Our main business is software development and content production that runs on VR hardware, and I've been reading books related to cognitive science, psychology, and brain science because I wanted to know more about the people who receive them. I'd like to share those reading memos in this post. The date written after the title is the date you read it.

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“How will VR change the brain? Psychology of virtual reality” September 2018

If you think VR is a new type of game or movie, you misunderstand the future. This media will completely change not only entertainment, but also the world of medicine, education, and sports, and lead our daily lives into a completely new future. Let's unravel that revolutionary change from a psychological point of view. The current VR boom began when Facebook acquired the small VR equipment manufacturer “Oculus,” which began with crowdfunding, for a huge amount of money. Just a few weeks before the takeover drama that surprised the world, Mark Zuckerberg visited the book's author's lab and experienced the latest VR himself. The shock Zuckerberg experienced there is packed into this book.
quoting：https://books.bunshun.jp/ud/book/num/9784163908847

One of the earliest books I read after becoming involved in VR development was “How does VR change the brain? It was “The Psychology of Virtual Reality.” VR = virtual reality, but why do humans treat images in head-mounted displays as reality? It was a book that made me realize that there is not only technology on the hardware side, but also science such as cognitive science and psychology on the human side.

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“Ghosts in the Brain” (by Ramachandran, V.S., Sandra Blakesley) January 2022

Using strange symptoms of various patients the author met, such as athletes who feel that they still have amputated limbs, patients who claim that parts of their own body belong to others, and adolescents who do not recognize their parents as themselves and insist that they are impostors, I think about the mysterious mechanism and function of the brain as clues. It is a masterpiece that gives interesting examples one after another with an easy-to-understand narrative, approaches humanity's biggest problem, and is the forerunner of the current brain boom. The popular work that opened up the cutting edge of modern science was finally made into a paperback.
quoting：https://www.kadokawa.co.jp/product/200805000103/

It was in Vientiane, Laos that I became deeply aware of Dr. Ramachandran's mirror therapy.”COPE Visitor Centre” It was time to visit. Mirror therapy is a method for relieving phantom pain caused by lost arms or legs due to illness or accident, and a mirror is used. It's about re-educating the brain by exercising the arm on the healthy side projected in the mirror and making it look as if that exercise is an arm on the side that has disappeared. COPE Visitor Center is a facility located on the grounds of the National Rehabilitation Center, and war bombs and prosthetic legs for those who lost their legs due to them are on display. There was an exhibition in that corner to experience Mirror Elapy. It seems that one person who invented this mirror therapy is said to be Mr. Ramachandran, who is a neuroscientist, and what introduces various phenomena caused by the brain other than phantom limb pain is “ghosts in the brain.”

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“The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” (by Oliver Sachs)” 2022/3

A musician who tries to wear his wife's head by mistaking it for a hat, a young mother who has lost her sense of body and is unable to maintain her posture... The patients with strange and mysterious symptoms that neurologist Dr. Sachs met live to the fullest as humans despite their disabilities. The long-awaited paperback is a masterpiece of 24 surprising and moving medical essays, which lovingly depicts the rich world of such patients.
quoting：https://www.hayakawa-online.co.jp/shop/g/g0000611556/

Oliver Sacks, the author of “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,” is a neurologist and writes about mental and nervous system injuries such as Tourette's disorder, autism, and Alzheimer's. This book is similar to “Ghosts in the Brain,” and it is a collection of various episodes. I knew that hospitals have departments such as psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine, but I learned that there are so many injuries and illnesses that these departments are in charge of.

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“The World Seen Through Living Things” (by Uxkül) 2022/6

Let's go out to a field full of flowers, where the sound of beetles and butterflies dance. The diversity of the “ring world” created by living things through their unique senses and actions. This book explores the effects of animals' senses to perception and behavior, and takes you on a journey to know the world image of living things. It is a scientific classic that is still fresh today by Uxkül, the first person who advocated that action is not a physical response to a stimulus, and that it exists in a ring world.
Quote:https://www.iwanami.co.jp/book/b247066.html

Up to this point, I've read 2 books in a row about the human brain, nerves, psychology, etc., so what I've read at the stage where I wonder how the world can be seen by other organisms and animals, and what happens to their senses is “The World Seen from a Living Organism.” The author, von Ueksküll, is also famous as the person who proposed the concept of “Ring World: Umwelt.” Humans recognize the world through their five senses, but animals other than humans recognize the world with sense organs that are different from humans. An example of this is that bats use ultrasonic waves to fly through completely dark caves. Also, since animals perform some kind of action after sensing and recognizing the world, a series of senses and actions is defined as a functional ring. This book made me realize that the world for humans and the world for other living things is different = each living thing transforms and senses the natural world (with sense organs).

