Tuesday, January 15, 2008

The Monkey-Controlled Robot Threat

Forget the War on Terra (or Drugs or whatever), the economy, or wacky religious beliefs - why aren't the presidential candidates addressing this menace? It sounds right up Ron Paul's alley, to be honest:

If Idoya could talk, she would have plenty to boast about.

On Thursday, the 12-pound, 32-inch monkey made a 200-pound, 5-foot humanoid robot walk on a treadmill using only her brain activity.

She was in North Carolina, and the robot was in Japan.

It was the first time that brain signals had been used to make a robot walk, said Dr. Miguel A. L. Nicolelis, a neuroscientist at Duke University whose laboratory designed and carried out the experiment.
Actually, the plan is not for monkeys to use this kind of technology to overcome the human race and takes us into Planet of the Apes territory. The hope is that it will lead to technologies that will allow folks who have been paralyzed to walk again by transmitting brain signals to some sort of exoskeletal device. Pretty neat!

1 comment:

jedijawa said...

Now people will wish they had bought the insurance that covered "robot attacks" that Sam Waterson was selling on Saturday Night Live back in the 90's. :-)