Can we create new senses for humans? | David Eagleman

Translator: Aviaja Josenius Reviewer: Anders Finn Jørgensen

We are built out of very small stuff,

Vi er lavet af meget små byggesten

and we are embedded in a very large cosmos,

og vi er indlejret i et meget stort kosmos

and the fact is that we are not very good at understanding reality

og faktisk er vi er ikke gode til at forstå virkeligheden

at either of those scales,

ud fra disse to niveauer

and that's because our brains

og det er fordi vores hjerner

haven't evolved to understand the world at that scale.

ikke har udviklet sig til at forstå verden på disse niveauer.

Instead, we're trapped on this very thin slice of perception

Istedet er vi fanget på en meget tynd skive af opfattelse

right in the middle.

lige i midten.

But it gets strange, because even at that slice of reality that we call home,

Men det mærkelige er, at selv på denne skive af virkelighed som vi kender

we're not seeing most of the action that's going on.

ser vi ikke det meste af det som foregår.

So take the colors of our world.

Tag f.eks. farverne i vores verden.

This is light waves, electromagnetic radiation that bounces off objects

De er lysbølger, elektromagnetisk stråling som tilbagekastes fra objekter

and it hits specialized receptors in the back of our eyes.

og som rammer special-receptorer bagerst i vore øjne.

But we're not seeing all the waves out there.

Men vi ser ikke alle bølgerne der er derude.

In fact, what we see

Faktisk opfanger vi

is less than a 10 trillionth of what's out there.

mindre end en 10 trilliondel af hvad der findes derude.

So you have radio waves and microwaves

Så du har radiobølger, mikrobølger

and X-rays and gamma rays passing through your body right now

røntgenstråler og gammastråler flyvende gennem din krop lige nu

and you're completely unaware of it,

og du er slet ikke klar over det

because you don't come with the proper biological receptors

fordi du blev ikke født med de biologiske receptorer

for picking it up.

som kan opfange dem.

There are thousands of cell phone conversations

Der er tusindvis af mobiltelefonsamtaler

passing through you right now,

der fyger gennem dig lige nu

and you're utterly blind to it.

og du kan slet ikke mærke dem.

Now, it's not that these things are inherently unseeable.

Det er ikke fordi at disse stråler af sagens natur er umærkbare.

Snakes include some infrared in their reality,

Slangers verden er til dels præget af infrarødt lys

and honeybees include ultraviolet in their view of the world,

og honningbiers verden inkluderer ultraviolet lys

and of course we build machines in the dashboards of our cars

og på instrumentbrættet i vore biler har vi bygget maskiner

to pick up on signals in the radio frequency range,

der kan opfange signaler fra radiofrekvens-området

and we built machines in hospitals to pick up on the X-ray range.

og på hospitaler har vi maskiner der kan opfange røntgenstråler.

But you can't sense any of those by yourself,

Men du kan ikke mærke nogen af disse af dig selv

at least not yet,

ihvertfald ikke endnu

because you don't come equipped with the proper sensors.

fordi du er ikke udstyret med de rigtige sensorer.

Now, what this means is that our experience of reality

Hvad dette betyder er, at vores oplevelse af virkeligheden

is constrained by our biology,

er afgrænset af vores biologi

and that goes against the common sense notion

og det går imod den gængse opfattelse

that our eyes and our ears and our fingertips

at vore øjne, ører og fingerspidser

are just picking up the objective reality that's out there.

kun opfanger den objektive virkelighed der er.

Instead, our brains are sampling just a little bit of the world.

Istedet opfanger vore hjerner kun en meget lille del af verden.

Now, across the animal kingdom,

Overalt i dyreriget er der

different animals pick up on different parts of reality.

forskellige dyr som opfanger forskellige dele af virkeligheden.

