Slashdot Mirror
Hybrid Robot Uses Rat Brain
CowboyRobot writes "After two recent stories of artificial brains used to control rats and one about MIT doing the reverse, NYTimes now has a piece on similar work done at Georgia Tech From the article:
"...the layer of rat neurons is grown over an array of electrodes that pick up the neurons' electrical activity. A computer analyzes the activity of the several thousand brain cells in real time to detect spikes produced by neurons firing near an electrode." But this time you can buy one for $3,000."
Wired to the Brain of a Rat, a Robot Takes On the World
By ANNE EISENBERG
The nerve center of a conventional robot is a microprocessor of silicon and metal. But for a robot under development at Georgia Tech, commands are relayed by 2,000 or so cells from a rat's brain.
A group led by a university researcher has created a part mechanical, part biological robot that operates on the basis of the neural activity of rat brain cells grown in a dish. The neural signals are analyzed by a computer that looks for patterns emitted by the brain cells and then translates those patterns into robotic movement. If the neurons fire a certain way, for example, the robot's right wheel rotates once.
The leader of the group, Steve M. Potter, a professor in the Laboratory for Neuroengineering at Georgia Tech, calls his creation a Hybrot, short for hybrid robot.
"It's very much a symbiosis," he said, "a digital computer and a living neural network working together."
Dr. Potter has been building the system of hardware, software, incubators and rat neurons that constitute the Hybrot since 1993, when he was a postdoctoral student at the California Institute of Technology. He and his group have not only introduced the neurons to the world outside their dish; the team has also closely monitored minute changes that take place in the shape and connections of the neurons as they are stimulated, using techniques like time-lapse photography and laser imaging.
Dr. Potter hopes that close observation of how brain cells behave as they are exposed to a world of sensation will help researchers understand the way small groups of neurons go about learning. "If the network begins to get better at a job," he said, "we will watch what changed within the network to allow it to do that."
Dr. Jonathan Wolpaw, laboratory chief and professor of neuroscience at the Wadsworth Center of the New York State Department of Health and the State University of New York at Albany, said that Dr. Potter's research could yield a simple system for exploring the capacity of neurons and circuits to change based on incoming activity.
"These changes could be analogues of what happens in learning," Dr. Wolpaw said. "You are dealing with neurons, the same tissue as in a brain," although in a different setting and with different circuitry. "Some things presumably are in common, for example, the neuron's capacity for plasticity," he said.
In Dr. Potter's hybrid system, the layer of rat neurons is grown over an array of electrodes that pick up the neurons' electrical activity. A computer analyzes the activity of the several thousand brain cells in real time to detect spikes produced by neurons firing near an electrode.
A silver three-wheeled model of the robot is commercially available through the Swiss robotics maker K-Team (www.k-team.com) for about $3,000 and is about the size of a hockey puck. It trundles along at a top speed of one meter per second.
"We assign a direction of movement, say, a step forward, that is automatically triggered by a pattern of spikes," said Thomas DeMarse, a former member of Dr. Potter's group who is an assistant professor in the department of biomedical engineering at the University of Florida. "Twenty of these patterns, for instance, means 20 rotations of the wheel."
As the robot moves, it functions as a sensory system, delivering feedback to the neurons through the electrodes. For example, Mr. DeMarse said, the robot has sensors for light and feeds electrical signals proportional to the light back to the electrodes. "We return information to the dish on the intensity of light as the robot gets closer and the light gets brighter."
The researchers monitor the activity of the neurons for new signals and new connections. Dr. Potter said that the feedback mechanism was crucial to the functioning of the neural network. In traditional, isolated cultured networks, he said, in which neurons are not connected to a body, the activity patterns of the neurons are la
How long until I can buy one of these for myself? Seems like something I'd like broadcast over the internet.
I thought this was a story about Al Gore.
If your bitterest enemies are people who hack the heads off civilians, then I would say you're doing something right.
Then you'd have a stroke, be knocked offline, and if you're lucky you'd be back surfing as Windows XP Home.
Karma whorin' since 1999
...who doesn't give a rat's ass about rat brains?
Ron Paul 2012
You can buy a copy of the robot base they are using, but it doesn't include the cybernetic rat brain.
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Whatever happened to the stereotypical guniea pigs? I think we should put their brains in robots, and see what happens.
When you don't have a leg to stand on, don't even get up.
Ginger ... rat brain robot ... computer that can run Doom3 ... so many choices ... so little money.
