Hacking Consciousness

Hacking Consciousness: An Idiot’s Guide

For as long as I can remember I’ve been intrigued by the idea of our brain as something of an information processor. Not quite a computer, but not unlike one either, it pulls in parallel streams of energy in the form of sensory input and crunches it in such a way that we are capable of building entire worlds inside of our head. Worlds capable of changing our beliefs, changing our feelings, and even changing our behavior. Not just in our physical actions, but in the placebo effect we can see that it even influences how our body behaves at a much more subtle level!

I’ve always wondered how much of our brains’ capabilities were limited to the world we experience and what might be possible if we were allowed to submerge ourselves into a reality of our own design. I’ve played with various thought models over the years, read numerous books, experimented with meditation and other psychonautic substances, and constructed various experiments in my head that I thought might result in untapped insight, but many of these experiments were limited by the availability of technology. Luckily we now find ourselves on the cusp of a whole new era of technology. Virtual Reality is finally coming into its own, Neural Networks are all the rage, our processing power is faster than ever, and it seems like some of those experiments might now finally be possible.

The purpose of this little corner of the web is for me to finally sit down and put pen to paper, as it were. To try and organize all those ideas I’ve had floating around in my head while patiently waiting for technology to catch up. Think of this as a living document, a place for me to refine my own internal model of consciousness. A place to be wrong in order to figure out what’s right. An arena of sorts to test out and document 30 years of dreaming in a more manageable and (hopefully) productive manner. An idiot’s guide.

Theory
Outline (To be linked to future essays)

  • Peripheral In a Vat (Essay in Progress)
  • Port Scanning the Black Box, Man in the Middle
  • The Phase Space of Consciousness
  • GIGO: From one Logic Gate to Phase Space
  • GIGO:Sensory Variables
  • Wire together, Fire together
  • Sampling Rates
  • BioFeedback Loops
  • Neural Nets
  • ECG, EEG
  • Duck Season! Wabbit Season!
  • Sequence Priming, Rhythm, Associations
  • Flow States
  • Body Ownership / Body Transfer Illusion
  • Areas of the Brain and their Connections as Homuncular Flexibility
  • Memory Palaces
  • Mnemonics / Association Groups
  • Religious Rituals: Early Augmented Reality
  • DoorWays, Gates, and Liminal Spaces


Application
Potential Experiments

  • Project Emma Clone to temporarily reduce Essential Tremors (Build in Progress)
  • Using hand tracking in VR to reduce arthritis hand pain
  • Using full body tracking in VR to reduce arthritis, fibromyalgia, and other pains in the body
  • Using hand tracking in VR to reduce Parkinson’s and Essential Tremors
  • Using appendage tracking in VR to reduce Phantom Limb Pain

Resources

Hardware
In order to create the most accurate model of what’s happening inside someone’s brain we need to be able to track as well as possible the Garbage In and Garbage Out of what that person is experiencing.

Hardware for monitoring the body’s feedback to stimuli:

Hardware for controlling the stimuli the body is exposed to:

  • HMDs
    • HP Windows Mixed Reality Headset
    • GearVR / NoloVR
  • Haptic Feedback
  • Galvanic vestibular stimulation
  • Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation
  • Smell generation
  • Temperature Manipulation
  • Sensory Deprivation Tank

Misc Hardware Circuits and Info:

Software
Software needed for world building and interactions:

  • Unity3d or Unreal Engine
  • Voice Recognition Neural Network (Google Speech Recognition is good, but a local speech recognition neural net would be ideal)
  • Avatar Personality Building Neural Network
  • Avatar Model Building Neural Network
  • Story/Scenario Building Neural Network

Links of note (To be properly organized and noted)
Scientists construct first map of how the brain organizes everything we see (Online Viewer)(Related Video)(Semantic Chart)
Psychic Powers using Virtual Reality and Brain Computer Interfaces.
Illusion could halve the pain of osteoarthritis, scientists say
Scientists have found a way to make paraplegics move again
The Secrets the Heart Keeps, and other Lessons of Heart Rate Variability with Dr. Richard Gervitz
Building a memory palace in minutes: Equivalent memory performance using virtual versus conventional environments with the Method of Loci

Books

Images(To be properly organized and noted)
Dermatome Map
Connections of the Parasympathetic Nervous System
Vagus Nerve