So in the blind and deaf world of the tick,

I en tæges blinde og døve verden

the important signals are temperature and butyric acid;

er de vigtige signaler temperatur og smørsyre

in the world of the black ghost knifefish,

hos en spøgelses-knivfisk

its sensory world is lavishly colored by electrical fields;

er verden overdådigt præget af elektriske impulser

and for the echolocating bat,

og for den ekko-lokaliserende flagermus

its reality is constructed out of air compression waves.

er verden konstrueret af luft-trykbølger.

That's the slice of their ecosystem that they can pick up on,

Disse dyr opfanger dét stykke af deres økosystem

and we have a word for this in science.

og videnskaben har et ord for dette.

It's called the umwelt,

Det kaldes for umwelt,

which is the German word for the surrounding world.

som er det tyske ord for den omgivende verden.

Now, presumably, every animal assumes

Formentlig antager ethvert dyr

that its umwelt is the entire objective reality out there,

at dets umwelt udgør hele den objektive virkelighed der findes derude

because why would you ever stop to imagine

fordi hvorfor ville man nogensinde forestille sig

that there's something beyond what we can sense.

at der findes noget udover hvad man kan sanse.

Instead, what we all do is we accept reality

Istedet, hvad vi alle gør er at acceptere virkeligheden

as it's presented to us.

som den bliver præsenteret for os.

Let's do a consciousness-raiser on this.

Lad os lave et bevidstheds-løft omkring dette.

Imagine that you are a bloodhound dog.

Forestil dig, at du er en blodhund.

Your whole world is about smelling.

Hele din verden handler om lugt.

You've got a long snout that has 200 million scent receptors in it,

Du har en lang snude, indbygget med 200 mio. lugt-receptorer

and you have wet nostrils that attract and trap scent molecules,

du har våde næsebor som tiltrækker og opfanger lugtmolekyler

and your nostrils even have slits so you can take big nosefuls of air.

og dine næsebor har endda slidser, så du kan indånde ekstra meget luft.

Everything is about smell for you.

Alt handler om lugt for dig.

So one day, you stop in your tracks with a revelation.

Så en dag bliver du ramt af en åbenbaring.

You look at your human owner and you think,

Du kigger på din menneskelige ejer, og tænker:

"What is it like to have the pitiful, impoverished nose of a human?

"Hvordan er det at have den ynkelige, forarmede menneskelige næse?

(Laughter)

(Latter)

What is it like when you take a feeble little noseful of air?

Hvordan er det at indånde en svag lille næsefuld af luft?

How can you not know that there's a cat 100 yards away,

Hvordan kan du ikke vide, at der er en kat 100 meter borte

or that your neighbor was on this very spot six hours ago?"

eller at din nabo stod lige præcis her for seks timer siden?"

(Laughter)

(Latter)

So because we're humans,

Så fordi vi er mennesker

we've never experienced that world of smell,

har vi aldrig oplevet den verden af lugt

so we don't miss it,

så vi savner den ikke

because we are firmly settled into our umwelt.

for vi er fast indgroet i vores egen umwelt.

But the question is, do we have to be stuck there?

Men spørgsmålet er, behøver vi at blive der?

So as a neuroscientist, I'm interested in the way that technology

Som neurolog er jeg interesseret i måden vores teknologi

might expand our umwelt,

kan udvide vores umwelt

and how that's going to change the experience of being human.

og hvordan den kan forandre den menneskelige oplevelse.

So we already know that we can marry our technology to our biology,

Vi ved allerede, at vi kan sammenføje teknologien med vor biologi

because there are hundreds of thousands of people walking around

for der er hundrede-tusindvis af mennesker, der lever

with artificial hearing and artificial vision.

med kunstig hørelse og kunstig vision.

So the way this works is, you take a microphone and you digitize the signal,

Måden det fungerer på, er at man tager en mikrofon og digitaliserer signalet

and you put an electrode strip directly into the inner ear.

og man putter en elektrode strimmel direkte ind i det inderste øre.

