In the now classic science fiction film "The Matrix" the main character Neo is a professional master of all martial arts in a few seconds after all these skills are "loaded" directly into his brain.
Scientists and futurologists have expressed similar ideas of instant learning for decades, but even at the time of the appearance on the screens of "The Matrix" they still remained fantastic. But today, after almost 20 years have passed, scientists believe that loading knowledge into the nervous system is quite real.
Researchers at HRL Laboratories, Calif., Say they've found a way to enhance people's learning abilities, albeit on a much smaller scale so far than in the Hollywood blockbuster. Work in this direction has been going on since the early 2000s, during which neuroscientists at HRL Laboratories have been trying to target and personalize brain stimulation in the most effective way.
Researchers at HRL Laboratories claim to have developed a simulator that is capable of transmitting information directly to the human brain and teaching new skills in a very short period of time. While the California laboratory is far enough from Hollywood, HRL Laboratories has already taken the first and most important steps in the right direction: it has developed a method for transmitting information to the brain and the advanced software necessary for this. Gradually becoming more complex and improving on this basis, learning in the "Matrix" style will become a reality in a few decades.
Dr. Matthew Phillips, the head of the study, explains the principle itself, first pointing out that the technique is actually about 4,000 years old: ancient written records of the Egyptians have information about the use of electricity-generating fish for anesthesia or to stimulate certain areas of the body. However, in the XXI century, stimulation occurs, of course, in a completely different way.
HRL Laboratories has carefully recorded and cataloged all electrical signals sent outside by the nervous system of a well trained pilot while operating the flight simulator. Then, these recorded signals, being passed through a special software, were fed to the electrodes surrounding the heads of people just starting to learn piloting skills. As a result, the learning rate increased by 33%, and the skills acquired in this way were retained longer than in the control group. A detailed study report was published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
Dr. Matthew Phillips says that at this stage, trainees in a new way still need a program of conventional learning - stimulation of the brain only facilitates it, providing a synergy of cognitive and motor characteristics of the nervous system. However, in the future, HRL Laboratories plans to move to training volunteers in one or another discipline, as well as learning a particular language.
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As always happens in such cases, scientific adepts engaged in advanced research tell the newspaper the truth, only the truth and only the truth. But not the whole truth.
And the whole truth is that the topic of loading memories was fantasized not only during the filming of The Matrix, but also during the filming of another, more early film, Total Recall. In its plot, a certain powerful corporation REKALL uploaded all memories to people in general, completely changing their personality:
Suppose that not only HRL Laboratories but also some other organizations with a large budget by many orders of magnitude are engaged in the topic of direct loading of information into the brain. Let's also assume that they have been doing this not since 2000, but since 1934, when the mass production of televisions began in Germany and television started working. What success could these people have achieved in uploading “memories”?
The darkest and most terrifying conspiracy theory suggests that the success of the secret developers of false memories was total and we actually now live in the Matrix, built by the Third Reich and controlled by the Das Windows system.
Theories closer to reality admit that even if the success of the world behind the scenes in uploading false memories is simply comparable to the success of HRL Laboratories - by not applying electrodes to the head, but using cellular networks, the world behind the scenes can somehow change the memories in people's heads. One of the obvious effects of this substitution is the so-called Mandela effect.
So, as you can imagine, learning languages in a dream from HRL Laboratories is, of course, very wonderful and good in all respects, but you and I live in a rather dangerous time in a world that is rather frightening in its realities. In a world in which we cannot confidently assert that we remember what happened only yesterday.