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Comment by breckinloggins | Hacker News Reader

Hacking the senses is a side interest of mine. Some thoughts and questions:

- Do people who get these magnetic implants actually develop different "qualia" along with their new perceptions, or do they just add different interpretations to existing qualia?

- With respect to this specific device, does the buzzing change intensity proportional to the field, or is it an "on/off" thing?

- My understanding of nerves like touch receptors is that they activate in response to a stimulus, then send an electrical response to the brain. It sucks that you have to directly implant these little magnets in your fingers to get the actual stimulation. Is there anyway to wear the magnets on or outside your skin (say, embedded in a glove) and still get the nerve stimulation? I'm thinking of something like magnetic induction or some other resonance effect between some target and the nerves.

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You do get a different "qualia". The "northpaw" has been around for a few years, it's a set of pager-buzzers that always buzz on the north side of your leg. http://sensebridge.net/projects/northpaw/ Users say they stop feeling the vibrations pretty quickly and they just "know" which way is north. http://www.quinnnorton.com/said/?tag=northpaw

I wonder what happens when one stops wearing the Northpaw. Do they lose the 'sense' of North or does it persist (even for a little)?

But does that really equate to different "qualia" or is it more like the cognitive "shorthand" involved in the experience of driving a vehicle? Is there a difference?

Meh, bloody semantics will get you every time.

No I think it's real. Body image is pretty plastic.

While I don't have magnetic implants, I have been wearing a magnetic ring the last few months. Much less intense, but something that is easily reversible. Finding fields has been interesting and when I do run across them I do stop in my tracks and move around finding the intensity/size of the field. Guess I could say it is like if you are blind and feeling a ball in the air. After just a few swipes through it and your mind can picture where the field is strong enough to "touch" and typically where the center is. Now with a ring I feel _way_ less than implants or other solutions and no doubt miss many fields, but it is still cool, fun, and simple (no batteries, surgery, etc).

It also has perks such as picking up small screws I drop, turning on/off my ipad/macbook/blackberry with just a swipe of my hand and dangling my keys if I need to hold something else in my hand.

What ring do you wear/which have you tried?

I hope it's not Alex Chiu's immortality rings.. ;)

> Do people who get these magnetic implants actually develop different "qualia" along with their new perceptions, or do they just add different interpretations to existing qualia?

I'm not sure what the right answer is with regards to magnetic implants, but some people who have used the haptic compass mentioned in another comment have reported developing a seemingly innate "sixth sense" of direction. Presumably that might apply to a wide range of augmented sensory apparatus.

> Hacking the senses is a side interest of mine.

This TED talk is fascinating [0]. Our brain is really a fantastic adaptative machine.

http://www.ted.com/talks/neil_harbisson_i_listen_to_color.ht...

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