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“Flow Experience: Phenomenology of Joy” (by Mihai Csikszentmihai) 2023/7

The essence of phenomenological issues such as happiness, joy, enjoyment, and optimal experience is elucidated in a fundamental and comprehensive manner using psychology, sociology, cultural anthropology, evolutionary theory, and information theory. A book that surpasses Maslow's concept of self-actualization.
quoting：https://sekaishisosha.jp/book/b354747.html

Many of the books introduced in this article areTamesue DaiI was also taught it. I work with him on activities such as the Athlete Society, etc., and every time we meet, he is a friend who introduces me to interesting books I've read recently. When an athlete demonstrates an overwhelming performance in his own episode, which is often talked about in his lectures, zone = super concentrated state (also called infatuation?) It's a story about being in. Programmers are also concentrating on coding, and when they make overwhelming progress that is different from usual, I think they are in this zone. Mihai Csikszentmihaly defined this zone state as “flow,” and what explains it is “flow experience: the phenomenology of joy.”

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“Professor Damasio's Consciousness as Education: The Last Humanity Machines Can't Reach” (by Antonio Damasio) 2023/10

Consciousness contributed greatly to the success of humans as living organisms. How are emotions, intelligence, mind, perception, and consciousness related? “Secrets of consciousness,” which were said to be impossible to elucidate, are revealed through cutting-edge insight written without daring to use technical terms.
quoting：https://www.diamond.co.jp/book/9784478112663.html‍

At this time of year, AI centered on large-scale language models (LLM) was developing more and more, and computers were already becoming more intelligent than humans, and the trend of humans... was also beginning to emerge. How is the structure of an LLM different from the structure of the human brain? What is human nature? It is Antonio Damasio's book that answers questions such as, and the one that seems to be the easiest to read among them is “Professor Damasio's Consciousness as Education: The Last Humanity That Machines Can't Reach.” The books written by Professor Damasio that I should read are still reading and waiting on the bookshelf, but let's start with this one. As the title suggests, is it unique to humans? There is also a description of consciousness, and what is consciousness that humans have that is not on calculators? I also learned that from around here.

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“Subliminal Minds: The Future of a Latent View of Humanity” (by Shinsuke Shimojo) 2024/1

People don't understand the movements of their own minds as much as they think for themselves. People often make decisions without being aware of them, and are unaware of the real reasons for the actions they have taken. As research in human science progresses, the dogma of “potential and automaticity of cognitive processes” becomes increasingly clear, and even society's promises about freedom and responsibility of human decision-making may be overturned. What is a new view of humanity that has evolved from advances in cognition, behavior, and neuroscience that explores the latent mind?
quoting：https://www.chuko.co.jp/shinsho/1996/10/101324.html

Our company will start JST CREST from around 2022/10”A trusted inter-reality foundation that safely and securely creates and connects diverse forms of realityI am participating in research on”. Reality (reality) is one keyword here, and we are proceeding with various research considering that one person is living in multiple real worlds, such as virtual worlds other than the real world, due to the advent of virtual reality such as XR (VR, AR, MR), etc., and the metaverse. As part of that, the “JST CREST Internet of Realities Project 1st Symposium” was held in 2023/12, and one of the keynote speakers at that time was Professor Shimojo. I think it was a good symposium for those of us who are aiming for computer science to think about relationships with cognitive science. Also, the book above is a story about subliminal = subconscious mind/ subthreshold perception, where you don't consciously feel it, but you actually perceive it. Subliminal advertisements have been banned, but are there other areas where this subliminal effect can be positively utilized? I think so.

