Realizing Terence McKenna's Virtual Reality

[haeratic]

Hey Nexus,

I'm sure many of you have read Terence's take on virtual reality. If not, here's a basic summary, "it's possible to imagine a virtual reality that was driven by a speech operated synthesizer where the various parts of ordinary speech adjectives, modifiers, subjects and objects were interpreted by the cybernetic environment as topological manifolds of various shapes so that speech would then generate a visibly beheld topology and it's possible to imagine a future world where in setting up marriage contracts or in negotiating corporate takeovers, in areas where clear communication, clear expression of intentionality was very important, that people would actually go into the virtual reality to use the visible language because its capacity for conveying intent would be much greater than ordinary spoken language."

Speech synthesis has been around for a good minute. Greatest example of someone who uses speech synthesis is Stephen Hawking. As of recent though, speech synthesis has stepped up to a new level where neuroscientists can now implant electrodes into speech areas of the brain as seen in this video:

Combine this with the new technology of computer contact lenses where somehow the implanted speech brain electrodes could communicate to the electronic contact lenses through wi-fi and BAM, you've got Terence McKenna Virtual Reality. The contact lenses are supposed to be available by 2014 and the speech synthesizer brain electrodes are already being tested on patients.

Terence constantly connected this virtual reality to the psychedelic experience. Where by your thoughts of speech manifested into virtual objects, much like the effects of psychedelic visions. But the psychedelic experience offers way more in feeling and abstract thoughts regardless of what visuals manifest. So why would Terence connect the two, when they are seemingly completely different. This virtual reality psychedelic exp suggested, sounds more like a 2-bit replication that may hold negative consequences. Terence suggests in his ideas that this virtual reality is the next step for psychedelic practitioners and the public in general in terms of culture. I see this as being more of a tool for globalization and a detractor of reality through virtual homogenization, and most importantly a possible oppressive power. For me it seems this is one of Terence's most dangerous ideas. What implications does this have on our society? Could this technology turn oppressive when combined with other brain implants that might be suggestive? Is Terence suggesting the start of the first virtual matrix? Not like we already aren't in one, with using various digital technology from computers, phones, etc.

I'm worried to say the least, not excited at all.

What's everybody's thoughts on this?

 

[Mystic0]

To me, this describes our already current reality, sacred geometry and torodial universe theories already fit this quote. It's quite fascinating though

 

[dreamer042]

First off, thank you for the interesting and well thought out post. I'm recommending you for promotion based on this post, and since I'm a mod that means instant promotion. Take note people, this is how you get promoted in one post. I do however request that you write an introductory essay so we can get to know you better.

To address the subject at hand; I find it super fascinating! I've always been a fan of virtual reality, I knew the moment I put that headset on and stepped into another world back at that virtual reality arcade in the early 90's that I had found something very important with implications way beyond what my adolescent brain could possibly comprehend. I had a deja vu to that moment the first time I broke through on DMT, the similarity was undeniable; stepping out of physical reality into a bright and colorful technological world of imagination. So it's always been easy for me to see the connection Terence made between virtual reality and psychedelics based on my own experiences with them.

I understand your concerns about these technologies being used for nefarious ends and that is a very real possibility. Like any technology or tool this surely can be misused and abused, but it also has amazing potential to help people and to improve our quality of life. This has an unheard of number of far reaching implications many of which we can only dimly be aware of at this point. This is the kind of thing I've been dreaming of since I was a kid and I have to admit that despite its potential for misuse, I am extremely excited about the new possibilities this creates for us. This is a very big step into the manifestation of augmented reality and dare I say, making us more human than human.

All in all, great post! Great topic of discussion! I'll definitely be following this one closely. :thumb_up:

 

[Pandora]

Welcome to the Nexus. Fascinating post. Thanks for bringing this up haeratic. Congratulations on your instant promotion - that doesn't happen much around here. Personally, I'd really like to learn a bit more about you, since this is your very first post here. Do you think you might be able to take a little time and submit an Introductory Essay? I guess with instant promotion you don't have to, but I'd sure like to hear a bit more about YOU.

I have heard some of the McKenna talks about this. I loved how he talked about using this technology to really be able to say to someone, "Oh, now I SEE what you mean!" But, I do think it is important to keep in mind that he passed away in 2000. The 80's and 90's were filled with prognostications of various types, some of which came to pass and many of which are laughable in hindsight. Same with a lot of McKenna's material in my opinion.

Yes, indeed, here it comes, and in a form slightly different that McKenna imagined. He imagined kind of the next step where computers and drugs would be hard to differentiate. Where users could swallow a computer that would help them in a pill form and use intoxicating software to achieve altered states. Indeed, here it comes.

