David Eagleman: Can we create new senses for humans?
David Eagleman: ¿Podemos crear nuevos sentidos para los humanos?
David Eagleman decodes the mysteries of the tangled web of neurons and electricity that make our minds tick -- and also make us human. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
a very large cosmos,
very good at understanding reality
the world at that scale.
el mundo en esa escala.
very thin slice of perception
rebanada muy delgada de percepción
that slice of reality that we call home,
rebanada de realidad que llamamos hogar,
of the action that's going on.
la acción que ocurre.
radiation that bounces off objects
electromagnética que rebota en los objetos
in the back of our eyes.
en la parte posterior de los ojos.
all the waves out there.
las ondas que existen.
of what's out there.
parte de lo que existe.
passing through your body right now
nuestros cuerpos ahora mismo
the proper biological receptors
biológicos adecuados
of cell phone conversations
de teléfonos móviles
are inherently unseeable.
sean inherentemente invisibles.
in their reality,
in their view of the world,
in the dashboards of our cars
en los tableros de nuestros autos
in the radio frequency range,
rango de frecuencias de radio,
to pick up on the X-ray range.
para capturar rayos X.
any of those by yourself,
with the proper sensors.
con los sensores adecuados.
our experience of reality
experiencia de la realidad
the common sense notion
del sentido común
and our fingertips
the objective reality that's out there.
objetiva circundante.
just a little bit of the world.
solo una parte del mundo.
on different parts of reality.
diferentes partes de la realidad.
and deaf world of the tick,
y sordo de la garrapata,
are temperature and butyric acid;
la temperatura y el ácido butírico;
by electrical fields;
coloreado por campos eléctricos;
out of air compression waves.
ondas de aire comprimido.
that they can pick up on,
que pueden captar,
una palabra para esto.
for the surrounding world.
denominar el mundo circundante.
objective reality out there,
realidad objetiva circundante,
what we can sense.
lo que podemos percibir.
is we accept reality
200 million scent receptors in it,
200 millones de receptores olfativos,
that attract and trap scent molecules,
y atrapan moléculas de olor,
so you can take big nosefuls of air.
para inspirar grandes cantidades de aire.
with a revelation.
and you think,
dueño humano y pensamos:
impoverished nose of a human?
nariz humana tan empobrecida?
a feeble little noseful of air?
y débiles cantidades de aire?
a cat 100 yards away,
un gato a 90 m de distancia,
this very spot six hours ago?"
aquí mismo hace 6 horas?"
that world of smell,
ese mundo del olfato,
into our umwelt.
do we have to be stuck there?
¿debemos quedar atrapados en él?
in the way that technology
ver de qué forma la tecnología
the experience of being human.
la experiencia de ser humano.
our technology to our biology,
tecnología y biología
of people walking around
que andan por allí
and artificial vision.
a microphone and you digitize the signal,
se digitaliza la señal
directly into the inner ear.
directamente en el oído interno.
you take a camera
se coloca una cámara
and then you plug an electrode grid
se enchufa una tira de electrodos
these technologies wouldn't work.
estas tecnologías no funcionarían.
speak the language of Silicon Valley,
la lengua de Silicon Valley, y
as our natural biological sense organs.
nuestros órganos sensoriales biológicos,
how to use the signals just fine.
para usar las señales.
or seeing any of this.
and darkness inside your skull.
en silencio y oscuridad en el cráneo.
electrochemical signals
and nothing more.
at taking in these signals
para captar estas señales
and assigning meaning,
and puts together a story
elabora una historia
and it doesn't care,
ni le importa
it just figures out what to do with it.
sabe descifrar qué hacer con ella.
kind of machine.
computing device,
de computación de propósito general,
what it's going to do with it,
sorts of input channels.
model of evolution,
too technical here,
that all these sensors
que todos estos sensores
and our ears and our fingertips,
como la vista, el oído y el tacto,
plug-and-play devices:
enchufables:
with the data that comes in.
qué hacer con los datos que recibe.
the animal kingdom,
with which to detect infrared,
calor para detectar infrarrojos,
electroreceptors,
tiene electrorreceptores,
tiene este apéndice
a 3D model of the world,
un modelo 3D del mundo,
so they can orient
para orientarse
nature doesn't have to continually
no tiene que rediseñar
of brain operation established,
de la operación del cerebro,
is designing new peripherals.
diseñar nuevos periféricos.
really special or fundamental
especial o fundamental
come to the table with.
sensory substitution.