Or, with the retinal implant, you take a camera

Med retina implantatet tager man et kamera

and you digitize the signal, and then you plug an electrode grid

digitaliserer signalet, og putter et elektrode gitter

directly into the optic nerve.

direkte ind i den optiske nerve.

And as recently as 15 years ago,

Så nyligt som for 15 år siden

there were a lot of scientists who thought these technologies wouldn't work.

var der mange videnskabsfolk som ikke troede at disse teknologier virkede.

Why? It's because these technologies speak the language of Silicon Valley,

Hvorfor? Fordi de hører hjemme i Silicon Valley

and it's not exactly the same dialect as our natural biological sense organs.

og derfor er de ikke særlig kompatible med vor naturlige biologiske sanseorganer.

But the fact is that it works;

Men faktum er at de virker

the brain figures out how to use the signals just fine.

hjernen finder ud af hvordan disse signaler virker.

Now, how do we understand that?

Hvordan skal det forstås?

Well, here's the big secret:

Her er den store hemmelighed:

Your brain is not hearing or seeing any of this.

Din hjerne hverken hører eller ser noget som helst af alt dette.

Your brain is locked in a vault of silence and darkness inside your skull.

Din hjerne er indesluttet i en hvælving af stilhed og mørke i dit kranie.

All it ever sees are electrochemical signals

Alt, den nogensinde ser er elektrokemiske signaler

that come in along different data cables,

som kommer ind ad forskellige datakabler

and this is all it has to work with, and nothing more.

og det er alt som den nogensinde har at arbejde med.

Now, amazingly,

Så utroligt nok

the brain is really good at taking in these signals

er hjernen rigtig god til at fange disse signaler,

and extracting patterns and assigning meaning,

udvinde mønstre og tildele dem mening

so that it takes this inner cosmos and puts together a story

den tager dit indre kosmos og laver en historie

of this, your subjective world.

af dette, din subjektive verden.

But here's the key point:

Her er nøglen:

Your brain doesn't know, and it doesn't care,

Din hjerne ved ikke - og er ligeglad med -

where it gets the data from.

hvor disse data kommer fra.

Whatever information comes in, it just figures out what to do with it.

Ligemeget hvilke data kommer ind, finder den ud af hvad den skal med dem.

And this is a very efficient kind of machine.

Hjernen er en meget effektiv maskine.

It's essentially a general purpose computing device,

Den er egentlig en computerenhed til al slags generelle formål

and it just takes in everything

og den indtager alt

and figures out what it's going to do with it,

og finder ud af hvad den skal gøre med al data

and that, I think, frees up Mother Nature

og det frigør Moder Natur

to tinker around with different sorts of input channels.

til at eksperimentere med forskellige slags indgangskanaler.

So I call this the P.H. model of evolution,

Jeg kalder denne evolutionsmodel for K.H.

and I don't want to get too technical here,

og jeg vil ikke være for teknisk her

but P.H. stands for Potato Head,

men K.H. står for Kartoffel Hoved

and I use this name to emphasize that all these sensors

og dette navn bruges til at understrege at alle disse sensorer

that we know and love, like our eyes and our ears and our fingertips,

som vi kender og elsker, øjne, ører og fingerspidser

these are merely peripheral plug-and-play devices:

egentlig kun er perifere plug-and-play enheder

You stick them in, and you're good to go.

Man putter dem ind og så er man klar.

The brain figures out what to do with the data that comes in.

Hjernen finder ud af hvad den skal med alle data der indkommer.

And when you look across the animal kingdom,

Og når man kigger over hele dyreriget

you find lots of peripheral devices.

finder man mange perifere enheder.

So snakes have heat pits with which to detect infrared,

Slanger har varme-gruber, med hvilke de opfanger infrarødt lys

and the ghost knifefish has electroreceptors,

spøgelses-knivfisken har elektroreceptorer

and the star-nosed mole has this appendage

stjernenæse-muldvarpen har en næse

with 22 fingers on it

udstyret med 22 fingre

with which it feels around and constructs a 3D model of the world,

med hvilke den mærker og konstruerer en 3D model af verden

and many birds have magnetite so they can orient

mange fugle har indbygget magnetit, så de kan orientere sig

to the magnetic field of the planet.

til planetens magnetiske felt.

