[emsy]

As soon as you can stimulate tactile impressions it's over. You can put on your VR Headset and be in a completely different world. Eventually the interface for eyes and ears will improve, but tactility would be a huge step towards being in a completely virtual world.

[ZitchDog]

I think at that point you could also stimulate visual/audio cortex as well - no headset needed!

[mrkstu]

It's going to take a long time to match the inbound bandwidth of the optic nerves. Lots of specialized cells involved. [0]

I supposed we could just jack in directly, though I really don't want surgery latching onto my optic nerve.

[0] https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9633-calculating-the-....

[tim333]

VR headsets have spent many years being not terribly good. I imagine the first tactile impressions will be similar.

[nozzlegear]

Semi related tangent incoming: I’m reminded of a book I read last year named Semiosis by Sue Burke.

Tiny spoiler warning I guess though not really, it’s just background world building that was used as motivation for side character’s growth. In the book, there was a Hitler-esque villain who existed long before the characters were born. The villain killed many billions of people. But through cloning, the societies of Earth punish this villain for their entire life by feeding them torturous scenarios through their brain implants. These were scenarios like being chased and eaten by a tiger, running naked through a frozen tundra, execution, etc.

The clone thought it was entirely real because it was all in their brain implant, even though they were safe in a jail cell. And as an extra Black Mirror-y twist, anyone in that society could tune in with their own implant to watch the clone being tortured.

I’m not really trying to cast doom and gloom on this brain implant tech, I think it’s neat. I was just reminded of the book I read when you mentioned simulating tactile impressions and virtual worlds. Pleasant simulations would be great, but even “benignly” scary ones like a virtual haunted house in your brain could be terrifying. (As someone who hates haunted houses.)