The story of researcher’s attempts to get monkeys to move robotic arms was one of the very first things we ever blogged here on the Beat V 1.1, in a post now long lost, and they are still at it! Last a week a monkey in South Carolina made a robot in Japan (where else) walk using only its brain waves. Scientists hailed the experiment as a breakthrough.
Another expert, Nicho Hatsopoulos, a professor at the University of Chicago, said that the experiment was “an exciting development. And the use of an exoskeleton could be quite fruitful.”
A brain machine interface is any system that allows people or animals to use their brain activity to control an external device. But until ways are found to safely implant electrodes into human brains, most research will remain focused on animals.
There are a couple of ways we see this playing out.
#1: Helper monkeys are trained to operate their master’s exo-skeletons with their little monkey brainwaves.
#2: Monkeys become resentful, use brain waves to control army of murderous robots which rampage across Japan, resulting in amazing mecha- battle. Love robots come to the rescue, order restored.
Now which outcome do YOU prefer?
Most likely outcome? Animals around the world lose their natural habitats while those in captivity are continuously subjected to unnecessary scientific experiments and/or eaten.
This is the JLA Movie I want to see.
I want to see the one where the monkeys rewrite the body of human cultural output, except for a renegade group of “Believers” who think that the “original” versions were better. Then a battle rages across Simian Cyberspace, culminating in the “Believers” taking over a mecha army and rampaging across Tokyo. Etc.
I like the one where electrodes are no longer jammed into monkey brains.