Yep, it can be used for good and for evil. To free the mind and to imprison and torture it. Funny how when everything changes somethings never ever do, eh? It's gonna take a much more fundamental change in what it means to be human to break out of these cycles in my opinion.

Nonetheless, we are blessed and cursed to live in extremely interesting times. Potentially revolutionary. Who knows? Not I and not Terence. I do know he would have LOVED and despaired at what the present has brought in the past 12 years. He would have delighted and cried. I miss him terribly. May he RIP.

 

[Guyomech]

I have so many thoughts on the subject that I won't even try to connect them all. Here's a random basketful:

> you may also recall Terrence talking about the "black contact lens project", where virtuality would be available without any external hardware. Sounds like we are very close to this reality.

> the point he was making about the audiovisual communication interface was really just about communicating better, about transcending the limitations of traditional language. This is indeed something I feel we need to do and are working towards very quickly.

> we don't have jet packs or Mars colonies; it turns out that the technology of our future is all about networking and communication. And this was never decided upon by any single ruling body or anything; it's simply what humans want and therefore what the market provides. Dirt farmers in Africa have cell phones and can make online transactions. Apparently we have a driving need to do this; and since we are an extension if Nature in general, I see this as an indication that Nature wants to grow big brains and network them together. Only a powerfully networked society could solve the problems implicit in existing in this reality.

> I find it easy to imagine a time in our lifetimes where, through implants or wearable transceivers, we are constantly participating in the network, thinking ideas into the pool of thought in realtime. Imagine the conversation we are having in this thread with all the limitations of space, time, hardware etc removed from the picture. Concise consensus conclusions, quickly.

> as an artist, I am extremely keen on trying out the hands- off virtual art tools of the near future. Wow. And imagine collaborative art made that way...

Baby just woke... More on this later.

 

[haeratic]

Thanks Dreamer. Definitely a faustian bargain here aka deal with the devil. What thou giveth, thou taketh away. Another quote from Terence which is quite ironic in light of his ideas for virtual reality technology:

"Technologies do not always increase peoples options! Sometimes they decrease peoples options. One may not want a car, with that sort of equipment, but one has no choice. The next point is, technology does not always solve important problems. We like to think that technological innovation will almost always lead to an enriched and enhanced life. But very often, technological progress does not progress it’s self to important problems, but rather to be worse. And yet we proceed anyway, in spite of the fact that in solving a trivial problem, we may be creating a greater problem than the problem we solve. For example, we now have in America the issue of weather or not we should spend billions of dollars for something called the super information highway. Well, if we ask our authorities on this, the same question I put to you, in short tale we get some curious answers! What is the problem to which this super information highway will be a solution? One of the answers you’ll get is ”well, we now have available only 60 television channels. With the super information highway we will have to have 500, maybe even a 1000”. Is this a problem that really needs a solution? We have to ask this question and several others, about technological change. Because technological change is almost always what i call a thousand year origin “it giveth, and it taketh away."

 

[Pandora]

LMAO - I love(d) that man! Basically he's saying, here it comes! 500 channels and NOTHING on. How right he was, LOL.

 

[universecannon]

yeah this is another one of the interesting ideas terence rolled around in his head quite a bit at one stage in his life

he talks machines in relation to the earth/biosphere/collective gaian intelligence in this talk iirc...i'm not sure if he brings up VR though:

i think its a really interesting area and could lead to a lot of things- new modalities for learning, pleasure, expression, language, art, etc.. I have to say though i'm always puzzled how the researchers involved never seem to mention (afaik) that we already can do a lot of this sort of thing, we just have trouble accessing and controlling it. we all know this since we've dreamed and have had deep psychedelic experiences, but the access can be choppy and isn't constant. i've experienced the visual language thing to certain degrees in psychedelic experiences in dreams, but imagine if it could be controlled. theres been increasing reports of people doing just that: Mushrooms - P. cyanescens - Erowid Exp - 'A True Hallucination'

But without even getting into psychedelics just look at dreams for example; we're so used to them that we don't really fully register the fact that we all spend nearly ONE THIRD of our entire lives in a convincingly real virtual reality behind our closed eye lids via nothing but the biotechnology we call- "without knowing what we mean" - the human imagination. If we could only harness our ability to dream (and especially lucid dream..and IME VERY psychedelic states readily manifest in them) then the possibilities are far beyond that of anything i can imagine VR technology dishing out anytime soon (however internet access behind closed eyes would be cool!..although very pale in comparison to the possibilities i'm implying..especially if it all does turn out to be non-local; in which case maybe the VR inn(t)erwebz would not even be necessary..it would just be a given)

