[OT] Real life cyborg monkey


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d20Dwarf said:
Hmmm, I'd feel much better if only the good guys (that would be us) have the technology, thank you.

Odds are quite good this technology was developed with an eye toward and is funded by something defense related. Nothing wrong with that. The computers we're using to read this message are at least an indirect result of military-related research. So are our cell phones, those airplanes we fly on to reach distant destinations, et cetera.
 

I just hope my new extractable tentacles arrive as soon as this techonology goes public...

If I can't get bitten by a genetically improved spider, at least I'll be Doc Oc!

:)
 

So, output is done. Now let's work on input. Reading rpgHQ's post further up about various computer uses was facinating. The only problem is that they all still rely on visual input (from the screen). What we need is some bidirectional flow here...

How's about a big metal spike that jams into your skull? :)
 

Who cares about helping the disabled...

RETRACTABLE SPURS AND CYBEGUNS! NOW, DAMMIT!

I'd give my right arm (literally) for a piece of cyberware....
 

rushlight said:
So, output is done. Now let's work on input. Reading rpgHQ's post further up about various computer uses was facinating. The only problem is that they all still rely on visual input (from the screen). What we need is some bidirectional flow here...

How's about a big metal spike that jams into your skull? :)

I think that type of interfacing is gonna be 3 or more generations off minimum.

The computer is being trained to recognize moter function commands basically from the electrodes.

To get inflowing electrodes to do more than pain/ecstasy I think is gonna take more than a few electrodes barely touch the outer brain surface.

From the msnbc report and others I read on this it doesnt really matter which brain cells the electrodes are touching, other nerve cells in the brain readily pitch in no matter what their normal function is. But to stimulate patterns inbound how does the computer train to react to the electropulses or whatever you what to call them? Outbound the computer associates a certain pulse type to the joystick, I am assuming each person who gets wired will have to go thru some type of excersises so the computer can train tot heir specific pulses unless theres some common factor none of the reports mentions, I would think the pulses/patterns are different for each person, since their brain is uses any cells/nerves near the electrodes to co-ordinate the moter function. But maybe they end up using the same patterns all the time? If thats true then maybe you just need to plug a test subject up with a ton of electrodes and have them view specific visual patterns so you can see which brain cells react and try to determine what those patterns are, maybe at that point you can start 'mapping' visual patterns within the brain cells, flashing the alphabet across a screen and monitor the brain activity, then work up to patterns of dots and such in simple block patterns and progressively make the patterns more complicated and detailed, but that still sounds like a ton of research to do, basically recreating the steps of visual graphics that computers have already gone thru, maybe the first such implants will only allow for two color text only then the next generation of such implant will have kludgy block graphics 256x256 then 4 colors then higher resolutions and more color each generation of the implant research.

Mot anything I expect to see in my kids lifetime let alone their kids lifetime, but I can easily see what I talked about in the prior post with hands off computer manipulation for my kid, mayb when I am old and one foot in the grave maybe a little sooner. It depends on how fast they get approval to start human testing, becuase you know there wont be a lack of volunters, and once they start studies with humans the knowledge is gonna jump and push fast at that point.

The implications for wireless camera robots alone will push it, on the civilian side for rescue work sending bots into disaster areas and rubble without wires going where trained dogs cant even sniff, underwater research, no more tethered unmanned submersibles, military scouting/spying, even uses on the space shuttles and who knows what uses it could be put to for a mission to mars or on the international space station. Just all the robotic uses know that require tethered/wired machines would gain better use being wireless and with a precising of control I think would become inherent from direct thought control over mechanical control. I would think the computer interpreting the brain pulses would allow for a finer degree of control than with any type of current analog or digital joystick or other mechanical control device.

But like you say the recieving of input back directly to the brain, that would be great and allow even finer control but I dont see that happening till the end of this century or maybe early the next century. Who knows though maybe it will come faster than I guess once their able to start studies on humans. I am assuming with monkies its hard to get feedback on whats going on inside their head, and I think its that feedback from a human who can express whats going on in ways the data cant show or interpret is the factor that will push this tech forward faster than any of us can imagine currently.

Now if we could just get people to stop killing one another, it would make this the most exciting time to be alive.
 

I read about that investigation months ago in Scientific American. An awesome article.

Also, I welcome our new monkey overlords. Hail the monkey!
 
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