Does this remind anyone else of the Simpsons episode where they go to Itchy and Scratchy Land?
``Life results from the non-random survival of randomly varying replicators.'' -- Richard Dawkins
*Add obvious Matrix comment in here*
If you could create a multi-laminar structure, this setup might be ideal for an artificial retina. Currently, the bionic retinas being used are nowhere near as sensitive as they need to be to create any useful phototransduction, even if the neural retinal substrate underneath remained intact (which it does not). A multilaminar device could sandwich photosensitive elements combined with neural substrates that would function as the neural interface to the output of the retina, the remaining ganglion cells.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
Who knew they were transplanting rat brains into aibo robot dogs!
Back in the day, we used to talk about robots. But for us, it was always a frightening thing. Then saturday night live did a commercial about robots stealing our medicine! Believe you me, THAT had me scared for a while! I know it was satire, but it's not hard to imagine robots living off the powerful medicines we old people use!
Not that this isn't cool and all, but:
I don't want to be around when this thing becomes aware enough to take retribution for countless generations of lab rat torture! Someone will stumble into the lab and find a scientist's brain wired into a speak-n-spell, with a rat-bot-shaped hole in the wall and a trail of cheese crumbs...
"Here's another one: 'More brains, and bring back Hawaiian Fridays'"
5 -03&res=l
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2002-0
I think it'd be perfect (aka simple minded).
Some find a pied piper. Should cause absolute mayhem in the lab as all the robots take off out the door simultaneously.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
Whoa! I know Rat-Fu.
Shodan is it??
"Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn't been good to you so far
Specifically, the part at the end:
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Gives a new meaning to the word salesdroid. That is still a lot of grey matter for the average salesman, this bot is going to be a sales genius.
Pinky : "Gee, Brain what do you want to do tonight?"
: "The same thing we do every night Pinky. Try to take over the world!"
Brain
This rat-to-robot or robot-to-rat research thing is strange. Two things spring to mind :
- Isn't this rat brain interfacing business just a clever way of saying "ahem, moving right along" after decades of general-purpose AI research failure ?
- What the hell do these people target rats that much ? don't mice do the trick too ? or cats or dogs ? Some years ago, bio-computer interfacing experiments were conducted with squids, because they have very large neurons that are easy to work with : have squids complained to the PETA ? or maybe some of these researchers have pest have family members who work in the rats control business.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
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Click here to complete the registration process. Thank you for giving us your private information...normally we pay big bucks for this stuff.Robots using biological brainmatter.. hmm .. I see the Matrix comming..
I've left to find myself. If you happen to see me, please, keep me there until I return.
Seems fitting that NYTimes ran a story on this. How long before we start to see these things in NYC subway tunnels?
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
Now we have a rat's brain doing the cyberdyne chip part. Well we all know what a rat behaves like. the cyberdyne chip inside Arnold Schwarzenegger was at least able to say 'Hasta la Vista'. When the cyberdyne chip and its factory was 'terminated' , terminator Arnold had to destroy himself too, to completely anihilate cyberdyne technology.
Well my opinion is to put this crazy stuff on hold. Imagine a rat controlling heavy armed robots. This is for normal sane people a no-go.
Robert
I will wait until i can purchase a ratbrain pci card before I jump on the bandwagon. Imagine the image recognition possibilites :)
Move Zig!
"And then the old man's kids came. The robot remembered them and began to cry. But the tears short circuited the robot and he died and fell onto the kids. And none of them lived..." Hope that doesn't happen!
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Does the rat wonder why the f--k it has a robotic body?
anyone have models or data on these experiments available ? i'd love to have a mathematical model of a set of rat neurons.
How do they keep the nerve cells alive? Are they actually fed, oxygenated, and protected from infection?
What is the ETA of the first rat Matrix? Are the dates coincidental? I think not!
hoch
2*31*37*263
They are only using female rats for this experiment. If they use male rats the report would probably look something like
....
Monday morning
Robot tried too shag other robots
Monday afternoon
Robot refused to move from candy vending machine
Monday evening
Robot tried too shag other robots
Tuesday morning
Robot tried too shag other robots
$3000 for a decent droid isn't too bad, but what's even better is that brains are only $16 these days. And nope, that's not a goatse link. His brain would be even cheaper.
I thought Neal Stephenson documented these things in Snow Crash back in '92.
