Cyber Heroes

In the early 1940s, Xiang Shan sat on the control panel in a laboratory in Peiping. Behind him were many experts including Chen Feng. Most of these researchers come from the field of cognitive science.

Opposite them was a man sitting on a chair. This man was about fifty years old, and he was wearing a goggle device on his head that looked a bit like a cosplay of a game character. But the device was essentially a decoration, used to make up for the uncanny valley effect caused by his oversized prosthetic eyes—the volunteer’s wife and children had complained many times that his prosthetic eyes were “scary.”

Early prosthetic eyes were slightly larger than natural human eyeballs.

The man's prosthetic eyes were closed, and the prosthetic ears had also adjusted their mode to block sound and could only "hear" externally input voice signals. Xiangshan picked up the microphone and said to the volunteer: "Mr. Pan, this is the last time. I repeat it for the last time. This experiment may cause you some physical discomfort, and it will last for a relatively long period of time." .If you can’t take it anymore, you can quit at any time.”

"I know, it's written in the contract." The man said nonchalantly.

This Mr. Pan is from Zhili (name of place), and he usually does massage. When his mother had a difficult delivery, his retina was damaged, causing congenital amblyopia. To him, the world has only a faint sense of light. In the sun, people or vehicles are "little black balls passing by". Last year, when he was worshiping his ancestors in his hometown, because of his poor eyesight, he did not leave in time from a large firecracker with thousands of sounds, causing severe hearing damage.

It was at this time that the company founded by Xiangshan developed the first generation of prosthetic eyes and ears and entered the trial stage. They recruited volunteers extensively and conducted a series of cognitive science studies. Mr. Pan heard the news and signed up immediately.

The company would provide volunteers with sensory prostheses, which were still hard to find at the time, for free. These volunteers need to cooperate in a series of experiments.

These artificial senses have already yielded reliable data in primates. However, scientists still want to explore the role of "perception" in the human cognitive process.

After Mr. Pan received a prosthetic eye before, he regained his "sight". At first, he could indeed see things, but he couldn't distinguish colors and didn't know what he was seeing. He couldn't even tell the difference between "far and near", and he even felt that the ground under the fifth-floor window was "touchable". He couldn't describe his vision.

The process of him mastering vision is similar to the process of a baby mastering vision, only faster - he only needs to connect the existing experience with visual signals.

Mr. Pan’s process of “mastering vision” also left behind quite important research materials.

Now, a year has passed since this person with low vision mastered vision. What he is currently participating in is the experiment of "auditory and visual displacement".

Early psychologists believed that if the outer terminals of the optic nerve were connected to the ears and the auditory nerves were connected to the eyes, humans would be able to hear lightning and see thunder. But in fact, human senses are much more complex than this, and visual processing and auditory processing are not implemented by the same neural activities.

"Vision" is not presented in the form of "video" in the brain. External light will arouse the excitement of cones and rods in the retina. This excitement translates into a sustained neural signal. The "vision" processed by the brain is actually a "signal" rather than an "image" itself. How this signal constitutes the world perceived by humans is what scholars are interested in.

In this experiment, the image received by Mr. Pan’s prosthetic eye, after being converted into nerve signals, will not be sent to the optic nerve, but will be forwarded to the router, which will then be connected to the prosthetic ear and enter the brain along the auditory nerve; After the stimulation received by the prosthetic ear is converted into nerve signals, it will also pass through the router and enter the optic nerve from the prosthetic eye.

However, when this experiment was conducted on monkeys, nearly two-thirds of the monkeys showed abnormal mania, so Xiangshan repeatedly warned.

After the routine procedure, Xiang Shan looked at Chen Feng.

Chen Feng nodded and said: "The experiment begins."

"It's now 9:45 a.m., the first test." Xiang Shan said as he hit the enter key.

The instructions written long ago started to run.

Mr. Pan's vision and hearing have been reversed.

Mr. Pan's first sentence was "It's so noisy."

And the second sentence is "Is this my voice?"

The third sentence is "Why is this so green? Ah-ah? Ah, ah! Oh! Ouch! Woo! Rub! This sound... is so cool!"

Then, Mr. Pan raised his hands to indicate that he wanted to stand up. Xiang Shan said: "Permission."

