Intercontinental Mind-Meld Unites Two Rats

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Intercontinental Mind-Meld Unites Two Rats

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday February 28, 2013 @05:25AM from the my-squeeks-to-your-squeeks dept.

ananyo writes "The brains of two rats on different continents have been made to act in tandem. When the first, in Brazil, uses its whiskers to choose between two stimuli, an implant records its brain activity and signals to a similar device in the brain of a rat in the United States. The U.S. rat then usually makes the same choice on the same task. Miguel Nicolelis, a neuroscientist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, says that this system allows one rat to use the senses of another, incorporating information from its far-away partner into its own representation of the world. 'It's not telepathy. It's not the Borg,' he says. 'But we created a new central nervous system made of two brains.' Nicolelis says that the work, published today, is the first step towards constructing an organic computer that uses networks of linked animal brains to solve tasks. But other scientists who work on neural implants are skeptical."

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cool. by geekoid · 2013-02-28 05:30 · Score: 2

". But other scientists who work on neural implants are skeptical.""
as they should be,. It's a big deal, as such it will require good data and be repeatable.

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1. Re:cool. by jfengel · 2013-02-28 06:36 · Score: 2
  
  The impression I get from TFA is not that they're skeptical that it can be repeated. Rather, they're skeptical that there is any important advance here. They've been doing implants to send and receive signals for some time. Since only a single bit is being transferred ("Go"), it's a pretty poor sort of "mind meld". It's not really thoughts being transferred at all, just a mental button-push, which they've been able to do for quite some time on both ends. And the Internet connection in between is pure window-dressing; it comes as no surprise to anybody that you can transfer a bit over the Internet.
  The complexities of behavior are not at all due to the signal being sent. Those were laboriously trained in. All that was needed was the single "go" signal. With all the extraneous factors, it's hard to tell what's actually novel here, and the razzle-dazzle of those extraneous factors suggests that the answer is "nothing".
  I'm sure it's actually more than nothing, since there is a difference between "we knew that we could do that" and "we actually did it". But it's far, far less than the press release makes it sound.
What are we going to do today, Brain? by Jeremi · 2013-02-28 05:31 · Score: 4, Funny

Oh c'mon Pinky, you already know, you DMA'd it from me 250nS ago.

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I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
I for one... by srobert · 2013-02-28 05:33 · Score: 2

... refuse to issue the standard obligatory decades old Simpson's joke that typically accompanies a story like this one.
1. Re:I for one... by camperdave · 2013-02-28 06:16 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I for one refuse to issue the standard obligatory decades old Simpson's joke that typically accompanies a story like this one.
  ... out of respect to our cyber-enhanced rat overlords.
  
  --
  When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Re:Intercontinental? by gmclapp · 2013-02-28 05:34 · Score: 3, Informative

North America and South America are different continents...

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Common Sense (+1)
Rat Wireheading by lazarus · 2013-02-28 05:36 · Score: 3, Insightful

I notice they do not include a picture of the wireheaded rats (only an artists impression). Probably wise. While I for one believe that the advancement of science to be the greatest height to which a rat could aspire, I have a feeling that others (and possibly the rats) do not feel the same way.

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I am not interested in articles about life extension advancements.
1. Re:Rat Wireheading by slinches · 2013-02-28 05:57 · Score: 2
  
  There's a picture here.
  
  --
  Knowledge Brings Fear
Not the Borg? by Roogna · 2013-02-28 05:39 · Score: 4, Interesting

Actually, sounds almost exactly like what I'd think was the beginnings of the Borg.
1. Re:Not the Borg? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-28 06:02 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Mmm. No, I think the thing that sets the Borg apart from others is their networked mind.
  Geordi had a VISOR / eye implants and Picard had an artificial heart. No one ever said these were a slippery slope to being Borg.
  But directly connecting your mind to another, to lose your sense of individuality, THAT is the first step to full on Borg time.
Re:Intercontinental? by CanHasDIY · 2013-02-28 05:49 · Score: 5, Funny

And I thought Brazil and the United States belonged to the same continent...
Yea, that can happen when you sleep through geography.

--
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Predicted by science fiction? by CRCulver · 2013-02-28 05:52 · Score: 3, Interesting

One of the most unusual concepts of an alien life form I've seen are the Tines in Vinge's novel A Fire upon the Deep , dog or giant rat-like animals that are not individually conscious, but when together in packs form a single sentient organism. In the case of Vinge's novel, neural communication between the individual members of the pack was carried out via ultrasound, not electricity like here, but I wouldn't have imagined that scientists would pursue the same idea at some point.
1. Re:Predicted by science fiction? by deadweight · 2013-02-28 06:29 · Score: 2
  
  If you recall, the Tines (really dogs/wolves - not rats) ended up making wearable radios to extend their intra-pack comms beyond the range of the ultrasound. The packs thus equipped could spread out for miles. JUST LIKE what we just did with the rats.
I want to know the protocol. by QilessQi · 2013-02-28 06:02 · Score: 4, Funny

Clearly we need an RFC for the Brain-To-Brain-Interface Protocol.
Hopefully it'll be built on top of SSL. I don't want someone hacking into my rats.