"sustitución sensorial".
information into the brain
de entrada en el cerebro
what to do with it.
published in the journal Nature in 1969.
se publicó en la revista Nature en 1969.
silla dentada modificada,
in a modified dental chair,
in front of the camera,
with a grid of solenoids.
mediante una red de solenoides.
in front of the camera,
frente a la cámara,
got pretty good
tienen buen desempeño
what was in front of the camera
in the small of their back.
la parte baja de la espalda.
modern incarnations of this.
modernas de esto.
right in front of you
un canal de video del frente
and get closer and farther,
se acercan y se alejan,
start getting pretty good
ciegos empiezan a entender bastante bien
through the ears:
electrotáctil en la frente,
on the forehead,
you're feeling it on your forehead.
esté frente a la entrada de video,
using it for much else.
no se usa para mucho más.
is called the brainport,
se llama "brainport"
that sits on your tongue,
ubicada en la lengua,
these little electrotactile signals,
en pequeñas señales electrotáctiles,
that they can throw a ball into a basket,
pueden arrojar pelotas en una cesta,
complex obstacle courses.
de obstáculos complejos.
coursing around in your brain.
que recorren el cerebro.
where the signals come from.
dónde vienen las señales.
is sensory substitution for the deaf,
es la "sustitución sensorial" en sordos,
in my lab, Scott Novich,
en mi laboratorio, Scott Novich,
sound from the world gets converted
el sonido del mundo
can understand what is being said.
pudiera entender lo que se dice.
and ubiquity of portable computing,
y ubicuidad de la informática portátil,
would run on cell phones and tablets,
en teléfonos móviles y tabletas,
to make this a wearable,
under your clothing.
debajo de la ropa.
is getting captured by the tablet,
capta mi sonido,
that's covered in vibratory motors,
cubierto con motores vibratorios,
to a pattern of vibration on the vest.
de vibración en el chaleco.
and I'm wearing the vest right now.
y ahora mismo tengo uno de esos chalecos.
(Aplausos)
into dynamic patterns of vibration.
dinámicos de vibración.
with deaf people now,
con personas sordas,
just a little bit of time,
they can start understanding
a sentir, a entender
He has a master's degree.
Tiene un título de maestría.
of his umwelt that's unavailable to him.
que está fuera de su alcance.
for four days, two hours a day,
chaleco durante 4 días, 2 horas al día,
Jonathan feels it on the vest,
Jonathan la siente en el chaleco,
this complicated pattern of vibrations
complicado patrón de vibraciones
of what's being said.
because the patterns are too complicated,
porque los patrones son muy complicados,
the pattern that allows it to figure out
el patrón que le permite averiguar
after wearing this for about three months,
de usar el chaleco,
perceptual experience of hearing
de percepción de escuchar
passes a finger over braille,
que pasa un dedo sobre texto en braille,
without any conscious intervention at all.
intervención consciente en absoluto.
to be a game-changer,
de un cambio importante,
for deafness is a cochlear implant,
a la sordera es un implante coclear,
than a cochlear implant,
que un implante coclear,
even for the poorest countries.
incluso a los países más pobres.
by our results with sensory substitution,
con la "sustitución sensorial",
is sensory addition.
en la "adición sensorial".
to add a completely new kind of sense,
como esta para añadir un nuevo sentido,
real-time data from the Internet
datos en tiempo real de Internet
perceptual experience?
experiencia perceptiva directa?
we're doing in the lab.
hacemos en el laboratorio.
streaming feed from the Net of data
datos de la Red
and he has to make a choice.
y tiene que hacer una elección.
and he gets feedback after one second.
respuesta después de un segundo.
what all the patterns mean,
significado de los patrones,
at figuring out which button to press.
de qué botón presionar.
whether he did the right thing or not.
una buena decisión o no.
can we expand the human umvelt
expandir el umwelt humano
after several weeks,
of the economic movements of the planet.
los movimientos económicos del planeta.
to see how well this goes.
para ver cómo resulta.
we've been automatically scraping Twitter
filtramos automáticamente en Twitter
an automated sentiment analysis,
de sentimientos
words or negative words or neutral?
positivas, negativas o neutras?
to the aggregate emotion
because now I can know
porque ahora puedo saber
and how much you're loving this.
y cuánto les gusta esto a Uds.