So what i think is more interesting than VR, as its typically seen, is using machines and technology to harness the inherent VR and latent abilities within us. It could even go far beyond what i've just hinted at above. Look at Dr. Allan Snyders work inhibiting the left hemisphere (with transcranial magnetic stimulation) and/or stimulating the right which have led to savant-esque abilities in otherwise normal individuals. The direction VR is currently going may very well lead to some amazing opportunities for enhanced learning, inner exploration, art, etc, but what about the people who already have these superhuman abilities such as total memory recall, super speed reading with perfect memory, can experience and remember pi as a shmorgishbord of synesthesia, etc http://wastedatwork.com/beer/b1tKA.jpg

IMO there is evidence we all can access this sort of thing, if only we could figure out how. Just my 2 cents

In any case, good post OP!

 

[haeratic]

I'd also like to say that there is a clear and distinct difference between human progress and technological innovation. Over the past 200 years these two haven't necessarily been congruent in terms of what contemporary sociology studies have shown.

In terms of Terence's archaic revival, does this necessitate technology? On the one hand he seems to suggest this, and on the other hand he seems to damn it. Got to love him for his mixed opinions, but if he were alive today and seen where we are at now, which hand do you think he'd lean towards?

 

[universecannon]

LMAO - I love(d) that man! Basically he's saying, here it comes! 500 channels and NOTHING on. How right he was, LOL.

oh god i know just what you mean hahah. Whenever i visit my parents house...over a thousand channels and virtually NOTHING I'd ever want to watch :d

> I find it easy to imagine a time in our lifetimes where, through implants or wearable transceivers, we are constantly participating in the network, thinking ideas into the pool of thought in realtime. Imagine the conversation we are having in this thread with all the limitations of space, time, hardware etc removed from the picture. Concise consensus conclusions, quickly.

Well said. i can definitely see something along those lines happening in the relatively near future

 

[Pandora]

With this, I'd also like to say that there is a clear and distinct difference between human progress and technological innovation. Over the past 200 years these two are haven't been necessarily congruent in terms of what contemporary sociology studies have shown.

In terms of Terence's archaic revival, does this necessitate technology? On the one hand he seems to suggest this, and on the other hand he seems to damn it. Got to love him for his mixed opinions, but if he were alive today and seen where we are at now, which hand do you think he'd lean towards?

I suspect he would not look back to design the future, rather just to inform us of the cycles and possibilities. I believe he would have said something to the effect that the way out is through and technology will be essential to the future archaic revival.

If only he could have seen or predicted the EXTREME connectivity we enjoy today - I have friends and know what is happening around the world - they text me before the news tells me anything. People are having lives destroyed, are on the move, are in revolutions, but still posting on social media sites. I suspect he would have identified this phenomenon as essential to his "archaic revival."

 

[haeratic]

the point he was making about the audiovisual communication interface was really just about communicating better, about transcending the limitations of traditional language. This is indeed something I feel we need to do and are working towards very quickly.

we already can do a lot of this sort of thing, we just have trouble accessing and controlling it.

PRECISELY. There are many studies about aboriginal and indigenous peoples communicating by telepathy. As well as the obvious example of yogis working towards telepathy. These things seem to be inherent natural tools of our primitive past that we can tap into w/o the necessity of technology. In fact, I would go as far to say that technological innovation can actually hurt or impede our ability to tap into these abilities (e.g. internet ADD vs meditation etc).

This ties into Terence's archaic revival as well b/c he obviously wanted to go back to this archaic telepathic communication. But remember, Terence went to the ashrams and he didn't like it ! He was more about using psychedelics for this kind of communication (which in his writing took a futurist stand point that we should use computer technology to provide this capability to the general public), a technologically induced archaic revival. But what are the implications of replicating this primitive skill of telepathy through computer technology on a wide scale? For as much as Terence was rooting this on, he also seemed very cautious about it.

Personally, I believe we are going through a natural archaic revival as we've seen the rise in popularity of down to earth lifestyles. At the same time we're heading towards a commercial technologically induced archaic revival of communication just like Terence predicted. BUT, if we are physically going towards this archaic revival already, why would we want these technologies that need resource refinement and destruction of the earth, as well as slave labor to manufacture, then to top it off having the possibility of oppressive abuse.

So what i think is more interesting than VR, as its typically seen, is using machines and technology to harness the inherent VR and latent abilities within us.

 

[haeratic]

Another interesting point to bring up is that Terence published these ideas (Archaic Revival) in 1992.

That means that more than likely Terence was writing this stuff during his fall out with mushrooms. As we now know from his brother Dennis, Terence went through a mental breakdown with mushrooms in 1989 and never used them again. 1989-91 was also the american savings and loan financial crisis.