So what this means is that nature doesn't have to continually

Hvad dette betyder er, at naturen behøver ikke konstant

redesign the brain.

at ombygge hjernen.

Instead, with the principles of brain operation established,

Istedet, nu da de principielle hjernefunktioner er afklaret,

all nature has to worry about is designing new peripherals.

behøver naturen kun at bygge nye perifere enheder.

Okay. So what this means is this:

Så hvad dét betyder er dette:

The lesson that surfaces

Lektien, som vi har at lære

is that there's nothing really special or fundamental

er, at der er intet rigtig specielt eller fundamentalt

about the biology that we come to the table with.

omkring biologien som vi har idag.

It's just what we have inherited

Den er kun, hvad vi har arvet

from a complex road of evolution.

efter en kompleks rejse af evolution.

But it's not what we have to stick with,

Men vi behøver ikke kun at holde os til den

and our best proof of principle of this

og vor bedste bevis omkring det

comes from what's called sensory substitution.

kommer fra, hvad kaldes sensorisk substitution.

And that refers to feeding information into the brain

Begrebet referer til at give input til hjernen

via unusual sensory channels,

ad usædvanlige sensoriske kanaler

and the brain just figures out what to do with it.

hvor hjernen blot finder ud af, hvad den skal.

Now, that might sound speculative,

Det lyder måske spekulativt

but the first paper demonstrating this was published in the journal Nature in 1969.

men den første afhandling om det blev udgivet i Nature i 1969.

So a scientist named Paul Bach-y-Rita

En videnskabsmand ved navn Paul Bach-y-Rita

put blind people in a modified dental chair,

satte blinde mennesker i en modificeret tandlægestol

and he set up a video feed,

opsatte et videokamera

and he put something in front of the camera,

og når et objekt blev sat foran kameraet

and then you would feel that

kunne personen i stolen mærke objektet

poked into your back with a grid of solenoids.

puffe sig i ryggen via et gitter af magnetventiler.

So if you wiggle a coffee cup in front of the camera,

Hvis du bevæger en kaffekop foran kameraet

you're feeling that in your back,

kan du mærke den i ryggen

and amazingly, blind people got pretty good

og utroligt nok blev blinde mennesker ret gode

at being able to determine what was in front of the camera

til at fastslå hvad der var foran kameraet

just by feeling it in the small of their back.

kun ved at mærke objektet i lænden.

Now, there have been many modern incarnations of this.

Der er flere moderne inkarnationer af dette forsøg.

The sonic glasses take a video feed right in front of you

Soniske briller optager en videofilm lige foran dig

and turn that into a sonic landscape,

laver den om til et sonisk landskab

so as things move around, and get closer and farther,

så når ting kommer nærmere eller fjerner sig

it sounds like "Bzz, bzz, bzz."

lyder det sådan "Bzz, bzz, bzz."

It sounds like a cacophony,

Det lyder som en kakofoni

but after several weeks, blind people start getting pretty good

men efter flere uger bliver blinde mennesker ret gode

at understanding what's in front of them

til at forstå hvad der er foran dem

just based on what they're hearing.

kun baseret på deres hørelse.

And it doesn't have to be through the ears:

Det behøver ikke at foregå via ørerne

this system uses an electrotactile grid on the forehead,

systemet bruger et elektrotaktilsk gitter på panden

so whatever's in front of the video feed, you're feeling it on your forehead.

hvad der er foran kameraet mærkes på panden.

Why the forehead? Because you're not using it for much else.

Hvorfor panden? For du bruger den ikke til noget.

