Cross-Person Symbol Mapping Protocol
Link reported symbols, locations, and brain states before comparing participants.
- Difficulty
- Expert
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 91%
Goler outlines an exploratory protocol intended to compare reports of symbols seen in a high-resolution laser-light image inside Apple Vision Pro. A participant marks where a symbol appears while software records the location and a brain-scan window spanning five seconds before and after the event. The participant then selects the closest match from six commonly reported symbol shapes. Repeating this process creates linked records of stimulus location, neural activity, and reported form. Only after enough observations are collected does the team compare participants for agreement at the same locations. The protocol's value is its synchronization of several imperfect signals. Goler explicitly says the hoped-for cross-person match has not yet been established, so the method is a proposed measurement bridge, not evidence that shared external information exists.
Origin
Extracted from The Shawn Ryan Show; Goler says Code of Reality developed the software with Chris Paris Sterling for an Apple Vision Pro study.
Core principles
- 01Subjective reports need shared anchors before they can be compared
- 02Record location, timing, physiology, and self-report as one event
- 03Use a constrained label set without claiming that it is a translation
- 04Separate the proposed test from any result not yet obtained
How to run it
- 1
Standardize the stimulus
Use the same cleaned, high-resolution image in the same virtual-reality environment for each participant.
Watch out Changing the stimulus between participants weakens spatial comparisons.
- 2
Mark the perceived location
Have the participant click the place where a symbol appears so the software records a spatial coordinate.
Pro tip Make the marking action immediate and simple.
- 3
Capture the event window
Save the brain-scan data for five seconds before and five seconds after the click to allow timing uncertainty.
Watch out The window gives temporal context; it does not identify an exact neural cause.
- 4
Constrain the report
Show six commonly reported symbol forms and ask the participant to choose the closest match.
Pro tip Retain the wording that the option is the closest match, not necessarily an exact transcription.
Watch out A fixed menu can shape responses and must be considered when interpreting agreement.
- 5
Bind the record
Store the coordinate, scan window, and selected symbol as one labeled observation.
- 6
Compare across people
After collecting enough records, test whether different participants report the same symbol in the same location more often than the study's comparison standard predicts.
Pro tip Predefine the comparison rule before examining the aggregate result.
Watch out Do not announce cross-person agreement before the analysis has produced it.
In the wild
A participant viewing the standardized image clicks where a symbol appears. The system saves that location, the ten-second brain-scan window around the click, and the participant's closest choice from the six-symbol menu. The same process is repeated for later observations and participants.
→ The study obtains comparable event records without claiming that one person's private visual experience has been directly translated.
Common mistakes
Treating the menu as a translation
Choosing the closest of six symbols does not prove that two participants experienced an identical form.
Announcing the hoped-for result
The protocol proposes a way to test cross-person agreement; Goler says that agreement has not yet been found.
Is it for you?
Best for
Researchers designing exploratory studies of subjective experiences that include spatially localized, repeatable reports.
Not ideal for
Studies without standardized stimuli, reliable physiological recording, or safeguards appropriate to the intervention being studied.
From the transcript
“So now the computer knows location, brain moment, and exactly what you reported to see, right?”
“Now, this is not yet the case. I want to be very clear”
From the episode
#320 Danny Goler - Apple Vision Pro May Have Captured Something We CAN'T Explain
Danny Goler