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- If you've ever watched a teen romcom,
you know that prom night is the peak
of high school existence.
Normally shy kids take big risks,
can get big rewards
experiencing romantic and safely sexual moments
that make the rest of their lives meaningful.
But, this never happened to you.
Back in 2009, you were dropping off your prom date.
The moment was right, the moon was bright
and they were clearly waiting for you to kiss them
in a moment that would make Freddie Prinze Jr. blush.
And right at the pivotal moment, you gave him a fist bump
and said, catching you in calculus, bud,
and drove home in your stepdad's Chevy Blazer
listening to Adele.
Years later, they're married to a tech pro
who describes himself as a full-time human,
part-time entrepreneur.
And after enough white wine, you end up cruising
their Instagram wondering if you'd be
in their vacation pics too if you just would've puckered up.
But, what if you could?
And no, we don't mean time travel, but that's another video.
Don't worry.
We mean diving into a digital reality
that's just as realistic as the one that our buddy Neo
experiences in the Matrix.
Because if this were possible, we could go back
and have a Mulligan on prom night to get that
slow-mo romcom smooch.
Let's see if it's possible on the Science is Hard,
Can We Build a Real Matrix?
But, before we learn more about plugging your brain
into a computer, I want to tell you about
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And now, back to the show.
The good news is we're not starting from scratch here.
Scientists have already been hard at work
creating simulated realities,
but they're doing this for clinical and therapeutic work,
not for the sake of using human bodies
as massive biodegradable Duracell batteries.
At this point, most simulated reality technology
is aimed at helping people,
which is a pleasant plot twist from the Matrix films.
But, what would be more therapeutic than letting you
relive and redo your most embarrassing teenage moments?
The most straightforward way to make you the Neo
of light petting is brain machine interfaces.
As you remember from the films,
humans are a lab grown lumps of flesh and bones
connected via head jacks
to an all encompassing virtual reality.
We're not growing humans yet, but who knows?
We wouldn't put it past Bezos.
But, maybe we could shove lightning cables into our brains
to enter a new reality.
This would involve hacking into the multi-step process
by which our brain uses data from our sense receptors
to produce our mental perception of the world.
This starts when the sensory receptors of our eyes,
nose and hands take in information about our environment.
This data travels to different regions of our brains,
which then turns all of this data into
what we casually refer to as reality.
And what is this reality other than our brains
interpretation of electrical signals?
So, if you want to get to second base
on your date's front porch,
we need to figure out how to bypass the first part
of this input chain, our sensory organs,
mimic their electrical output and then feed some new signals
directly into your brain to create a whole new world
inside your skull.
But don't pop your digital altoids yet,
because while this is theoretically possible,
scientists have yet to figure out how to use brain cables
to bypass our built-in sensory input systems.
However, scientists have developed
brain computer interfaces, or BCI's.
They can record neuronal activity, process the data,
and then use that data to control a function
outside of the brain, like an artificial limb,
a wheelchair, or a computer cursor.
Eventually, scientists hope to use this technology
to put implants in the retina and visual cortex
that can restore sight to the blind.
Finally, actualizing the promises
made by the song "Amazing Grace".
And while this all sounds great, it's not helping you
get any closer to the promises made by
the Six Pence None The Richer song, "Kiss Me",
because current technology is about output
and not input, meaning that BCI's are great
at gathering output data from our brains,
but not so good at inputting new data into our brains,
which is kind of a prerequisite
for teenage romantic redemption.
So, if we're not yet able to plug ourselves
into another reality, are we forever cursed
to stay stuck in the material realm?
Maybe not, because even if we can't pump a new reality
into our brains, we can at least wrap
an entirely new reality around our faces and into our ears.
Enter virtual reality, or VR.
This takes care of our input problems,
because while we can't pump data directly into our brains,
we can use our built-in input devices,
i.e, our eyes and ears,
to immerse ourselves in an alternate reality.
And we're not talking about the VR headsets
that you might already be using for watching movies.
We're talking about VR visors that utilize separate screens
from each eye, displaying an image
from a slightly different angle to mimic
how our eyes take in data in the real world.
It's called stereoscopic vision.
But, can this type of simulated reality help you become
the cool and confident 17-year old
that you always wanted to be?
Can tiny screens in front of your eyes really create
the butterflies experienced by a fearfully horny teenager?
Well, while you might not be able to hold the clammy hand
of your crush, scientists have figured out how to make
the VR experience much more convincing,
and that's through a series of clever tricks
they're able to play on our feeble brains.
One way they do this is via something called
the Body Ownership Illusion.
Let's say that in a VR setting,
you saw a dog licking your digital hand
while at the same time, an actual dog licked your real hand.
This combination of visual and tactile signals
would trick your brain into feeling ownership
over the digital hand in front of you.
So I guess if you just have your dog kiss you
while you experience that magical smooch in VR,
it's basically the same, right?
Another trick used in VR is accelerators
that detect body motion,
which can then be integrated into your VR experience
making it feel more real and immersive.
And with a thing called Redirected Walking,
VR can manipulate your brain into feeling
like you're walking in a long, straight line,
when in reality, you're just going in circles.
All the better for long walks on the beach with your crush.
But, VR can also avoid physical movement altogether
by tricking your internal perception of self-motion,
also known as vection, adding multiple visual, auditory,
tactile and environmental cues can enhance vection.
So, VR can also make you think you're slow dancing
in the moonlight when you're really just
sitting on the couch.
So, are advanced VR visors our backdoor into the Matrix?
Not really.
For one, engineers aren't yet able to create
photo realistic images in real time,
so your digital reality is gonna look more like
second life than first life.
In fact, researchers estimate that creating
simultaneous life-like renderings
would require 0.5 pedoflops of rendering power,
which is way beyond what we're capable of.
For perspective, one pedoflop is 100 times more powerful
than the human brain.
And then there is the pesky mismatch
between our input systems.
That means that while the VR visor can handle visual inputs,
our brains still need to mix those visual inputs
with things like touch and smell, which won't all match up.
The result, you'll feel nauseated with continuous use,
which isn't an inaccurate experience of adolescence.
So, while redoing your awkward teen years in the Matrix
isn't possible right now, it's absolutely a possibility
in the near future.
According to Frank Steinicke, a computer scientist
from the University of Hamburg, we can easily assume
that within the next 5-10 years or so
we will not be able to distinguish
visually computer generated content
from real world content anymore.
And if you've survived the 10 years
since a horrible prom night mishap,
what's 10 more years to digitally redeem yourself?
And there's good reason to be hopeful.
According to astronomer David Kipping,
there is already a 50/50 chance that we're living
in a simulation, and the day that we create
a simulated reality with conscious beings inside it,
those odds jumped from 50/50 to oh, oh shit, oh shit,
we're almost certainly not real.
So, who knows?
Maybe we already live in a simulated reality.
Maybe we're all just gross little babies in jars
on some dystopian future planet using our natural energy
to fuel a monstrous system of autonomous machines.
And any successful VR system we develop,
will just be another layer of deception
created to keep us further removed
from the monstrous truth of our own existence.
But, as long as we get french kissed by a dog,
we'll probably be okay.
That's all for this one,
but thank you so much for watching and come back soon
for another Science is Hard.
Later.
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