Mr. Pan didn't understand. He shouted: "What is this? A ball of flowers...Did you say something? Professor Xiang? Was it you who spoke just now?"

"Yes." Xiang Shan replied tentatively.

But Mr. Pan still didn't understand: "Damn, you know what this color means..."

As he spoke, he stood up impatiently.

Immediately afterwards, Mr. Pan’s expression changed drastically. He tried to move forward, but failed to control his body posture at all, and immediately fell to the ground, vomiting wildly.

Xiangshan immediately stopped the program. The emergency team on standby quickly followed up [this is mainly to prevent shock caused by photosensitive epilepsy, hysteria, and severe mood swings]

But in subsequent reports, the researchers came to an expected conclusion.

Mr. Pan's vomiting came from the confusion of his original sense of direction. He "heard" the light in front of him, and "saw" the sounds to his left and right. This triggered severe motion sickness after starting to move.

In subsequent experiments, the researchers chose to let Mr. Pan wear a covering helmet. This helmet has two prosthetic ears on the front and two prosthetic eyes on the side.

In the following series of experiments, Mr. Pan maintained this state. For about three days, he was completely immersed in "excitement." He will constantly try out various sounds of his own to see what the sound "looks like". Like a baby, he will constantly pick up small objects, throw them on the ground, and "see" and "listen" - he will interact with the world in various ways.

But after three days, boredom gradually set in. He became agitated. Because in this state, he cannot understand other people's languages. In his "eyes", other people's words were like a blur of light.

Mr. Pan was not the only person participating in the experiment. There are dozens of volunteers in the same batch. The vast majority of volunteers dropped out of the experiment at this stage because they could not bear the anxiety. But a few people persisted.

The scientists played music to the men, had them try to draw, and let them hum whatever songs they wanted.

According to reports, these volunteers would use "music" to describe their surroundings. To them, incandescent lights are like white noise. Sunlight, on the other hand, is similar to gurgling water. Natural scenery is like a complex piece of music in their eyes. When they describe food, they often use sounds such as "gurgling" or "slobbering" that can easily trigger the association of "hungry".

In addition, some people have even learned to "listen to others."

They fit perfectly into this strange pattern.

The human brain can be modified through experience and re-establish its own perceptual processing model.

Today’s “vision-free training” is based on these early experiments.

The construction of Saussure's realm allows some functions of the brain to have more advanced and complex connections. Internal skill masters can occupy the brain's neural resources for "visual processing" and use them for "hearing processing." This mechanism is similar to the "compensation" of "blind people's hearing is sharper", but it is more controllable.

"I actually have similar seeds, but I have never done the relevant exercises... Songdao and Jadel just went deeper. Concentrate a little... I can do it too." Xiangshan said to himself: "To see the thunder, Hear the flash…”

In his consciousness, the sound of "Storm" turned into a steady flow of black. In this ink...

——"See" it...

He saw more "feet", saw more "prosthetic body outlines", saw "engine vibrations"...

As conspicuous as a few flashes of light in the darkness.

Warriors who are proficient in this art in this era do not need to be so "deliberate". They no longer need to process the information visually. This can all be done "outside of consciousness".

But for Xiangshan, this is still progress.

"Countdown...three, two, one..."

With a "boom", another bomb exploded. The waves of sound rolled over like a chariot.

Almost at the same time, synchronized, they ran towards the mountain.

Under the cover of Yinlang, he instantly passed between the two rangers who were less than two meters apart.

——Can see...

Troops on the blockade mobilized quickly. Countless teams were moving crazily behind him. Bullets roared, suppressing everything.

But Xiangshan continued to go deeper.

He could hear another retrograde movement among the complex footsteps. That's Jardel.

The two of them moved forward silently in the sand and dust for about two hundred meters before coming together.

"Beautiful." Jardel said, "But brother, don't you understand this very well? Did you not understand 'no vision' before to test me?"

"No, I just want to learn about the newer theories." Xiang Shan shook his head.

Since the sand and dust were still mixed with quite a bit of iron oxide, they still couldn't use the radio. You can only speak so close.

"The nearby rangers heard the explosion and will gather together soon." Jadel said: "It is not easy to obtain information from them."

Xiang Shan said: "Let's walk another 200 meters. After 200 meters, we will go find those rangers!"