If you don't know the reference, it's worth reading. Snow Crash got at 9.5 rating on slashdot
Click here for story without registering.
---- "Excuse me. Where's the children's gun section?"
Robot : "Gee, Brain what do you want to do tonight?" : "The same thing we do every night Pinky. Follow that stupid light around!"
Brain
This is much more like Robocop than any other movie analgoy. Imagine the sheer horror of waking up one day, and finding that your body is a mechanical construct.
That's probably how the rat feels.
From some ancient sci-fi novel I can't recall.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
Comedy "how long until I get my flying cyborg body?" option.
/sa
Transhumanism is about controlling the input and output to the "self", wherever it is. It really won't be like robocop at all...you'll just have a brain (or whatever part is needed) and can swap everything else out. Most transhumanists want to kill or control lesser beings, so best be informed so you can join them.
-Libertarian secular transhumanist
Must be smart rats they're serving it off... Hasn't been slashdotted yet...
Sprinkled right through Cordwainer Smith's short stories written in the 1960s are altered animals and bio-computers. In particular one of his stories (I wish I could remember which one - "Think Blue, Count Two"?) mentions a computer made of "laminated mouse brain". Few things seem to happen today that weren't anticipated earlier by at least one sci-fi writer...
If you are looking for more information or a new perspective, check out the actual news release by Georgia Tech.
Georgia Tech Researchers Use Lab Cultures to Control Robotic Device
Go Yellow Jackets!
As a scientist, I regret that you are not my animal.
I doubt that we will ever figure out - and I suspect that even if we did figure out we couldn't do much about it
No distatesful GWB jokes here, please - he got almost half of the votes.
I doubt that we will ever figure out - and I suspect that even if we did figure out we couldn't do much about it
We must destroy the Daleks before it's too late!
Hybrid Robot Uses Rat Brain
:)
Oh my sweet love of god. I haven't read the story and that scares the shit out of me!
It should read:
Rat Brain Uses Hybrid Robot
-- thinkyhead software and media
For anyone that's interested, Cordwainer Smith wrote about this stuff back in the '60s.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
As much as I appreciate research towards human/machine interfaces, I have to agree.
Why not use donated brain tissue from humans? If research like this is really promising, I'd find it hard to believe that at least other scientists in the field wouldn't be willing to have theirs used in the event of their death by natural or accidental causes. It would also provide a better model for what this is supposed to be used for eventually.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
And I just saw the preview for T3!
At least we'll never run out of politicians now. :-)
Karma: Excellent Birds (mostly as a result of listening to Laurie Anderson)
Experimenting on animals makes me sick. Just because you can doesn't mean it's right.
Imagine a rat controlling heavy armed robots. This is for normal sane people a no-go.
How about a cute fluffy little kitty-cat controlling heavy armed robots?
or maybe a daemon's?
I can't seem to remember if anyone in The Golden Compass trilogy had a penguin for a daemon, though I suspect Linux has been ported the alethiometer platform.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
Dreams of God and Men by William Thomas Quick The device is called a "Meatbox", a computer made of neural material.
meh
"Enough of this wretched, whining monkey life." -- Marcus Aurelius, _Meditations_, Book 9, 37
It's not saying "AI has failed". We always knew AI problems were tricky, but they're just far more difficult than we previously thought. Progress takes one baby step at a time.
Rats are probably used because they're in ample supply, breed quickly, and their brains (although still tiny) are probably a little larger than those in mice - extracting and dealing with them will be less difficult. Mice can be quite tiny animals. Cats & dogs - well, they can relate to you, you can relate to them. Killing them would be even less pleasant than killing rats through experimentation.
Interfacing computers with neurons is a whole other field. The field of such control mechanisms have a name - cybernetics. They're leading up to devices such as a prosthetic full-motion arm, hands and fingers that is almost indistinguishable to a natural arm. And humans voluntarily become cyborgs.
If you extend the flesh-machine interface to it's technology limit you can have: Limb and even a complete *body* replacement (those bodies will be more perfect, durable, reliable and desirable than the fleshy ones they've replaced - and they don't even have to look humanoid); a perfect man-machine interface; virtual world technology on a level with those presented in "The Matrix".
If the human race is stable enough, survives long enough - and has the inclination to research it - the many of the technologies presented in "Ghost In The Shell" will be widespread, commonplace reality.