The most modern incarnation is called the brainport,

Den mest moderne inkarnation kaldes hjerneporten,

and this is a little electrogrid that sits on your tongue,

et lille elektrodegitter på tungen

and the video feed gets turned into these little electrotactile signals,

hvor filmen ændres til små elektrotaktilske signaler.

and blind people get so good at using this that they can throw a ball into a basket,

Blinde mennesker bliver så gode til at bruge det at de kan kaste en bold i mål

or they can navigate complex obstacle courses.

eller kan navigere gennem indviklede forhindringsbaner.

They can come to see through their tongue.

De kan komme til at se gennem deres tunge.

Now, that sounds completely insane, right?

Det lyder ret vanvittigt, ikke?

But remember, all vision ever is

Husk, at vision kun er

is electrochemical signals coursing around in your brain.

elektrokemiske signaler, der flyver rundt i din hjerne.

Your brain doesn't know where the signals come from.

Din hjerne ved ikke hvorfra signalerne kommer.

It just figures out what to do with them.

Den finder blot ud af, hvad den skal med dem.

So my interest in my lab is sensory substitution for the deaf,

Hovedinteressen i mit laboratorie er sensorisk substitution for døve

and this is a project I've undertaken

hvilket er et projekt jeg er begyndt på

with a graduate student in my lab, Scott Novich,

med en kandidatstuderende i laboratoriet, Scott Novich

who is spearheading this for his thesis.

som banebryder for området med sin afhandling.

And here is what we wanted to do:

Her er, hvad vi ønsker at gøre:

we wanted to make it so that sound from the world gets converted

vi ønsker at gøre det muligt at konvertere lyd fra verden

in some way so that a deaf person can understand what is being said.

så den døve kan forstå, hvad der bliver sagt.

And we wanted to do this, given the power and ubiquity of portable computing,

Igennem de allestedsnærværende computere ville vi

we wanted to make sure that this would run on cell phones and tablets,

udvikle teknologi til mobiltelefoner og -tavler

and also we wanted to make this a wearable,

samt at sikre at man kunne have den på sig altid,

something that you could wear under your clothing.

at gøre den bærbar under tøjet.

So here's the concept.

Her er idéen.

So as I'm speaking, my sound is getting captured by the tablet,

Talen bliver optaget af en tavle

and then it's getting mapped onto a vest that's covered in vibratory motors,

og bliver kortlagt på en vest, dækket med vibrerende motorer

just like the motors in your cell phone.

præcis som motorerne i din mobiltelefon.

So as I'm speaking,

Så mens jeg taler,

the sound is getting translated to a pattern of vibration on the vest.

bliver lyden omdannet til vibrationer på vesten.

Now, this is not just conceptual:

Det er ikke teori: tavlen sender Bluetooth

this tablet is transmitting Bluetooth, and I'm wearing the vest right now.

og jeg er iført vesten.

So as I'm speaking -- (Applause) --

Mens jeg taler -- (Bifald) --

the sound is getting translated into dynamic patterns of vibration.

bliver lyden omdannet til mønstre af vibrationer.

I'm feeling the sonic world around me.

Jeg mærker den soniske verden omkring mig.

So, we've been testing this with deaf people now,

Vi har testet det med døve mennesker nu

and it turns out that after just a little bit of time,

og det viser sig at efter kun et lille stykke tid

people can start feeling, they can start understanding

kan mennesker mærke og begynde at forstå

the language of the vest.

sproget, vesten taler.

So this is Jonathan. He's 37 years old. He has a master's degree.

Her er Jonathan, 37 år. Han er uddannet kandidat.

He was born profoundly deaf,

Han blev født helt døv

which means that there's a part of his umwelt that's unavailable to him.

så en del af hans umwelt er utilgængelig for ham.

So we had Jonathan train with the vest for four days, two hours a day,

Jonathan øvede med vesten to timer i fire dage

and here he is on the fifth day.

og her er han den femte dag.

Scott Novich: You.

Scott Novich: Du.

