
A new technology, virtual embodiment, challenges our understanding of who we are - ehudla
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/02/are-we-already-living-in-virtual-reality
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mitchellshow
As someone with chronic sleep paralysis
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis)),
it is astonishing how frequently I read about pseudo-paranormal or "OBE"
experiences and go, yeah, that's just sleep paralysis man.

Although, the causes of sleep paralysis still aren't well understood, so maybe
it's a VR bug after all ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

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evincarofautumn
Same, I’ve had sleep paralysis for as long as I can remember. A lot of stories
of alien abduction, out-of-body experiences, mystical visitations by
nightmares and demons, &c. strike me as plainly SP. Learning that it’s a
normal sleep disorder made the experience less frightening and confusing, and
kept me from falling into the trap of thinking of it as supernatural. Now if I
have an episode I just relax and wait for it to be over. I haven’t had one in
a long while, though, by avoiding triggers such as sleep deprivation, stress,
alcohol, and sleeping on my back. Unfortunately, that also means I have to
avoid lucid dreams, which are closely related—and yet as far as I’ve seen,
this connection is rarely talked about except by the lucid dreaming community
(also often rather mystical and full of woo).

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Tiki
I've had SP a few times, more often on the couch than in bed for some reason.
A friend that has these experiences very often gave me his pro tip for dealing
with them, as soon as you realize you're having SP, simply use all of your
will to bend your index finger, the second you get your finger to bend, you
snap out of it. Worked for me the few times I've had to use it, and it gives
you something to focus on at the same time.

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evincarofautumn
Sure, different things work better for different people, and that method is
certainly worth a try, as I’ve heard it works for many people with SP.
Fighting it tends to just make it worse for me—usually giving me a false
awakening after which I often wake up paralysed again, sometimes two or three
times. Sometimes it does help to try to regain control of my breathing—a big
part of the anxiety for me is being “stuck on auto”. Could be related to sleep
apnea, dunno.

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simplify
This is a fascinating and frightening technology. Used altruistically, this
can heal a lot of people and prejudices. But how long until people use it to
reinforce their own prejudices, simulate dehumanizing scenarios, or force it
on others as sci-fi-level brainwashing form of propaganda?

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taneq
I'm working my way through Being No One at the moment. It's very interesting,
and (to me, anyway) sounds like he's on the right track with his 'transparent
self-model' understanding of consciousness.

Interestingly a lot of robotics seems to work the same way - the robot has a
model of itself and the world around it, and when it "looks at the world" it's
actually looking at that model.

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state_less
It's also worth reflecting on your model of reality and color. RF wavelengths
vary along a single dimension, the wavelength. But we perceive red, green and
blue. Sometimes we don't perceive the wavelength if it's outside our visual
range, it never is mapped into the model, unless we lift it into visual range
with sensors (IR) or dig into it through the analytical mind.

~~~
taneq
It's actually quite scary if you think too much about it - what we 'see' and
'hear' and 'feel' as our nice neat comprehensible rectilinear 3D world with
directional audio and consistent textures and shapes etc. is nothing like
what's "really" there, there's just a 2-way mapping between our model and
"reality". All that's really there is an invisible hot soupy sea of quarks
fizzing around at ludicrous speed.

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psyc
There is a certain sense in which one has never actually interacted with
anything other than one's own brain. It's not the _only_ sense of things, but
it's one.

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pensativo
This reminds me of the time when I lost my sense of self for a moment, that
suddenly the world was just kind of happening and I had no precedent over the
cars passing, everything being quite equal. I guess it was a bit of ego-death
without any drugs or meditation.

Also interesting that the author mentioned Emptiness. I couldn't help but be
reminded of Zen throughout.

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white-flame
It looks like we can finally simulate the experience of this classic:
[http://pbfcomics.com/comics/freaking_vortex/](http://pbfcomics.com/comics/freaking_vortex/)

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bookofjoe
Finally, the truth of a fridge magnet I've had since last century makes itself
apparent: I'M NOT MYSELF TODAY — MAYBE I'M YOU