Sure, they can give brains to rats, but I'll be impressed when they do the same the politicians.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
If it was sufficiently advanced, I can imagine situations where a super-advanced mechanical body would be fun to have. But it would have to be significantly better than flesh and blood.
I'm not sure that you or I would be the right person, or if it will happen within our lifetimes - but I'm sure that given sufficient technology and enough time the first human will voluntarily undergo the procedure. And then many more will follow.
What they didn't tell you was they also hooked up an artificial speech generator. What did the rat say?
What are we going to do tonight, Brain?
The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to hook you up to the Borg!
From the article:
"...that operates on the basis of the neural activity of rat brain cells grown in a dish"
And, from the write-up:
"the layer of rat neurons is grown over an array of electrodes..."
Did you not pick up on the hint that these neurons were not taken from a rat? They were cultured in a fucking petri dish.
And if you really have such a problem with animal experimentation, you should realize two things: 1, that this type of testing can lead to a great many lives saved in the future, as well as the possible advent of cybernetic replacement for lost/malformed body parts, and 2, that the only alternatives are to volunteer yourself, or destroy the possibility of this branch of science reaching fruition.
One more thing. I'm not sure, but I believe that the human cerebellum is too complex in its input/output for us to perform this type of experiment with. We can do some work in that area, but this type of interface would be far beyond anything attempted thus far. (At least, that's my hypothesis...if someone knows otherwise, let me know)
When moderating, assume I have not yet had my coffee.
Why go through the extra trouble? When you create something new, there's a lot of trial and error involved so you wouldn't really get a "better model" right off the bat (I'm assuming the "future use" you refer to is control of prosthetic limbs and the such). Right now, interface of any mechanics with any organic neurons is enough of a step forward...they don't even yet know if the thing is going to actually learn and become better at its tasks, they just hope it will.
Warning: Opinions known to be heavily biased.
I have a hard time thinking they can expect these systems to learn without a positive/negative feedback system - you know, do something wrong, get punished, do something right, get rewarded. Why should the cells be trained to go toward a light if they have no way of knowing (read: receiving feedback indicating) whether the light is good or bad? Another interesting thing to research is what the mechanism actually is that does this in people and animals.
Actually, they were taken from a rat, they were just explanted on to a petri dish to grow. If you really want the details, they are taken from a live pup that was surgically removed from the mother's uterus - its called embronic cultures. Its also the only way to get decent rat cultures, so get used to it. And you are right, it is worth it.
Yet another case where half of me says "Hmmm, that's fascinating..." whilst the other half screams "You sick fucks! What in the name of God are you doing?!" It's not easy being a hippie/cyberpunk/artsy/nerdy/outdoorsey/straight edge/gamer
It's sad when choosing an installation directory on your own qualifies you as an "advanced user."
I have seen this guy give a talk every year for 5 years. He always says the same thing "we are close to observing something here." The truth is that no one has a clue whether he will ever see anything in these cultures that is meaningful. These are dissociated cells that are living in a culture dish. The laminar structure that the hippocampus has is destroyed in this process. It would be like throwing a bunch of wires together and hoping to come up with a few logic gates. It is all hype right now. The neurons are not "controlling" the robot at all - the neurons have yet to show any organized activity. Even if they did - would you know what it meant??? I would be very surprised if this ever worked in its current incarnation...
oh sure until one of these little rat thingies gets a hold of the red pill, then we're all doomed.
/* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
1000-2000 neurons is a teensy ammount.
your average female worker bee (a drone) has about 10,000 neurons. This little smear of cells has no idea if it's a rat.
The curious thing is here, is couldn't they use the technique of cells grown over electically sensitive latices to perhaps provide a way to repair spinal columns that have suffered a severance? Grow a lattice on each end of the physically seperated nerve ends and patch the difference with some wire. Sweet!
In this case, it would now be a "familiar". No matter how strange it looked.
OTH, you could talk to the guys who did the Batman robo-penguins.
First, no Beowulf for them ! No Way !
And early to bed without supper !
That ought to do it !
Ok. We'll all be safe then.
And, just in case, keep some duct tape handy.
Why ? Well, to er... Uh, yeah, "isolate". That's it !
That can make house clean faster.
whatever
- Cause this is MY united states of whatever Troll
Frankenrat. Wonderful.
You might never have had to do battle with mice, or rats, for that matter. They can be very sofisticated (and efficient) in the pursuit of their simple objectives. Certainly would make great programmers. But moderation doesn't seem to be their thing.