(Aplausos)
than a human can normally have.
que un ser humano normal puede tener.
el umwelt de los pilotos.
nine different measures
9 métricas diferentes
and orientation and heading,
orientación y rumbo,
this pilot's ability to fly it.
his skin up there, far away.
a lo lejos.
a modern cockpit full of gauges
cabina moderna llena de manómetros
to read the whole thing, you feel it.
todo eso, sentirlo.
between accessing big data
a grandes volúmenes de datos
to the possibilities
las posibilidades no tienen fin
being able to feel
of the International Space Station,
Espacial Internacional,
the invisible states of your own health,
estados invisibles de su propia salud,
and the state of your microbiome,
y el estado del microbioma,
en el infrarrojo o ultravioleta.
or seeing in infrared or ultraviolet.
As we move into the future,
avanzamos hacia el futuro,
to choose our own peripheral devices.
propios dispositivos periféricos.
for Mother Nature's sensory gifts
sensoriales de la Madre Naturaleza
she's given us the tools that we need
nos ha dado las herramientas necesarias
and experience your universe?
a experimentar su universo?
DE: Yeah.
DE: Sí.
I felt applause on the vest.
que siento aplausos en el chaleco.
(Risas)
Twitter's going mad.
that secures its funding forevermore,
asegure su financiación para siempre,
have to write to NIH anymore.
que escribirle al NIH.
skeptical for a minute,
escéptico por un minuto,
but isn't most of the evidence so far
¿hay evidencia hasta el momento
that sensory addition works?
blind person can see through their tongue
pueda ver por la lengua
ready to process,
todavía allí, lista para procesar,
We actually have no idea
En realidad no tenemos ni idea
kind of data the brain can take in.
los datos que puede asimilar el cerebro.
is that it's extraordinarily flexible.
es que es extraordinariamente flexible.
lo que llamamos corteza visual
what we used to call their visual cortex
by touch, by hearing, by vocabulary.
el oído, el vocabulario.
the cortex is kind of a one-trick pony.
of computations on things.
cálculos sobre las cosas.
at things like braille, for example,
cosas como el braille, por ejemplo,
through bumps on their fingers.
mediante golpes en los dedos.
to think there's a theoretical limit
que existe un límte teórico,
you're going to be deluged.
estarás abrumado.
possible applications for this.
posibles para esto.
excited about, the direction it might go?
más te entusiasma? ¿Qué se podría lograr?
a lot of applications here.
de aplicaciones aquí.
the things I started mentioning
del mañana, algo empecé a mencionar
they spend a lot of their time
que pasan mucho tiempo
just get what's going on,
ver que está pasando,
is multidimensional data.
datos multidimensionales.
are good at detecting blobs and edges,
son buenos detectando manchas y bordes,
at what our world has become,
el mundo actual,
with lots and lots of data.
infinidad de datos.
with our attentional systems.
con nuestros sistemas de atención.
feeling the state of something,
sentir el estado de algo,
of your body as you're standing around.
cuerpo sobre la marcha.
feeling the state of a factory,
sentir el estado de una fábrica,
it'll go right away.
va en lo inmediato.
mind-blowing talk. Thank you very much.
alucinante. Muchas gracias.
(Applause)
(Aplausos)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
David Eagleman - NeuroscientistDavid Eagleman decodes the mysteries of the tangled web of neurons and electricity that make our minds tick -- and also make us human.
Why you should listen
As the creator of stacks of compelling research, books and now the 6-part PBS series The Brain, grey matter expert David Eagleman is our most visible evangelist for neuroscience. He has helmed ground-breaking studies on time perception, brain plasticity and neurolaw. His latest research explores technology that bypasses sensory impairment -- such as a smartphone-controlled vest that translates sound into patterns of vibration for the deaf.
Eagleman is also the author of Sum, an internationally bestselling short story collection speculating on life, death and what it means to be human. Translated into 28 languages, Sum has been turned into two separate operas at the Sydney Opera House and the Royal Opera House in London.
David Eagleman | Speaker | TED.com