David Eagleman: So Scott says a word, Jonathan feels it on the vest,

David Eagleman: Scott siger et ord, Jonathan mærker det i vesten

and he writes it on the board.

og han skriver det på tavlen.

SN: Where. Where.

SN: Hvor. Hvor.

DE: Jonathan is able to translate this complicated pattern of vibrations

DE: Jonathan er i stand til at tolke de indviklede vibrationer

into an understanding of what's being said.

til at forstå hvad der bliver sagt.

SN: Touch. Touch.

SN: Kærtegn. Kærtegn.

DE: Now, he's not doing this --

DN: Nuvel, han gør dette ikke --

(Applause) --

(Bifald) --

Jonathan is not doing this consciously, because the patterns are too complicated,

Jonathan er ikke bevidst om hvad han gør, for mønstret er indviklet

but his brain is starting to unlock the pattern that allows it to figure out

men hans hjerne begynder at afkode mønstret, og begynder at forstå

what the data mean,

hvad informationen betyder

and our expectation is that, after wearing this for about three months,

og vor forventning er at efter han har båret vesten i tre måneder

he will have a direct perceptual experience of hearing

vil han opleve en direkte perceptuel hørelse

in the same way that when a blind person passes a finger over braille,

på samme måde som når en blind person læser med fingrene

the meaning comes directly off the page without any conscious intervention at all.

meningen mærkes på siden uden nogen bevidst indblanding.

Now, this technology has the potential to be a game-changer,

Denne teknologi har potentialet for at være bane-brydende

because the only other solution for deafness is a cochlear implant,

for den eneste løsning for døvhed er et cochlear implantat

and that requires an invasive surgery.

hvilket kræver en omfattende operation.

And this can be built for 40 times cheaper than a cochlear implant,

Og vesten kan fremstilles 40 gange billigere end et implantat

which opens up this technology globally, even for the poorest countries.

som giver globale muligheder, selv for de fattigste lande.

Now, we've been very encouraged by our results with sensory substitution,

Vi ser meget positive resultater med sensorisk substitution

but what we've been thinking a lot about is sensory addition.

men vi har tænkt meget på sensoriske tilføjelser.

How could we use a technology like this to add a completely new kind of sense,

Hvordan kan man bruge denne teknologi til at tilføje en helt ny slags sans

to expand the human umvelt?

til at ekspandere vor egen umwelt?

For example, could we feed real-time data from the Internet

F.eks. kan vi fodre real-time data fra nettet

directly into somebody's brain,

direkte ind i en persons hjerne

and can they develop a direct perceptual experience?

hvorefter de kan udvikle en direkte perceptuel oplevelse?

So here's an experiment we're doing in the lab.

Et eksperiment vi laver i laboratoriet:

A subject is feeling a real-time streaming feed from the Net of data

Personen føler real-time data fra nettet

for five seconds.

i vesten i fem sekunder.

Then, two buttons appear, and he has to make a choice.

Der dukker to knapper op,

He doesn't know what's going on.

og han må foretage et valg.

He makes a choice, and he gets feedback after one second.

Han vælger og får svar efter et sekund.

Now, here's the thing:

Det interessante er,

The subject has no idea what all the patterns mean,

han ved ikke hvad mønstrene betyder

but we're seeing if he gets better at figuring out which button to press.

men vi undersøger om han med tiden gør de rigtige valg.

He doesn't know that what we're feeding

Han ved ikke at mønstrene

is real-time data from the stock market,

er real-time data fra aktiemarkedet

and he's making buy and sell decisions.

og han vælger køb eller salg.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

And the feedback is telling him whether he did the right thing or not.

Feedback fortæller ham om han gjorde det rigtige valg.

And what we're seeing is, can we expand the human umvelt

Kan vi udvide den menneskelige umwelt

so that he comes to have, after several weeks,

så at han efter flere uger kan have

a direct perceptual experience of the economic movements of the planet.

en sanselig oplevelse af planetens økonomiske bevægelser.

