siverius: переводы

→Next, you'll want to integrate biofeedback with NMT.

→Other techniques

→One of the nicest things biofeedback can do is give you a decent night's sleep without drugs. You can fall asleep to a program of yourself falling asleep, or a written program that will take you all the way down into deep sleep and then turn itself off. You'll get used to the habit of a healthy sleep pattern after a while and your brain will be able to do it all by itself, quite the opposite of sleeping tablets. You can also use the system to boost certain areas of the brain by triggering the relevant optimal hormone cycles, for example, before an exam, before physical hard work, before sex, or when you need to relax.

→Any good sound/light system will have precise control of pulse rate (at least 0.20 to 50hz), plus control of light intensity and audio pitch. This is important because everyone is slightly different and you can fine-tune your system for your own personal optimal use.

→You should be able to plug straight in to your computer from the biofeedback units, which should plug straight into you. Building it all into one machine or making it wearable is a good idea especially if you want it to be mobile. The first interface machine I put together was (is!) housed in an old stereo tuner. It monitors GSR, MCG and EEG and sends the signals to the computer where the software deals with it according to which program I want to run. More recently I built a small, light mobile unit which I can use with the wearable, or connect to any PC with Internet access and enough processing power to do the business3

→A third thing you should be able to do is control various parameters of feedback during 'mental games' or 'tutorials'. These are great fun, and there's lots of software available, one example is a skiing game where you control your direction by altering your brainwave pattern. You can find programs for almost anything, controllable by biofeedback and/or neurofeedback, including ones that let you type2

→Another option you should have is that of writing programs for the enhancement of various states. Example: You take your EEG recording on a graph, let's say its beta rhythm. You plot a graph of the classic alpha rhythm and you get the computer to construct a sliding scale of graphs in-between. You feed the result to yourself slowly from where you are at now all the way to alpha rhythm. If you get the rate of increase sussed, your brain will actually follow the program and shift with it into alpha. In just the same way, if you record a drum beat at the same rate as your pulse and slowly speed it up, your pulse will rise with it to follow suit. If you're a musician, you could write a "symphony for the brain" that pulled you about all over the place, by finding which chords and which sounds shifted your brainwave pattern and where.

→You can hack the midbrain, specifically, so well with this technique that you can reproduce the effects of drugs without the drugs. You can use recorded sessions as triggers for emotions or memories of experiences; like, would you record your brainwave patterns on your wedding night?1

→This opens up several possibilities. You can record yourself having a particular experience, for example, then use the recording to help induce the same experience at any desired time. It is a 'memory', in a very real sense. It is a memory, which triggers other memories.

→Your biofeedback system should give you several options. If you are writing your own software, bear these in mind; they are important and necessary tools. You should have the option of recording all the data from your inputs, together or in any combination, and of replaying that data at any time, alone or together with current input. I'll explain that a bit more. You should be able to record as much as possible about your neuro/physiological state, and play that back to yourself either by itself or with the biofeedback from your current state.

→Explore how far you can change those factors and keep a written record of your progress.

→By changing your blood pressure (which you can already do) you can shift your brainwave pattern or push it in the direction of such a shift by setting up the circumstances conducive to one.

→A simple GSR machine will give you an LED display of a color spectrum, or a graph on your PC screen correlating with its readings of your GSR. The best units also use sound, as a rising or falling tone. The aim is to lower your blood pressure, as you relax and move in the right direction to achieve that, you're given feedback of your progress and a signal when you get it right. The 'game' is simply to get the lights to turn green or the tone to fall, or whatever. It's fun, easy, and you really get the hang of how your mind affects your body and vice versa. You recognize the changes as you start to make them happen. When you can do it easily, you reduce the machine's sensitivity and train yourself up. Next you can try the same technique with other forms of input; try wiring up to an EEG and deliberately changing your brainwave pattern; slowing it down, for a start. You'll notice how similar it seems to the technique that lowered your blood pressure...now try this wired to both GSR and EEG. You'll notice your blood pressure falls as your brainwave pattern slows down, and vice versa. Keep doing it. Until you can run up and down the brainwave-spectrum with the adeptness of a turbo lift, keep doing it. This is your mind, taking control of your brain.

→A good one to start with is the classic "BP control" biofeedback cycle using only skin-surface pressure electrodes (some people prefer a temperature sensor) and a GSR processor. It's gentle, easy to learn, and has no side effects apart from possibly inducing sleep if you needed it anyway.

→Practice with each individual kind of biofeedback on its own. Get the hang of how input is translated into various outputs. Arrange gear around you; you'll need to see screens, LED readouts and meters and read them with familiarity, so that you know what's going on.

→You should set the whole lot up as you intend to use it and make yourself a workspace. Spend at least half an hour being paranoid about the safety of your power supply, including the phone line, if it's connected to a modem, which is connected to...ultimately, your head. Right. Keep a good eye out for lightning storms and use an emergency cutoff system.

→You should have a source of 'mental games' or 'tutorials' for learning to use mind/computer interface. You should have a method of storing a lot of sessions in non-volatile memory. You need SP, Pressure and Contact electrodes of different kinds for each input. The system should be capable of using mains or battery power (excluding TMS). And you should have the capacity to play with "binaural beats".R35

→So, let's keep this simple. You're a machine. Live with it.

→You should be using multi-color light I/O that is controllable and reducible to red/green or monochrome. You should have good encoding/decoding processors for each different kind of input.

→But this is the outskirts of Cyborg City; this is wires stuck all over you and electrodes and sensors and things connecting you to computers and all that jazz. Where you get all those cool cyberpunk phrases drifting past from the stranger groups you wish you were either in or at least not so embarrassed to be in, like, "jack your head into the deck, dude." No problemo. Hasta la vista. Allrighty then.