They may be doing it with the tongue now. A few decades ago it was done
with an electrode mesh on the back. It worked, but the resolution was
pretty low. (IIRC, you don't need to be blind to learn to use this kind
of mapping device.)
Mike Tintner wrote:
All v. interesting. Fascinating in fact. Haven't scientists recently
got s.o. [blind people, I think] to see with their tongue? Sorry, my
memory here is fuzzy.
The idea that really excites me here - and boggles my mind - is the
question of the interconvertibility of the senses.
The first obvious connection - when you think about it - is that ALL
senses are spatial. You look, smell, hear and even taste things (and
even have INTERNAL kinaesthetic sensations) that are at a certain,
variable distance from you, and that move closer to or further away
from you. So all senses/ sensations are probably mapped onto a basic
neo-geometric model of the world around you.
ALL visual images have a spatial POV - contain info of how far the
scene is from you, and at what angle it is to you. Hence you see
photos as Close up, long distance etc and when you see the POV shot
in a movie of the hero moving through a building, you get breathy and
have running sensations too, because you move with the camera .
So - thinking aloud as I go here - not only do all senses have a
spatial foundation, but they also have a MUSCULAR foundation - they
are connected to the muscular movements they arouse. (Possibly
muscular movements are a common denominator of all of them??? Really
groping there. But as Daniel Wolpert says the primary role of the
brain is to direct MOVEMENT).
Consciousness, it is important to remember, is an "itheatre" - i.e.
you don't just see and sense things, you see yourself seeing them -
you see "i" as well as the "theatre" - the spectator as well as the
stage - as you look at that monitor screen, you are also seeing and
sensing bits of yourself watching it - two ends of one theatre.
Literary and even cinematic culture tends naturally to think of
pictures and sensations as flat things in books or on screens, and
doesn't see the whole solid theatre of consciousness.
[Flat, AGI virtual worlds on monitors have a slight problem recreating
the real solid world of consciousness].
A;> Echolocation--just like the brain--isn't solved yet, so you cannot
claim
that it is unrelated to your definition of vision. Vision can
simulate "spatial" intelligence. Light use waves so it can
reconstruct a model. Similarly, sound use waves, so it can
reconstruct a model. The difference is just the type of wave. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_echolocation#Vision_and_hearing
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