1992 seems to be the perfect year to publish ideas about the technologically induced archaic revival, as it was right in the middle of a HUGE spike in personal computing as well as the start of the digital economy, brought in by Bill Clinton and Alan Greenspan to save us from the previous financial crisis of 89. The entire country was in a state of irrational exuberance thinking that the computers would save us all but realized that this was not the case when it eventually created the financial bubbles at the turn of the century (same time Terence passed).

 

[haeratic]

LMAO - I love(d) that man! Basically he's saying, here it comes! 500 channels and NOTHING on. How right he was, LOL.

oh god i know just what you mean hahah. Whenever i visit my parents house...over a thousand channels and virtually NOTHING I'd ever want to watch :d

Hey guys, I believe when Terence said the 500 to thousand channels of the "super information highway" he was referring to the internet. The information highway is a phrase often applied to the internet. I don't believe Terence was referring to our current digital cable TV that provides 500 channels :shock:.

 

[haeratic]

Another thing to think about is if we are to implant electrodes in our brains or have computer contact lenses and other cybernetic parts etc. What about the microwave radiation? How do we get rid of this problem, especially if we have these electronics attached or implanted? Surely our biology will be taxed for these transhuman abilities.

Once again, the faustian bargain, the devils deal. What thou giveth, thou taketh away.

 

[Pandora]

LOL - I would be more than happy to change my post to 500 channels/websites and nothing on/worth reading, .

 

[Guyomech]

Of course most of it isn't worth a damn. It's catering to the low denominator... Food for the lizard brain.

I'm not into conspiracy. I mean, of course there are powerful people who group together and try to steer history. But I think they are really just agents of a larger supply and demand process. So the quality of mass media won't be one iota greater than current market demand calls for. This is not conspiracy... It's more like physics, really.

I think that the most nefarious thing that's likely to happen in the TMK virtual reality scenario isn't so much about being force fed propaganda... Although naturally that happens, it's just a part of the background noise here in the industrialized world. I think the biggest danger is of it being too immersive and utterly addictive, making life outside the virtuality seem unthinkably slow and empty. Imagine how colorful and attention-saturating such an environment could potentially be, then factor in all that universal networking connectivity on top of that. So in such a future, you would absolutely have people checking themselves in voluntarily to Matrix-style life support banks so they could stay in the virtuality indefinitely. And in such a virtual wild west, think of the deep and dangerous hells that a person could descend into, unchecked.

More likely, rather than VR we'll end up in an AR (augmented reality) situation, where the outside world is still visible, but overlaid by a rich tapestry of graphic enhancements, annotations, directions or instructions, statistics, plus any of an unthinkably huge suite of personally chosen apps that are effecting how each person perceives and responds to their environment. You could have an app that makes everyone naked, or alien skeletons with chicken heads, whatever. The buildings around you could be dressed up in sci if fabulous, but with the essential doors and other features where they are in real life so you could still move around in your environment. You can already get glasses (Google glasses being one example) that project some minor enhancements over your field of view. The AR world is still small and sparsely populated, but once people start spending enough time there, it will quickly fill out with detail.

And like all tools, it will be both good and bad. But I don't think it's unnatural. Nothing unnatural is physically possible, IMO. It may be an inevitable step in our learning to transcend the need for machines. We just need to make sure that we, as individuals, contribute to the positive side of what can be done with these tools.

 

[haeratic]

But it is unnatural... These machines don't grow on trees. It is artificial, made by humans, specifically corporations.

I don't think this is a conspiracy, but the values and design of these machines are not democratic. Of course there is open source software, but it's the hardware that really matters. So in effect, the only positive contributions we can make for these tools is inside the matrix of the tool itself.

Edit: AHhhh, I see where you're getting at with conspiracy Guyomech. b/c I wrote the blurb about terence publishing archaic revival in 1992 in comparison to the digital economy and spike in personal computing? I guess I was just bringing up an interesting point about the atmosphere of our country when archaic revival was written and published. No conspiracy, just interesting to think about. you know, if there could have been some influence from the climate of computing.

 

[haeratic]

LOL - I would be more than happy to change my post to 500 channels/websites and nothing on/worth reading, .

:lol: especially this thread, right!

 

[nen888]

haertic, hi, wrote:

I'm sure many of you have read Terence's take on virtual reality. If not, here's a basic summary, "it's possible to imagine a virtual reality that was driven by a speech operated synthesizer where the various parts of ordinary speech adjectives, modifiers, subjects and objects were interpreted by the cybernetic environment as topological manifolds of various shapes so that speech would then generate a visibly beheld topology...

..this to me sounds similar to advanced use of tools like DMT..shamanic 'technology' as he called it..