From BBC
ShareSave
ShareSave
I step into the booth with some trepidation. I am about to be subjected to strobe lighting while music plays – as part of a research project trying to understand what makes us truly human.
It’s an experience that brings to mind the test in the science fiction film Bladerunner, designed to distinguish humans from artificially created beings posing as humans.
Could I be a robot from the future and not know it? Would I pass the test?
The researchers assure me that this is not actually what this experiment is about. The device that they call the “Dreamachine”, after the public programme of the same name, is designed to study how the human brain generates our conscious experiences of the world.
As the strobing begins, and even though my eyes are closed, I see swirling two-dimensional geometric patterns. It’s like jumping into a kaleidoscope, with constantly shifting triangles, pentagons and octagons. The colours are vivid, intense and ever-changing: pinks, magentas and turquoise hues, glowing like neon lights.
The “Dreamachine” brings the brain’s inner activity to the surface with flashing lights, aiming to explore how our thought processes work.
The images I’m seeing are unique to my own inner world and unique to myself, according to the researchers. They believe these patterns can shed light on consciousness itself.
They hear me whisper: “It’s lovely, absolutely lovely. It’s like flying through my own mind!”
The “Dreamachine”, at Sussex University’s Centre for Consciousness Science, is just one of many
