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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"
before someone hacks the rat and get linux running on it.
Can't the editors do a simple SEARCH?
It's been posted here before. Took me 10 seconds to find it.
--
grep "xercist"
The article also mentioned about they got a monkey to move a cursor
Now, would it not be awsome for that cursor to be hooked up with that mouse and let the monkey to control that cursor to control that mouse (hehe)
kawai
Pretty soon the army will be able to make ninja turtles that live in the sewers, and eat pizza.
... but, ...but who else will protect us from the evil Shredder?
Or imagine a real life donkey kong game?
rspc who?
aaaaaaahh...
~the keyboard is mightier than the pen.
They're doing some interesting work with deep brain stimulation. It's already been used for a while to deal with Parkinsons patients.
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Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
SatireWire did a take-off of this three months ago, back when it was topical.
All the other kids have mouse look now!
does anyone else imagine mad scientists racing radio contolled rats around a maze? no? just me?
He who defends everything, defends nothing. -- Fredrick The Great
How long before we are hooked up to pleasure stimulating electrodes that make superior workers? Other than the computers we are working on right now?
~S
Perhaps Slashdot needs a thingy to extract the keywords out of a story and then search for previous stories containing those keywords and displaying them in a pre-submission "please confirm this story isn't a repost of one of the following".
Pulling the keywords "remote control rats whisker brain control" out of the story I found the previous submission (in May, also by timothy) as the top hit. Whilst I'm a huge fan of blaming the editors, I'm sure their job would be easier if the re-submissions were being weeded out in advance.
That's right, we should release them all back into the wild, where they can run free and live long happy lives...
What? The exterminator's number? Oh here. Yeah, rat infestations can be nasty, watch out for those mites...
Back to the lab rats, where was I?
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!
Now I can't wait to get one of these rats. Then I can just sit in my sofa with my brand new remotecontroller and play with my cat.
No more ping-pong balls for me and my cat
All work and no play makes me a dull boy
Wasn't Beowulf just a giant rat anyway?
Brain: Pinky we have to get out of here
Pinky: NARF how we gonna do that brain
Brain: Pinky what is that riduclous thing on your head?
Pinky: ZOGG! Oh this? The nice lady put this over my head so my mind control implants can't be set off by radio's
Brain: That's it! We'll reverse engineer your mind control implants and adapt them to humans. We'll control them via radio waves!
Pinky: Why would you wanna do a thing like that brain?
Brain: WHy, WHY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD!
with roach. At least, with tecnology advance, they are doing it with less disgusting little creatures...oh wait.
hrmmph, I have a device in my home. Its totally non invasive no electrodes nothing, but just the presence of it can completely mind control anybody. It can completely hypnotise the person, and make it do what the controller wants to. It can make persons but the chocolates, get a shirt which is not needed at all, or just splurge on anything. :-)
In case you are wondering what am i talking about, well its the TV, or the idiot box. No electrodes, no funny fires, just plain old mind control
My Aurora : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o91ZsGwJYyg
FB : https://www.facebook.com/TanveersPhotography
Oh please. First and foremost, if it helps mankind in any way, then I submit that the testing is necessary.
You would rather have the testing done on humans? This is quite ridiculous, even if said humans are rapists or murderers. It is cruel and unusual for the human because he/she is self-aware and understands what is happening. He/she can appreciate the fact that they are being tortured. Rats cannot. Animal testing is a necessary stage before any science can be applied to humans and as long as humane policies are in place for the testing and disposal of the animals, I have no problems with it.
Whether you like it or not, animal testing has probably extended your life by about fifty or sixty years.
You can't kill the boogey man.
And then punish it for failing :)
First you need to think about the type of rat you want to control. Do you want a Democratic rat or a Republican? There are many other alternatives such as a libertarian or a greenie, however those require more advance techniques and the gains are not as a great. The two mainstream types of roduntus politicious are much more plentiful, accessable and cost effective over the long term.
After you chose your rat. You now need a very large organization that has in it's posession a large amount of money. Now do not be discouraged at this point, this easier done than you would be lead to belive. Simply take all ethics, integrity, honesty and honor that your soul posesses, roll all these traits into a little ball and then sell it on a street corner for crack.
If you can perform this deed you have the potential to suceed in boardroom shinanigans, backstaping, corporate hoaring, thought theft, frivilous lawsuits, accounting coverups and the ocassiaonal rimjob. Perform these tasks to the best of your ability and you will have a large corporate entity under your control in a matter of a few years.
Now you can't just pick any type of corporation and make it work with any rat. It just dosen't work out that way. Although there are exceptions there are general rules of thumb for picking the perfect corporation/rat marriage.
If you want to subvert the thought process of a democrat, you will want a large entertainment company. Such a company might make movies, television, music. Now generally for entertainment the more mind-numbing the product the better.
Remember that all you future Ted Turner's of the world. If your company produces quality mind-expanding entertainment that provokes thought in your target demographic then you are doomed to failure. A thinking population might actually think when they are in the voting booth. Such thinking causes random unforseen variables to occur like voting for the other guy.
Oil, is a good industry to use to subvert a republican. Also a company with very deep ties with the military would be an outstanding choice.