--
Koans and fables for the software engineer
1. Re:I want to know the protocol. by radtea · 2013-02-28 09:15 · Score: 2
  
  Clearly we need an RFC for the Brain-To-Brain-Interface Protocol.
  You've been modded funny but this is actually insightful.
  The fantasy of "brains working together" is based on a transparently stupid idea: that adding more manpower to a late project will not make it later. Communication and thinking are hard, and brains are decidedly non-standard components, with different internal representations of pretty much everything.
  As a friend who works in GIS is fond of saying, "If I take a group of geologists out in the field and have them map an area, at the end of the day I can tell who mapped where, but not what they mapped." Our internal representations of the world even for such apparently unambiguous concepts as "granite" are sufficiently different that we have genuine trouble agreeing on boundaries between types of rock. And yet for some reason everyone believe that their own person concept of any given thing is "true" and "real" and everyone else is mistaken.
  Even if we could connect two human brains together with high enough bandwidth to do meaningful "co-thinking" the result would look a hell of a lot more like a three-legged race than anything else.
  
  --
  Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
Is one named, ``Lady El''? by WillAdams · 2013-02-28 06:06 · Score: 2

See the science fiction novel, _Lady El_ by Jim Starlin and Dana Graziunas.

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Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
Women.. by singhulariti · 2013-02-28 06:09 · Score: 2

Maybe NOW we can finally understand what the female brain is Really thinking....
Re:Intercontinental? by phantomfive · 2013-02-28 06:14 · Score: 2

It's actually really complicated, some people actually learn in school that North and South America are a single continent. And Wikipedia doesn't mention this, but in Central America, some people consider Central America to be a separate continent as well.

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"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Rats with One Mind by MyLongNickName · 2013-02-28 06:16 · Score: 4, Funny

I hate to break it to the researchers, but getting a pack of rats to operate under the same collective consciousness has been done before

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Re:Intercontinental? by SailorSpork · 2013-02-28 06:36 · Score: 2

Okay, so how about this for a better headline: "Two-headed mutant killer cyber-rats plotting world domination: they share a mind, but may-or-may-not-be-on-different-continents-but-are-at-least-4000-miles-apart. Nothing to contest in that statement now. All happy?
Re:Intercontinental? by Eevee · 2013-02-28 06:42 · Score: 2

North America and South America are different continents...

Citation needed.
The boundaries that make up continents are to a degree arbitrary and depend upon the person making the statement. There's no real justification for Europe being a continent; Europe and a large part of Asia are on one tectonic plate, while the easternmost part of Asia is on the same plate as North America. And the Indian subcontinent is on yet another plate.
So, it's ultimately local custom that determines the number of continents. I've seen Europeans refer to the Americas as one continent. For example, the Olympic rings were at one time intended to represent five continents.

The Olympic flag ... has a white background, with five interlaced rings in the centre: blue, yellow, black, green and red ... This design is symbolic ; it represents the five inhabited continents of the world, united by Olympism, while the six colors are those that appear on all the national flags of the world at the present time. -- Pierre De Coubertin (1931)

(The quote's copied from Wikipedia, so in five minutes it's entirely possible that De Coubertin would have said the flag represents the population of elephants tripling within six months.)
Re:Intercontinental? by Graydyn+Young · 2013-02-28 06:43 · Score: 2

Even as a question of geography, it's still two separate continents. North and South America are each on their own continental plate.
Pinky and the Brain by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-28 06:45 · Score: 2, Funny

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Pinky?"
"Actually, yes, Brain; for once, I am. *narf* *poit*"
Wait... by WillgasM · 2013-02-28 06:57 · Score: 2

So scientists are wiring together rodent brains to create a supercomputer? Maybe my neighbor isn't schizophrenic after all.
Re:Intercontinental? by guantamanera · 2013-02-28 08:02 · Score: 2, Insightful

Depends where you go to school. In Mexico 6 continents. They ignore Antartica sometimes they will say 5 Then I moved to finland, and they count 6. From there we went to czech republic also 6 continents. Then highschool 10th grade in USA they counted 7 continents. I also noticed that refering to a USAian as american is mostly an anglophone thing. While traveling through Europe I could say I am an Amererican, and they knew I was not referring to USA. And it probably was because I do not have a north american english accent or I could speak the local language. And canadians they're are americans they just hate getting confused with their southern neighbour. Even if you say they're From North America they still end up being americans from the north. I took some english classes, studied 1 year in USA and here is how I interpret the name United States of America with my limited english. the key is in the word "OF" a proposition I believe. It says the These united states belong to america. It does not say They are America. Is like saying "the united union of kentucky", "the sons of Carl", "the many cars of Mike" For the name to actually mean the name of the country is America it would have to say it something like this. United American States. Now this would imply they are american and not just belong to. Funny thing is 99% of USAians don't know where the name come from. When you ask they usually end up saying it means freedom or something like that.
Re:What, no Beowulf Cluster joke? by Zaatxe · 2013-02-28 08:31 · Score: 2

Imagine a Beowulf Cluster of these!
A Beowulf Cluster of cheese?

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So say we all
Related Futurama Quote by L.M.T.+Spoon · 2013-02-28 10:02 · Score: 2

"Everyone's in favor of saving Hitler's brain. But when you put it in the body of a great white shark--Ooooh! Suddenly you've gone too far!" --Professor Farnsworth

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e-Vel!