Hi Dakotah, YOu said <snip> There is an argument that those who have been blind for the duration of their lives have a different perspective on blindness than do those who have gotten used to being blind.
I agree, and this is also being proven of late in the sense of how much neuro-plasticity plays a part in restructuring the visual cortex to process audio and other sensory input. Supposedly people who lose their sight before the age of 15 (approximately) tend to show signal rerouting so that their visual cortex takes on the role of processing their other senses whereas those who lose their sight after show a more common picture of processing in their visual cortex. I.E. it still tends to process visual data even though their is none. So this seems likely to me that the person's psyche could be effected as well. To bring this back to the topic of autism, there have also been studies on similarities between blind people and autistics not in the sense of brain similarities but in the sense of manifestations of social skills. This obviously opens up a whole can of worms which I won't go into here, :) but suffice it to say that I personally agree that there seem to be differences in the demeanors of late vs early blinded peeps. (at least in my limited non-expert experience) :) I personally feel there are actually more categories than just these two supposed personality types but again, that's for another discussion list. Does this get back to the age-old question of whether some blind people are just better at hearing than their sighted counterparts? Personally, I saw no difference in my hearing from before I lost my sight as compared to after. So I think this is kind of a myth, however, as I mention above, there is research being done here now that may prove this to be true in some people's cases. Could some of us just be wired better for audio games? lol! On the subject of virtual reality via transcranial magnetic stimulation, as you allude to, I think great care needs to be taken in how this kind of technology is implemented and how this research is undertaken. Given that the article I posted is almost a decade old I think this actually bodes well on our restraint. To go further on this, I actually think we almost have innate safe-guards in place. People as a whole may not be willing to support this kind of research as it involves something very invasive. We don't want our brains being messed with! lol! :) So I think people for the most part will be the filter for this kind of technology so that it will come about in the time table that it should. I.E. When it finally happens, ideally we'd be a bit further along in our abilities to live in harmony with it. Perhaps we may not even want it when it is perfected. I wasn't aware of the cases you mention about people being catheterized but it doesn't surprise me. ;) It takes all types to make a world! lol! It feels even now, in this community that many people are severely addicted to games. So I agree with you that making this even more compelling could be very destructive for humanity. However, this also brings up a philosophical question of what we're living for and what we want our lives to be. How do we want this life to manifest? I.E. If a game or simulation can effectively become our life and seem as real as our physical life, and even be generated for us in the exact same way we experience our physical lives, (via our perceptions at the brain level) then what is our life? Is this not just a simulation of sorts already? Huge philosophical and religious questions could come up because of this sort of technology. I for one find it absolutely fascinating but as you say, it could basically destroy the fabric of our existence if we're not careful. It seems like the most amazing discoveries always can. :) Anyway, thanks for the very interesting and thought-provoking note. It will be interesting to see what the first gaming applications will be for transcranial magnetic stim technologies… Have an awesome day! Smiles, Cara :) --- View my Online Portfolio at: http://www.onemodelplace.com/CaraQuinn Follow me on Twitter! https://twitter.com/ModelCara --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
