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Researchers from Sussex University Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science have applied a modified version of Google's DeepDream algorithm to panoramic video:
The researchers used a modified version of Deep Dream to process a panoramic video of the university campus. Then they showed it to 12 volunteers, finding that the visual hallucinations were similar to those brought on by psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms.
The volunteers were asked questions like whether they felt a loss of control or a loss of their sense of self, and whether they saw patterns and colours. Their answers matched up closely with the results of a 2013 study [open, DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2063-13.2013] [DX] into the experience of taking psilocybin.
In a second experiment, 22 participants were asked whether they felt any sense of temporal distortion, or a warped sense of time. In this case the responses were similar to those recorded after watching control videos.
That would seem to suggest the researchers' machine can replicate some, but not all, the effects of being high on psychedelic drugs. However, only a few volunteers have been tested so far, and they were a different group to those quizzed on psilocybin back in 2013.
This is just the beginning for the technology – the system is very flexible and can be tweaked in all kinds of ways. In the future, participants could even get to adjust the parameters of the experience themselves.
With better hardware, the algorithms could be run in real time and applied to an augmented reality view instead of a pre-recorded panoramic video.
Also at Newsweek.
A Deep-Dream Virtual Reality Platform for Studying Altered Perceptual Phenomenology (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-16316-2) (DX)
Related: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Study Suggests Psilocybin "Resets" the Brains of Depressed People
(Score: 3, Touché) by ilsa on Monday November 27 2017, @05:07PM
VR hasn't even reached prime time yet, but we're already well on our way to inventing BTLs (see Shadowrun)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 27 2017, @05:21PM (6 children)
Puritans are always trying to take the high out of highs so that they can sell a daily pill. They absolutely cannot have the high. In fact, they refuse to use known remedies for opiate and alcohol addiction such as magic mushrooms, iboga, and weed because of how afraid they are that somebody might feel good without spending $75,000 on a sports car or $500,000 on a house.
They know opiate and alcohol addictions are real and problems. They know those things cause death. However, the only known cures also come with a high. That's ok, they say, the deaths are acceptable. The deaths are in line with our ideology. The high is not, so we are forced to conclude that there is no known cure yet. But let me keep tinkering with these things that actually work until I can isolate and remove the feelings of well-being.
Nobody well ever accept that perhaps the reason those natural things works is because it gives the patient a sense of well-being. Nope, we need to sterilize and amputate that feeling of well-being before we can call it medicine!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 27 2017, @05:33PM (3 children)
No one has ever overdosed on weed. You get too high to take another hit... self limiting dose = safer than anything the doctor can prescribe.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday November 27 2017, @06:48PM (1 child)
An infant died of cannibis overdose a week or two ago. It was in google news
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Monday November 27 2017, @07:33PM
http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/no-a-kid-hasnt-actually-died-of-the-first-ever-marijuana-overdose/ [iflscience.com]
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/11/first-ever-marijuana-overdose-death-lets-review-what-potential-link-means/ [arstechnica.com]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/11/17/the-truth-behind-the-first-marijuana-overdose-death/ [washingtonpost.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday November 27 2017, @10:08PM
If your dog eats your weed, take it to the vet [thedodo.com] to be sure that it hasn't eaten a fatal dose.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 27 2017, @05:36PM
I disagree with you on the consumer aspect.
True puritanical people would not like you to get good feelings out of buying a $75k sports car or half a million or more on a house -- they don't want you to feel good through material possessions or *any* experiences not permitted by what they believe is proper.
They do not care if you are spending $75k to replicate a high, or $75k on the actual source to maintain that high over time -- none of it is acceptable unless it's a behavior they do themselves, or worse, believe that others should be doing despite the actual activity being an inconvenience to leadership to actually have to do along with the little people.
Anyway, the pharmaceutical industry is against these natural highs and means of repair. I mean, it wasn't the distribution of opium poppy pods that caused all of those addictions -- it was a synthetic that drew profits. Unless they manage to get rid of the high on a synthetic (often, the highs are removed due to 'abuse potential', never mind legally addicting synthetic opiods that might not get you high but do get you hooked--and then look down upon those addicted as if it was a moral failure when it was really a marketing success)... well they can't have an OBVIOUS abuse potential on their hands.
Addiction is a moral failure as stated. providing sin products to get high is just not going to return on shareholder value consistently enough and also without clear risk (people will get high--no matter the moral failures), but keeping people addicted does keep the quarterly profit statements up.
(Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Monday November 27 2017, @06:01PM
If you go by Newsweek, IBT, and other headlines then this is absolutely about a high without a high. As for the researchers, not really. Here's 40% of the abstract:
It's just another fun day of isolating phenomenological properties at the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science.
LSD May Cure Some Addicts [scientificamerican.com]
DEA Accused of Obstructing Research on Marijuana Benefits [soylentnews.org]
DEA Announces Actions Related to Marijuana and Industrial Hemp [dea.gov]
Here’s Why the DEA Will Never Reschedule Cannabis [leafly.com]
DEA Welcomes Kratom to the Schedule I List Beginning September 30 [soylentnews.org]
Study: Legal Weed Far Better Than Drug War at Stopping Opioid Overdose Epidemic [soylentnews.org]
Ibogaine Could Cure Addiction Instantly [soylentnews.org]
Opioid Commission Drops the Ball, Demonizes Cannabis [soylentnews.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday November 27 2017, @10:11PM (1 child)
You've probably heard about experiments done in a previous millennium where people strapped on glasses for a week that inverted everything upside down. They would adapt to it. Then when the glasses were removed, they would have to re-adapt.
Would a similar thing happen wearing Hallucination VR googles?
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 28 2017, @04:26AM
I remember one of the subjects saying (in a movie) that the re-adapting phase, once inversion glasses were taken away, was pure hell. Imagine nothing on your head, and the world looks upside down for a couple of weeks.
Don't try these experiments at home kids... Yes, brains are "plastic", but that doesn't mean that a flip is quick to do or undo.