... etc. scenario ? Imagine nanomulch doing the same with wetware upgrades to try and stamp out situation normals created by previous versions itself had marketed ?
The thought of the sheer single-minded intensity with which they renewedly go after their objectives (your house, your food, your farm - soon theirs), ported to some misguided appliance... In retrospect, "Runaway" would seem a rosy fairy tale.
Ever see that cartoon where Daffy is the hotel clerk and Porky is the client that needs sleep ? Remember the mouse - cat - dog - lion
Brings to mind a lot of cheap movies with self-mounting evil hardware. There's that one with Chekov, then there's also that one with Jamie Lee, then... etc.
Heads up, folks, times are about to get more interesting, even...
Tie a magnesium flare to a cat's tail and throw it in to the lab.
Confucius said something about naming names being one of the most important jobs there can be.
This case names itself.
Witness the creation of : Molotov Cat.
Maybe this rat could be used to bell the cat, making life safe for all the leetle meecies?
They invade our kitchens, and we fall back. They steal entire cheeses, and we fall back. Not again. The line must be drawn here! This far, and no farther. And I will make the mice-borg pay for what they have done!
Repeal the DMCA!
By spontaneous generation, no doubt.
There is a mess in the works if we use human brain cells-- Donated brain tissue from a scientist would NOT be nice, fresh, young, embryonic tissue. Also, imagine the flap we would have if we could use donated brain tissue from a scientist. The fundamentalists would be asking if we were dealing with creation. Does this robot now have a soul?
Look at the controversy with stem cell research. Rats are a good choice because frankly nobody likes them very much. I they were using dog (embryonic) pups to harvest cells people would be coming after the scientists with pitchforks and torches.
Harpo Tunnel Syndrome--my wrist feels funny.
NOW I understand why the scientists have been prodding and poking my noggin lately
Rat
Burma?
... didn't I see something like this in Robocop? And Robocop 2? And Robocop 3? It only worked out for 'em once with a human brain. OCP made a mess trying to find the secret of this technology.
today is spelling optional day.
Put a female brain in a RealDoll. :)
eseehC ...eseehC....eseeeeeehC
I hope you all understand the joke.
Willie Nelson
I'm my own Grandpa.
first robocop, now roborat, whats next, robohumans? hmmm, yikes!
Doesn't this have a striking resemblance to a certain Dr. Who episode with the creation of the daleks (as far as I remember, "the genesis of the daleks" episode) where the brains of genetically enhanched ferocious animal was used as a basis for the supreme dalek intellect. So this is where it all began?
Exterminate Exterminate, Slashdot is an enemy of the daleks.. EXTERMINATE
with 2 wheels.
In soviet Russia, robot controll rat.
In Soviet Russia, Chernobyl goes boom.
In My Apartment, Staying up late working on paper SUCKS.
I Mean, it'd be nice if Natalie Portman was here... uh... SUCKING. But papers just SUCK. Now that Ive seen the matrix... I wonder if the Source was Open Source. I guess not... mostve been closed source - if it was open the anomaly would have been fixed.
DAMN.
Trinity is the SHIZNAT.
PROPS TO MATTS MOM.
For more information about the hybrot, you can read A Hybrot, the Rat-Brained Robot or Researchers use lab cultures to control robotic device
I can't wait to put my brain in a robot body!
-=[You cannot consistently judge this statement to be true.]=-
Wake me up when they attach the frickin' lasers.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
How long before they can put a cat's brain in a female android body?
...Beowulf clusters of cheese :)
"So there he is, risen from the dead. Like that fella, E. T." - Father Ted Crilly
Am I the only one who can't help thinking about the Rat Things in Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash" when reading this?
:P
I'd watch out real close when near one of those...before you know it, there'll be UberRats that bite
Every expression is true, for a given value of 'true'
It's more similar to that episode from the Rescue Rangers ("Does Pavlov Ring a Bell") where Dr Nimnul uses a rodent to steer a robot to commit bank robberies. :-)
What is this, dumb hippocampus experiment week? First the guys with their "hippocampus on a chip," and now this. It's not a network unless the cells are connected together. This is a suspension of cells that have settled onto an array of electrodes. Unless there's more to it that I can see, the cells are not synapsing with each other, they certainly don't have any of the structure or learning they have in vivo, and I can't see how he got this funded by NIH.
obscure reference to Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe
www.zbs.org
.
.
I don't know HTML!
