Dr. Michael Kilgard

Kids would share, had this great experience on a video game or a great video they saw.

And I would just point out that wasn't an experience you actually had.

That was an experience you watched online or something else, or that was a video.

And we just kept emphasizing that there's something different about real experiences.

And for me, that's about the statistics.

That's about the pattern, the natural world.

Your work in the visual system, there's spatial frequencies, there's distributions, there's peripheral vision in the auditory system, there's reverberations, there's all these things that you can remove if you want to and simplify the world down.

But we evolved in an environment where there were risks, there were opportunities, there were ways for us to explore our smell, our touch, our taste, and they were all integrated together when they all get separated.

and the touch doesn't have anything to do with the sound, and the sound doesn't have anything to do with the sight or the smell, there's a potential for them all to sort of drift off on their own and not be integrated in a way that I think is most helpful.

So for me, it was just, is it real?

Would my grandparents recognize this as a good way to spend a day?

And if it wasn't, I'd at least take some time to think about whether or not there might be some negative consequences of that artificial environment.

Yeah.

So I didn't like video games.

My daughter did not.

It did not become a significant problem, but it was certainly an interesting agility.

Still, I grew up playing video games as well.

One joystick, one button.

Now it's much more complicated and elaborate.

And I appreciate the beauty of it.