So we'll report on that later to see how well this goes.

Vi lader høre fra os om hvordan det går.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

Here's another thing we're doing:

Her er et andet forsøg vi er i gang med:

During the talks this morning, we've been automatically scraping Twitter

Under foredragene i dag har vi undersøgt Twitter

for the TED2015 hashtag,

for TED2015 hashtag´et

and we've been doing an automated sentiment analysis,

og vi lavet en automatisk følelsesanalyse

which means, are people using positive words or negative words or neutral?

dvs. bruger folk positive, negative eller neutrale ord?

And while this has been going on,

Mens dette er sket

I have been feeling this,

har jeg mærket det

and so I am plugged in to the aggregate emotion

jeg er tilsluttet real-time følelserne

of thousands of people in real time,

hos tusindvis af mennesker

and that's a new kind of human experience, because now I can know

og det er en ny menneskelig oplevelse, for nu kan jeg mærke

how everyone's doing and how much you're loving this.

hvordan alle har det og hvor meget I kan lide det her.

(Laughter) (Applause)

(Latter) (Bifald)

It's a bigger experience than a human can normally have.

Det er en større oplevelse end et menneske normalt kan have.

We're also expanding the umvelt of pilots.

Vi udvider også umwelt for piloter.

So in this case, the vest is streaming nine different measures

Vesten streamer ni forskellige målinger

from this quadcopter,

fra en Quadrokopter

so pitch and yaw and roll and orientation and heading,

såsom stejlhed, orientering og retning

and that improves this pilot's ability to fly it.

hvilket forbedrer pilotens ydeevne.

It's essentially like he's extending his skin up there, far away.

Han mærker alt det på sin hud.

And that's just the beginning.

Og det er kun begyndelsen.

What we're envisioning is taking a modern cockpit full of gauges

Visionen er at tage et moderne cockpit

and instead of trying to read the whole thing, you feel it.

og mærke det istedet for at læse det.

We live in a world of information now,

Vi lever i informationstiden nu

and there is a difference between accessing big data

og der er forskel på at have adgang til massive data

and experiencing it.

og opleve dem.

So I think there's really no end to the possibilities

Der er utallige muligheder

on the horizon for human expansion.

i fremtiden for menneskelig ekspansion.

Just imagine an astronaut being able to feel

En astronaut kunne f.eks. mærke tilstanden

the overall health of the International Space Station,

hos den internationale rumstation

or, for that matter, having you feel the invisible states of your own health,

eller du kunne mærke din egen sundhedstilstand

like your blood sugar and the state of your microbiome,

såsom blodsukker og mikrobiologisk tilstand

or having 360-degree vision or seeing in infrared or ultraviolet.

eller kunne se 360 grader, eller infrarødt og ultraviolet.

So the key is this: As we move into the future,

Kernen af sagen er: I fremtiden

we're going to increasingly be able to choose our own peripheral devices.

vil vi være mere og mere i stand til at vælge perifere enheder.

We no longer have to wait for Mother Nature's sensory gifts

Det vil ikke være nødvendigt at vente på Moder Naturs sensoriske gaver

on her timescales,

efter hendes tidsskala

but instead, like any good parent, she's given us the tools that we need

istedet har hun, som enhver god forælder, givet os værktøjet til

to go out and define our own trajectory.

at gå ud og definere vores egen retning.

So the question now is,

Så spørgsmålet er nu

how do you want to go out and experience your universe?

hvordan vil du gå ud og opleve dit univers?

Thank you.

Tak.

(Applause)

(Bifald)

Chris Anderson: Can you feel it? DE: Yeah.

Chris Anderson: Kan du mærke det? DE: Ja.

Actually, this was the first time I felt applause on the vest.

Det er første bifald jeg mærker i vesten.

It's nice. It's like a massage. (Laughter)

Dejligt, som en massage. (Latter)

CA: Twitter's going crazy. Twitter's going mad.

