Remote Controlled Rats

sclatter writes: "They aren't precisely robot rats, but these little rodents can be cued to perform different actions through electrodes implanted in their brains. Could be a boon for search and rescue in collapsed buildings!" As one skeptic in the article says, though, "Without the gee-whizery, without the remote-control and so on, that this kind of thing was possible has been obvious for decades."

Comments

Finally...

[Foggy Tristan]

Now we can put Stuart Little to good use.

Seriously though, although it's pretty easy to fall into the slippery slope (you can do that with rats? cats? dogs? the farmer's wife?), this is actually one of the pivotal plot points of Buffy the Vampire Slayer over the last three years (Spike has a chip implanted in his head that can force him not to do certain things.) Suddenly, it doesn't seem so far away.

umm....mixed feelings

[Bandman]

Yea, ok, the tech is cool, but I definatly have reservations about this. It's not from my usual "this technology is going to be the end of us" paranoia (though it might), it's just...I hate the idea of someone doing this to me so much, that I can't help but feel for the rats. Sure, they arn't "intelligent" (though that can be argued).
I just don't think that I could be proud of doing research on this project.

Ethical Concerns

[martyb]

From the article: "It's one thing to see a rat running around like this, people don't get too emotional about that, but as soon as you get into dogs or work animals, people start getting real excited," he said.

I can see it now. Farmers having livestock (cows, horses, etc.) implanted with these devices so all they have to do is throw a switch and they
are automatically commanded to come back to the barn for feeding / milking / slaughter / whatever. Add a GPS receiver, a livestock_id for each animal, and some software.

Or, use this to make sure that Man's Best Friend stays within the yard or comes back to you when out for a run at the park How about adding a small microphone and a clock so Spot is commanded to Not Bark At Night so you (and the neighbors!) can get some sleep?

I'm certain there are some people who would think these are Great Ideas ®

The immediate downside I see is there is no feedback loop. What if the AUC (Animal Under Control) breaks a leg, gets a deep cut, is threatened by a predator, or is otherwise incapacitated? The controller (human or automated) is unaware of this and keeps sending commands to "GO THIS WAY!!!" Shudder. I sure hope society works out the ethical considerations well before they overcome the technical limitations! Just because we can doesn't mean we should!

Sure, the expense is prohibitive, now. But there are some people for whom the expense is no object. The price of computers and other electronics have plummeted over the years. Power consumption requirements have dropped dramatically, too. I can well imagine that in 10 or so years, it would be possible to do this cheaply and easily.

So, if some day I wake up in a bathtub full of ice with a note beside me... instead of it saying my kidneys have been removed it'll say a remote control has been implanted in my brain. Let the urban legends begin! =)

Re:Ethical Concerns

[Pfhor]

Or how about just properly training an animal?

Making nature to suite our needs usually ends up with us being made natures bitch as a consequence.

When I saw in the story post the "we have been doing this for years" I immediately thought, of course you have. It's called training.

Sheep dogs have been bred to do it. And sure it takes a little longer, but I doubt their would be much difference. Ok, so a trained animal could have trouble hearing the trainer in a loud, confusing situation. Instead of wiring some forced control into the animal (since animals have a pretty good ability to judge if they are going to be hurt) how about a wireless radio in the ear, so the commands are still "optional".

And they have been doing this for a while. Does anyone else remember the CIA Cat Spy? Which promptly walked into oncoming traffic, after they did a routine trick of wiring its pleasure center so it "wouldn't walk away when it got bored, hungry, tired" etc.

Even with rats, this makes me sick. "electrically stimulating the pleasure center" is supposedly quite addicting. From what I've heard, rats in a cage with two buttons, one for food, one for a jolt o pleasure, the rat will continue to push the button for pleasure until it dies from starvation / dehydration.

For something even trippier, read Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace, which has a plot that revolved around a video tape which will VISUALLY stimulate the pleasure center of the brain, so much so, that people because they just watch it, until their bladder bursts, or they don't take their insulin, etc. The most addictive drug ever becomes a video.

Pity for the rats?

[Keighvin]

There are several comments on here making rather uneducated references to the level of control obtained by this, and its application to humans as well. THE ELECTRODES DO NOT CONTROL MOVEMENT in and of themselves. This is still a simple "stimulus-response" mechanism that had to be trained, just a more effective way of delivering precice stimulii over distance.

Unless you're about as dumb as Pavlov's dog, it'd be possible to resist anything of the sort even if forced upon you.

HA! unbelievable! just heard interview on NPR...

[xlurker]

just heard an interview on national public radio with one of the researchers that setup the rats.
The last question was how the rats were "motivated". The guy started tippy-toeing and touchy-feely explaining it... his answer:

• "to be able to run around is reward enough for the rats, they love not having to be in the cages"

he went on a bit more and sounded very strained about it...

we all know the real reason:

When signaled by a laptop computer, the electrodes stimulated the rodents' brains and cued them to scurry in the desired direction, then rewarded them by stimulating a pleasure center in the brain.

well, well, now we now why they do:
they get a fucking kick out of doing it!

that might also explain the mysterious results concerning some guy that tried this on himself:

a Tulane University researcher tried [this on himself] during the 1960s, with unclear results...

I thought this stuff was only science fiction...