Logic, macros, and more
Pinky: What are we going to do today.
Brain: Same thing we do everyday, take over the world! (...) If only I could make my left wheel move. Ahhh!
Maybe this is a solution to the energy crisis ..... rig up rat brains to control all our computers, but keep some of the rat's digestive system too. Then you could power the whole thing on sunflower seeds!
Despite a persitent and erroneour rumor, Khepera II price is $1'800 -- K-Team S.A. Mobile Robots for Research, Education, and Hobby http://www.k-team.com http://www.hemisson.com
a rat has to use its brain to find food, evade carnivores and find mates for reproduction. A robot doesn't have to, so it can use the brain more efficiently
Fit it with a hearing and the ability to make human sounds to see if it can learn to speak. I wonder what it would say? Doubt it would be to gratefull...
So whats next, cat, dog, chimp, human?
Really guys I like tech as much as anyone, but screwing up living creatures is just bad karma.
Is it not bed enough we eat just every living creature on the planet.
This whole thing reminds me of the bad guy in Robocop 2. I just hope they don't use a criminal rat's brain and use drugs addiction to control it. We all know what happens when you try to do that... You make a bad movie.
Totally Life!
ALL replies
...was done by artist/writer Mike Saenz in his 80's comic "Shatter". He even had a diagram of "bug-bomb" robots with rat brains for processors because they were cheaper to use than microchips.
Also of note: "Shatter" was the first commercial comic book to be produced by computer (the Mac to be specific).
Wait a minute! "rat built machine"? That doesn't sound right. Somebody check the script!
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one " -Albert Einstein
This reminds me of previous posts of similar experiments involving eel and lamprey brains. So, this doesn't exactly seem like anything new. (Those other articles were from 2000 and 2001!) So it just seems like they used a rat brain instead of an eel or lamprey brain. Even having the "light sensor attraction" thing was done with the lampreys.
Karma: NaN
I immediately thought of Spock's Brain
Luma:
"What is brain? Brain is controller?"
McCoy is confident before performing surgery to replace Spock's brain:
"Why it's so simple a child could do it."
Am I the only person who's ever heard the term "rat brain" used in an entirely different context, along with other classics like the chicken heart and flying squirrel?
"Hybrid Robot Uses Rat Brain" George W. Bush must have been the prototype...
Here's a link to an enthusiasts page, and here's the MIT researcher Dr Linda Griffith-Cima who's spearheading the research. more on her at the MIT website. Finally here's the largely ignored /. article
will they break the mythical $200 price barrier before christmas and make it to everyone's gift list?
from the makers of Tickle Me Elmo - It's RoboRodent!
I now know that I can live for ever inside a computer all they have to do is keep my brain alive... I'll be playing doom 3 much more realisticly than i thought :) (No fancy videocard required)
so many prisoners !
Just what we need... A computer that needs FOOD!
http://www.englishfirst.org
And think about how the net is making all this possible. As high-speed increases, we get fast downloads of large volumes of data, streamed video or audio. Seriously, if the scientific community could be completely open about things, such as say AIDS... a global open net discussion might come up with a solution (provided they can adequately filter the trolls).
Blogs are spawning online science journals... medical information wants to be free
I built an similiar system a decade ago and turned it loose in society. My was slightly more human in appearance and behavior, but still obviously "not all there". But it did manage to get itself elected as President....
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
Geez,
This scientist fan is taking 'Matrix Reloaded' a little too far!
What happens if one day he turns on his office lights and finds Rat-Neo ?
I wonder what is www.peta.org stance on RatBots?
Ms Geek, hope things work out :)
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Cordwainer Smith's SF was weird and wonderful, but the very last author I'd ever expect to see any ideas become reality.
Check out "Think Two, Count Blue" for a laminated rat brain
Show me the monney
Rat vs Mobot: The John Henry Project
I'm looking forward to 2045 when I can replace my aging body with cybernetics. Painless, modular, strong.
Okay, could someone remind me which animals have souls and which don't? Is it only humans? It's hard to tell sometimes, especially when other animals exhibit soulful behavior.
Woops! This is the correct link to soulful behavior. Sorry.
Now Slashdot will be hearing from the Church of Scientology, because /. used the phrase "rat brain" in a headline.
http://www.matrix4.net details info about robots that are smarter than humans! :)
check it out
peace!
Are you thinking what I'm thinking Pinky?
Ah,.,.
I think so brain.