CA: Twitter flipper helt ud.

So that stock market experiment.

Aktiemarkeds-eksperimentet

This could be the first experiment that secures its funding forevermore,

kan være første som evigt garanterer

right, if successful?

DE: Well, that's right, I wouldn't have to write to NIH anymore.

DE: Ja. Jeg ville ikke behøve at skrive NIH mere.

CA: Well look, just to be skeptical for a minute,

CA: For at være en smule skeptisk

I mean, this is amazing, but isn't most of the evidence so far

det er utroligt, men er beviserne hidtil ikke

that sensory substitution works,

at sensorisk substitution virker

not necessarily that sensory addition works?

men sensorisk udvidelse virker teoretisk set?

I mean, isn't it possible that the blind person can see through their tongue

Er det ikke muligt at den blinde person kan se gennem tungen

because the visual cortex is still there, ready to process,

fordi det visuelle cortex er der, klar til at processere

and that that is needed as part of it?

og det er fordi det virker?

DE: That's a great question. We actually have no idea

DE: Godt spørgsmål. Vi aner faktiskt ikke

what the theoretical limits are of what kind of data the brain can take in.

hvad for teoretiske grænser hjernen har til at modtage data.

The general story, though, is that it's extraordinarily flexible.

Men generelt er den dog særdeles fleksibel.

So when a person goes blind, what we used to call their visual cortex

Når vi blindes vil visuelle cortex

gets taken over by other things, by touch, by hearing, by vocabulary.

overtages af andre sanser: hørelse, ord, følesans.

So what that tells us is that the cortex is kind of a one-trick pony.

Cortex er derfor en slags et-trick pony.

It just runs certain kinds of computations on things.

Den har bestemte fremgangsmåder at processere ting på.

And when we look around at things like braille, for example,

Hvis man f.eks. tager blindskrift

people are getting information through bumps on their fingers.

får folk informationer gennem fingrene.

So I don't think we have any reason to think there's a theoretical limit

Så jeg tror ikke at vi har grund til at tænke på teoretiske grænser

that we know the edge of.

for hvad vi kan opnå.

CA: If this checks out, you're going to be deluged.

CA: Hvis dette holder, kommer I til at blive oversvømmet.

There are so many possible applications for this.

Der er så mange måder det kan anvendes på.

Are you ready for this? What are you most excited about, the direction it might go?

Er I klar til det? Hvad for en retning er I mest spændt på det kan tage?

DE: I mean, I think there's a lot of applications here.

DE: Der er mange anvendelser.

In terms of beyond sensory substitution, the things I started mentioning

F.eks. med rumstationen, i forhold til sensorisk substitution

about astronauts on the space station, they spend a lot of their time

bruger astronauter meget tid på at

monitoring things, and they could instead just get what's going on,

holde øje med status, når de bare kunne mærke den,

because what this is really good for is multidimensional data.

det er godt for multidimensionale data.

The key is this: Our visual systems are good at detecting blobs and edges,

Vor visualsystem kan se klatter og kanter

but they're really bad at what our world has become,

men kan ikke døje hvad hvor verden er idag,

which is screens with lots and lots of data.

som skærme og masser af data.

We have to crawl that with our attentional systems.

Vi må bevidst give dem vor opmærksomhed.

So this is a way of just feeling the state of something,

Her er en måde at mærke status af noget

just like the way you know the state of your body as you're standing around.

ligesom du mærker din krops status kun ved at være.

So I think heavy machinery, safety, feeling the state of a factory,

Først og fremmest vil det anvendes industrielt

of your equipment, that's one place it'll go right away.

til sikkerhed, at mærke status i værktøj osv.

CA: David Eagleman, that was one mind-blowing talk. Thank you very much.

CA: David Eagleman, et utroligt foredrag. Mange tak.

DE: Thank you, Chris. (Applause)

DE: Tak, Chris. (Bifald)