The Sensory Deception Read Online Free PDF

hangover, no lingering weakness.”
    “Okay,” Gloria said, “but it was so real. That was more than a 3-D movie from the front row…”
    Farley took another sip of wine, a small sip because the wine buzz was getting a little too comfortable. He swallowed and cleared his throat. Farley was aware of the modulation of his speaking voice. He had learned it from his grandfather, who had used it to address the people who worked for him. Farley would begin with a deep, booming voice to grab your attention, and then his volume would diminish so you had to strain to hear. When you have to work at something, you put a higher value on it. The result was that people paid attention when Farley spoke.
    He began: “We have five senses. Most animals also have five senses. Of course they’re not the same—nocturnal animals see some infrared, birds have better resolution, a dog’s sense of smell is four hundred times more sensitive—but the essential equipment is pretty standard. The big difference is that most animals only have enough brainpower to process the data into immediate conclusions built from algorithms that are hardwired by instinct.In other words, most animals cannot deconstruct their sensory data and speculate on cause-effect relationships. Without the ability to reflect and a language with which to formulate thoughts, their entire lives consist of immediate interaction with the world. People, on the other hand, process and ponder.” He stopped and regarded Gloria. She was paying close attention, but he couldn’t tell if she was following.
    He resumed at full volume, “Now, here’s the trick. We call it sensory saturation.”
    “Have you trademarked that?”
    “Umm, no,” Farley said.
    She raised her eyebrows. “There’s an action item.”
    He nodded and continued. “The reason you so fully believed you were a bear for those two hours is that we overwhelmed your senses—saturated them. We believe there is a threshold beyond which the brain is so overwhelmed by sensory data that it switches gears. It shifts from reflective thinking to the primitive type of immediate process-and-response that animals experience. It worked, too—didn’t it?”
    Gloria furrowed her brow and nodded slowly.
    “You experienced the life of a polar bear until you saw the guns, got a blast of adrenaline, and came out of it. Imagine what it would be like with total immersion.”
    “You did all this just with video and sound?”
    Farley stood and offered a hand to Gloria. “Let’s go back to the lab. I’ll show you.”

    As Gloria approached the room with the big-screen TV and plush chair, feelings of passion and trepidation mixed in her belly. She had been a venture capital scout since getting her MBAfour years before and had seen plenty of new technologies. This was different. She felt an intimate relationship with this strange product.
    She took a sip of wine and stepped in. Farley stood next to her as though spotting her on exercise equipment. She drank the rest of her wine. Farley took the glass and set it aside. She said, “I’m going to need a refill.”
    Farley motioned to Ringo, who turned on an overhead light.
    “This is our virtual experience lab.” He ran his hand along a wall, encouraging her to do the same. It was covered in a black screen-like fabric. The tension of the cloth varied over the hollow spaces of speaker cones, air-exchange gratings, and solid plywood. “There are transducers in the walls, the ceiling, even embedded in the chair. Transducers are devices that convert electrical signals into outputs that stimulate different senses. Speakers transduce electricity into sound. Video monitors transduce electricity into light and images. Heaters and coolers transduce temperature. We have scent transducers that convert an array of chemicals into smells. We’ve submitted patents for every transducer that’s not an off-the-shelf part.”
    He guided her back to the reclining chair. As he pushed the huge