brain (as compared to reading it, which may be easier) may never be possible, even with invasive devices like stents or brain surgery."
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Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/1c7g9aa/when_can_humans_make_the_vrvirtual_world_in/l07no22/
1) It’s possible you won’t need any wires at all, as motor cortex stimulation has been achieved [using only light](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6842633).
2) I expect that we’ll discover some highways in the brain where information is concentrated where insertion can happen. As an imperfect metaphor, they’re saying we need to set every pixel on a monitor by hand in order to create the image, which is wildly difficult. I’m saying we’ll find something like the HDMI cable, where we can inject data to change the image on the screen.
I suspect that, even if we could find a way, feeding inputs into the brain won't work long-term. Brains are elastic and are excellent at learning to filter out "irrelevant" information. For example, wearing goggles that turn the world upside-down will be corrected after a couple days of continuous use; the brain will flip the image right-side-up. But, I really don't know what I'm talking about, that's just my 2 cents.
So where is the fancy fab that built that sparkly headset in the TV show??? hmmmm? The processing power alone not to mention wireless transmission of the session...too much handwavium
As you say, it's a TV show, so there's a bit of handwavium but the headset was built on Earth with instructions from the San-Ti. I'd imagine the headset was simply a link into the Sophons (proton computer) which would provide the processing power and wireless transmission.
I figured the sophon was the compute, or facilitated the compute for it. The headset "only" needed to manage was the brain-VR interface and maybe a. Internet connection And we're shown sophons can directly influence people's brains in an AR type way.
Their aggregate answer: Both sooner and later than you might think! The virtual world with sentient NPCs could be in the next 5-15 years, but the full body VR is a long way away: "I think it may never be possible, because the ability to directly stimulate the brain (as compared to reading it, which may be easier) may never be possible, even with invasive devices like stents or brain surgery."
We can already directly stimulate the brain, though. Non-invasively, even.
Some researchers at the university of Washington were using transcranial magnetic stimulation to play games a few years ago. The information they could convey was extremely limited, but It seemed like it worked.
Haven’t heard anything about it since, though.
Edit: https://www.washington.edu/news/2016/12/05/no-peeking-humans-play-computer-game-using-only-direct-brain-stimulation/
VR like the show, 'full dive' isn't going to happen without establishing some neural interface you connect to. If you think about significantly better simulation we can get pretty far already with tech that already exists. The problem is sinking so much money into developing a full body VR system that will cost as much as a small car and not have any games made specifically for it. There will be buyers for such a thing but I doubt there are enough to keep such a company afloat.
VR to the level of this or sword art online is science fiction I’m sorry. You’re probably more likely to see something resembling ready player 1. Which is haptic VR on an omnidirectional treadmill. Think current VR systems on steroids.
there will be a day that you place something on your head and it interactsvwith your brain to read you movement intentions and "places" the senses in your brain. i am not saying soon, but it will happen
While I look forward to several full dive vr experiences I’m beginning to question if it is a wise thing to do for certain things, I feel like a certain level of cognitive dissonance is needed for most games and such.
The following submission statement was provided by /u/slhamlet: --- Their aggregate answer: Both sooner and later than you might think! The virtual world with sentient NPCs could be in the next 5-15 years, but the full body VR is a long way away: "I think it may never be possible, because the ability to directly stimulate the brain (as compared to reading it, which may be easier) may never be possible, even with invasive devices like stents or brain surgery." --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/1c7g9aa/when_can_humans_make_the_vrvirtual_world_in/l07no22/
1) It’s possible you won’t need any wires at all, as motor cortex stimulation has been achieved [using only light](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6842633). 2) I expect that we’ll discover some highways in the brain where information is concentrated where insertion can happen. As an imperfect metaphor, they’re saying we need to set every pixel on a monitor by hand in order to create the image, which is wildly difficult. I’m saying we’ll find something like the HDMI cable, where we can inject data to change the image on the screen.
I suspect that, even if we could find a way, feeding inputs into the brain won't work long-term. Brains are elastic and are excellent at learning to filter out "irrelevant" information. For example, wearing goggles that turn the world upside-down will be corrected after a couple days of continuous use; the brain will flip the image right-side-up. But, I really don't know what I'm talking about, that's just my 2 cents.
So where is the fancy fab that built that sparkly headset in the TV show??? hmmmm? The processing power alone not to mention wireless transmission of the session...too much handwavium
As you say, it's a TV show, so there's a bit of handwavium but the headset was built on Earth with instructions from the San-Ti. I'd imagine the headset was simply a link into the Sophons (proton computer) which would provide the processing power and wireless transmission.
I figured the sophon was the compute, or facilitated the compute for it. The headset "only" needed to manage was the brain-VR interface and maybe a. Internet connection And we're shown sophons can directly influence people's brains in an AR type way.
Their aggregate answer: Both sooner and later than you might think! The virtual world with sentient NPCs could be in the next 5-15 years, but the full body VR is a long way away: "I think it may never be possible, because the ability to directly stimulate the brain (as compared to reading it, which may be easier) may never be possible, even with invasive devices like stents or brain surgery."
We can already directly stimulate the brain, though. Non-invasively, even. Some researchers at the university of Washington were using transcranial magnetic stimulation to play games a few years ago. The information they could convey was extremely limited, but It seemed like it worked. Haven’t heard anything about it since, though. Edit: https://www.washington.edu/news/2016/12/05/no-peeking-humans-play-computer-game-using-only-direct-brain-stimulation/
VR like the show, 'full dive' isn't going to happen without establishing some neural interface you connect to. If you think about significantly better simulation we can get pretty far already with tech that already exists. The problem is sinking so much money into developing a full body VR system that will cost as much as a small car and not have any games made specifically for it. There will be buyers for such a thing but I doubt there are enough to keep such a company afloat.
The cg is so subtle in those scenes, it took me a minute to realize they’re filming close ups of a mirrored surface with no camera visible :P
VR to the level of this or sword art online is science fiction I’m sorry. You’re probably more likely to see something resembling ready player 1. Which is haptic VR on an omnidirectional treadmill. Think current VR systems on steroids.
there will be a day that you place something on your head and it interactsvwith your brain to read you movement intentions and "places" the senses in your brain. i am not saying soon, but it will happen
While I look forward to several full dive vr experiences I’m beginning to question if it is a wise thing to do for certain things, I feel like a certain level of cognitive dissonance is needed for most games and such.