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“Silence of the Gods: The Birth of Consciousness and the Rise and Fall of Civilization” (by Julian Jaynes) March 2024

“Humans didn't have 'consciousness' until 3000 years ago!”
Researchers who started from ethology and stepped into the search for human consciousness have established an extremely grand “birth of consciousness” hypothesis from analysis of clay tablets and inscriptions in cuneiform characters, Greek epics “The Iliad,” “Odyssey,” and the Old Testament — human consciousness sprung up only 3000 years ago, and humans before the birth of consciousness follow the voices of the gods whispered to the right brain, and they are the owners of the “Bicameral Mind” (Bicameral Mind) whispering to the right brain, and they are the only owners of the “Bicameral Mind” (Bicameral Mind) Ancient civilizations in various places were created, and eventually “dichotomous” collapsed, and instead of humans gaining letters and consciousness, the gods became silent.
Daniel Dennett, the master of consciousness theory, highly praised the author's hypothesis and called it “software archaeology.” This is because fossils and bones dug up from strata cannot even tell about the human heart.
This book, which consists of three parts, from the philosophy/psychology of consciousness to history/civilizational interpretations, and the remnants of “dichotomous mind” in modern people, is a monumental monument that stakes the author's life, and has aroused controversy and buzz in various fields from the beginning of its release. The description is backed by a huge amount of evidence, involves not only the past but also the depths of our minds today and the future, and changes the conventional way of looking at it 180 degrees. The life of “The Unknown Giant” is the only full-body book.
quoting：https://www.kinokuniya.co.jp/f/dsg-01-9784314009782‍

Well, finally, this is a problem piece. “Silence of the Gods: The Birth of Consciousness and the Rise and Fall of Civilization” by Julian Jaynes. Until 3000 years ago, humans had no consciousness, and the god in the right brain spoke to the left brain and moved humans. It's a story where the relationship between the right brain and left brain gradually changed from around 3000 years ago, and the gods that should have been in the right brain fell silent, and consciousness was born as a result, and humans began to think consciously on their own. I've read it all, but I've become a believer. Surely that really was the case? I think so.

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“Why I Am Me: The Mystery of Consciousness Unraveled by Neuroscience” (by Anil Seth) 2024/8

The mystery of “consciousness” and “me.” The author, who has been a pioneer in consciousness research for 20 years, explains how the inner world, which is a subjective experience, is related to biological and physical processes carried out in the brain and body, and what explanations can be made from that point of view. Furthermore, we argue that we do not objectively recognize the world; rather, we are predictive machines, and we constantly create our own world in our brains, correct mistakes in microseconds, and create a sense of being you (being you). The mystery of “consciousness” and “me” is being approached by an up-and-coming person based on the latest neuroscientific knowledge.
quoting：http://www.seidosha.co.jp/book/index.php?id=3679

I was invited to participate in a workshop in July 2024, and one of the participants in that workshop was Anil Seth. The workshop was about consciousness and cognitive science, and his “Why I Am Me - Mysteries of Consciousness Unraveled by Neuroscience” is a book that comprehensively summarizes research so far on consciousness. I highly recommend it for beginners related to consciousness.

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“Reality+ (Part 1): Philosophical Challenges Surrounding Virtual Worlds” (February 2025)

Is this world real? At the cutting edge of technology and exploration of “philosophy of mind” by leading modern philosophers, is the world we live in real? How do we know it's “sure”? As technology undergoes rapid development, old and new philosophical questions are being asked anew — what is reality (reality), and how can we know it? What can we see through various thought experiments, such as “simulation hypotheses,” “possible worlds,” and “brains in aquariums.” Chalmers, a leading expert in contemporary philosophy, boldly combines philosophy and technology to present a new reality (reality) and a new worldview.
Quote: https://www.nhk-book.co.jp/detail/000000819362023.html

In the JST CREST project we are participating in on 2025/3/14”JST CREST Interdisciplinary Symposium: Reality/Illusion and Virtual Reality” will be held. So I read this book, which is probably going to be a related book. In this book, it was stated that VR and simulation give a sense of reality in human senses and experience, and that it is a world where both are recognized as reality even though they are in different forms of physical and digital. That's why I understood that the value of VR and simulation does not end with the temporary popularity of head-mounted displays, and that it will become an even more important technology for humanity by fusing it with AI in the future. In 2024, the number of simulator development projects increased at our company. It seems that the role of simulators that reproduce simple and abstract versions of real space on software and perform experiments etc. that cannot be physically repeated will increase more and more.

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We are working on research and development of solutions and content related to XR, and I feel that these are even closer to humans and give a sense of immersion and reality even closer to humans by using head-mounted displays, etc. We would like to be able to realize XR that benefits humanity even more by proceeding with research on the human side, which is the recipient and user of such new technology. We have introduced 10 books up to this point, and I hope to increase the number in the future. If there are any books I should read, please let me know.