Slashdot Mirror
Rat Mind Control
Patrick Key writes "Well, not exactly mind control but scientists have taken rat training to a new level. By inserting electrodes into the brain of a rat, they're able to effectively control a rat to move forward, left and right. They used the brain area that processes whisker info for left/right control and the pleasure center for moving forward. All sorts of interesting implications- no mention of when a human version would be available. The feat is mentioned in an IEEE's Spectrum article
here"
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! =)
'd
The ultimate network admin tool needs HELP!
no they *can't* do a simple search, because the "search engine" DOESN'T INDEX 3-LETTER WORDS. Go ahead, search for "rat", you won't find anything. Try searching for "rat mind", wow look at all those irrelevant articles because it conveniently ignored the "rat" part of the search. I really don't understand how the slashdot search engine can possibly pretend to be useful when it doesn't index 3-letter words. Half the interesting search terms "for nerds" are acronyms of 3 letters or less, not to mention the actual real words like rat.
it seems that the readers are more knowledgeable of previous stories than the actual ones in charge of posting...
this story is instantly recognizable as a previous posting... would've taken me about 10 seconds to find as well!