If you product destroys the enviroment and kills alot of people a republican is a sure thing.
Rat control is a very old and time honored tradition thar predates even the Romans. With tried and true techniques to subvert every kind of rat to your will.
There is nothing wrong with directly sticking a mind-controling apparatus into the subjects brain. You just need to take into consideration how obvious your influence when your rat is required to make a public speech with elctrodes, and wires sticking out of his/her head.
>
Jam some electrodes in my cats head and give him a shock when he doesn't pee/poop in the box!
Gorkman
That device is called woman.
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
Rat Mind Control
Well, not exactly mind control
Well, not exactly chicken (but don't ask what).
no mention of when a human version would be available.
It's called television.
Reprogramming humanity since 19xx...
--saint
What makes this different then putting one of the electrodes on each of its legs, and one on its ass? Rats are smart creatures, and it is conceivable that these things hurt. It could be that they simply trained the rat to respond to pain stimulus?
END COMMUNICATION
Because the Slashdot search engine has to be one of the worst in existance. I sure don't have time to wade through the mess the words rat, mice, and control return. apparently, neither do the editors, though they expect the same out of you.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
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!
No but this would.
I have this apparatus hooked up to your brain. Now I move the stick to the left and you move right. Oh wait didn't I tell you, I hooked it into the part of the brain that registars pain.
As soon as you regain consciousness again, we'll give it another whirl. Then you can start by mowing my fucking lawn, after getting me a beer.
>
No it's white mice.
>
This kind of think always makes me realize just how little we really know about the brain and the body and just how primitive our research and medical treatments are. This is right up there with some crazy experiment from the 1800s.
For example, we are quite capable of making conscious choices that override basic and natural instincts -- This is because our brains are evolved enough to visualize not only the immediate consequences of an action. In fact, we can visualize not only definite consequences, but even the likely and improbable ones.
For example, we can choose to go on a diet, refusing the basic instinctive need to always completely satiate hunger whenever and wherever it is felt. We can choose to abstain from sexual activities, we can overcome chemical dependancies, we even take knowingly suicidal actions based on nothing more concrete than a single hope or belief -- all done by an act of conscious will.
We learn by more than experience, we can be verbally told something and take the idea within it, and hold to it faster than anything else - defying logic, defying instinctive, and definitely defying natural behaviour.
What does this all have to do with the subject, you may ask?
If someone tried to hook up a human being to one of these things, they might find that the person could get excessively violent in his attempts to resist being controlled. We, as people, have historically shown contempt for being manipulated or enslaved -- many would even rather die. I have no doubt that attempting to control a human being with something like this (and that's even _IF_ the declaration of human rights is revoked, which would prohibit this outright anyways) would prove most unsuccessful when measured against its effiacy with simpler life forms. It simply wouldn't be worth the effort to find compliant people.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
If the electrodes stimulated my pleasure center 24/7, by definition, the answer would be yes.
(And if not before the surgery, then certainly after surgery. "Nope, no regrets at all, man, it's like they make me run these big mazes, but the walls themselves are made of cheese!")
Why do intelligent people invent devices which help evil less intelligent people enslave them?
What good is a mind control device?
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
Who cares. I would still get my lawn mowed.
>
I was calmly surfing through the fields of animal rights nuts, managing to prevent myself from responding to them, when I cam upon this post. Maybe it was the use of bold. Maybe it was the tone. I don't know. But I have to address it.
"So torturing other life forms, even if they are beneath us in order to extend our own life is okay to you?"
Yes. O.k? Yes. I would torture a rat to extend my life a year. So would you. If someone came up to you and said "Kill this rat and your life will be extended", you would accept. Not only that, but these rats were -bred- for this purpose. They are creatures that would probably not survive in the wild (Their bright white coats would give them away to predators in an instant)
"No, I'd rather such "testing" (clever word to disguise the torture) not be done at all."
No, "Testing", is a clever word for learning things. It might be unpleasant for the rat, (In fact, it probably -is- unpleasant for the rat) but it isn't like scientists are sitting around killing rats for the hell of it. They are learning things that enhance our lives. (Most of the time)
"...Schools once taught the earth was flat..."
Ah, yes, the typical answer for a person without a valid argument. This has seen so much over-use that it is almost an argument against your point. Watch, I can use it too.
"Schools teach that man is mortal. However, they also once taught that the Earth is flat. Therefore, because they were wrong once, they must always be wrong. Therefore, I'm immortal." Cool eh?
"...but you cannot say that with 100% certainty..." (That rats cannot appreciate the fact that they are being tortured)
The amount of things that you can answer with a 100% surety are very limited. (I personally hold that rats -can- appreciate the fact that they are living crappy lives. I just don't care)
"That's a big "Probably". " (Animal testing having extended his life 50-60 years)
Animal testing has almost certainly not extended your life quite that long. However, 20-30 years is not an unreasonable figure. Tell me, would you give 30 years of your life for a few hundred white lab-rats that would've been exterminated as pests? How about condemning all of humanity to have 30 year shorter lives?
At the very end you mention stem cell research. That's where I draw the line. Using humans as fodder to advance humankind is beyond my tolerance.
Telling it like it is-
With my dying breath, I curse Zoidberg!