Slog - Comments on Why Cyborg Monkeys Are Cool http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/why_cyborg_monkeys_are_cool (From the current edition of the journal Nature.) Thanks to our continuing success in Iraq, you might have noticed distinctly fewer limbs in today’s America. Hence this recent work published in the journal Nature is quite encouraging: Here we describe a system that permits embodied prosthetic control; we show how monkeys (Macaca mulatta) use their motor cortical activity to control a mechanized arm replica in a self-feeding task. In addition to the three dimensions of movement, the subjects' cortical signals also proportionally controlled a gripper on the end of the arm. Owing to the physical interaction between the monkey,... Copyright 2008 Thu, 29 May 2008 16:26:55 -0800 Fri, 30 May 2008 11:46:33 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by flamingbanjo Holy crap, did you just explain monkey cybernetics with a Blazing Saddles reference? You, sir, rock.

]]> flamingbanjo http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/why_cyborg_monkeys_are_cool#c1035051 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/why_cyborg_monkeys_are_cool#c1035051 Science Thu, 29 May 2008 16:58:10 -0800 Comment by Smade And even better, the Government will eventually have a simulacrum for each of us tuned to our particular brain frequency to let them know what we're up to at any given time. Fab indeed.

]]> Smade http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/why_cyborg_monkeys_are_cool#c1035057 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/why_cyborg_monkeys_are_cool#c1035057 Science Thu, 29 May 2008 17:01:56 -0800 Comment by Will in Seattle Has nobody clued in that this is the start of the Police State that the Red Bushies want us to be living in?

"I know what you were thinking of doing, citizen comrade!"

]]> Will in Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/why_cyborg_monkeys_are_cool#c1035070 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/why_cyborg_monkeys_are_cool#c1035070 Science Thu, 29 May 2008 17:11:08 -0800 Comment by Jonathan Golob Thank you, flamingbanjo. I was waiting all week to use that reference.

]]> Jonathan Golob http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/why_cyborg_monkeys_are_cool#c1035139 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/why_cyborg_monkeys_are_cool#c1035139 Science Thu, 29 May 2008 18:27:21 -0800 Comment by elenchos Your tinfoil will keep on working against this, too, Will, same as it does for the radio transmissions. Rest easy.

The Blazing Saddles reference was indeed masterful, Jonathan. Can it also be used to make the monkeys do my bidding?

]]> elenchos http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/why_cyborg_monkeys_are_cool#c1035143 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/why_cyborg_monkeys_are_cool#c1035143 Science Thu, 29 May 2008 18:31:28 -0800 Comment by Jonathan Golob Mind control is a *much* more difficult task.

To continue my metaphor, you'd need to be able to interject in the conversations between all the individual brain cells. All we can hear now is crowd roar; we don't even really understand the language the neurons use to talk with one another. Somebody needs to go back and get a shitload of microphones to even start at that task.

Still, DARPA has grants to do just that. And unlike the NSF or NIH, they're paying out. ;p

]]> Jonathan Golob http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/why_cyborg_monkeys_are_cool#c1035148 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/why_cyborg_monkeys_are_cool#c1035148 Science Thu, 29 May 2008 18:38:18 -0800 Comment by CP Reverend!


Say... the language of the crowd of neurons that we don't understand... inside the brains of a primate ... if the technology successfully transfers to human brains, which I hear they'll be working on in the next year or two... doesn't this GO AGAINST GOD?

Hasn't anybody cleared this with the simple farmers? The people of the land... The common clay of the new West? You know... morons?

Sounds like a Darwinian plot to me.

I say we use this technology only to aid injured monkeys and great apes, but going no further up the ladder than Beppo.

http://www.wikiality.com/Beppo

]]> CP http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/why_cyborg_monkeys_are_cool#c1035194 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/why_cyborg_monkeys_are_cool#c1035194 Science Thu, 29 May 2008 21:49:25 -0800 Comment by Will in Seattle Actually, tin foil hats are useful for basic faraday shielding.

But it's best to use recycled tin foil.

]]> Will in Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/why_cyborg_monkeys_are_cool#c1035235 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/why_cyborg_monkeys_are_cool#c1035235 Science Fri, 30 May 2008 00:23:23 -0800 Comment by inkweary Are these monkeys that were born without limbs or were they removed? did they already have neural pathways that were coded for movement of those limbs?

]]> inkweary http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/why_cyborg_monkeys_are_cool#c1035849 http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/05/why_cyborg_monkeys_are_cool#c1035849 Science Fri, 30 May 2008 11:46:33 -0800