monkey brain signals

Scientists have sucessfully created a robotic arm controlled directly by a monkey's brain. I thought this was already a reality; we call it congress.

Monkeys can control a robot arm as naturally as their own limbs using only brain signals, a pioneering experiment has shown. The macaque monkeys could reach and grasp with the same precision as their own hand.

"It's just as if they have a representation of a third arm," says project leader Miguel Nicolelis, at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Experts believe the experiment's success bodes well for future devices for humans that are controlled solely by thought.

One such type of device is a neurally-controlled prosthetic - a brain-controlled false limb. Nicolelis says his team's work is important because it has shown that prosthetics can only deliver precision movements if multiple parts of the brain are monitored and visual feedback is provided. newscientist.com

I find these stories fascinating, as it brings us all one step closer to more cordial human/cyborg relations. But seriously, it is my dream to one day be fitted with a full body prosthesis. Perhaps by then I can also have my brain copied into a positronic one as well. Oh, the possibilities!

There's even a flash animation of the experiment.

Addendum:

We are reminded of the theorum about monkeys randomly typing on typewriters perhaps now they can do so remotely with just their brains and a robotic arm...

The infinite monkey theorem states that, due to the nature of infinity, a monkey hitting keys at randomtypewriter keyboard will almost surely eventually type every book in France's Bibliothèque nationale de France (National Library). Note that almost surely is being used in a precise mathematical sense here (see almost surely). In the restatement of the theorem most popular among English speakers, the monkeys eventually type out the collected works of William Shakespeare.  ~wikipedia

Contrary to reports, this is not a picture of me at work (hammering away) on my blog. Although if I were to continue hitting keys at random I must admit it's possible that I would eventually type some of the posts for this blog. (By the way, the picture is from the wikipedia entry.)

[H]egemonic Word count: 371

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