The Cat Cam

PhilHibbs sent us an article from wired that talks about Neuroscientists creating videos from a cats eyes using electrodes implanted in a cats brain. Here are some Pictures.

Comments

Real ethical issues here

[RobotSlave]

It's easy to dismiss ethical issues as "crazed ravings by animal rights nuts," so I feel I have to state up front that I eat meat, wear leather, and use personal hygiene products tested on animals.

The ethical questions would be much more obvious if the test subject were human, of course.

A couple of starting points:

When do we have the right to monitor the perceptions of a living organism?

What effects does this procedure have on the organism? Can it lead a normal life once the probes have been removed?

I think this is good research. I'm not opposed to it. But that's because I've thought these things through.

Mirror

[Eponymous, Showered]

Here ya go.

Hope they don't mind me taking a load off their server. Be gentle, now!

Excellent!

[miracles]

This will totally allow us to use modified fish or for deepsea stuff... and if they can possibly figure out a noninvasive way of inputting rather than outputting from the visual cortex, we won't need monitors anymore!

Cat scan

[TAiNiUM]

Reminds me of a really evil but kinda neat site www.cat-scan.com

Yes its bad i know, but i can't help but share :)

Applications and ethics

[aibrahim]

I am making a huge assumptive leap in the capabilities of the science we see here. I know a lot of what I postulate below is far removed from what can actually be done, but it may be an eventual outcome...though I hope a distant one.

The military might find it attractive to implant this type of system into its troops in the field, and those dolphins they train to redirect enemy torpedoes. (Yeah I know, they say they quit that, but they can always restart it.)

There is a "bright" side of course, this type of recording could be used to train people how to do a by giving them the experiences of someone skilled in that area. You could learn how to play hockey by being Wayne Gretzky for an afternoon.

It is a bit of a stretch, but if this method is extended to other processes you could "teach" certain purely cognitive processes by example. Wouldn't it be neat to learn to do Physics by being Stephen Hawking for a few days. That is about the only way to gain a real insight into how he solves problems and how he understands the universe.

Before this type of "learning" could take place there may have to be a non-invasive method for retrieving the necessary data patterns from a brain.

Unfortunately the possibilites for abuse are so high, it is scary. Just because we can do a thing doesn't mean we should do a thing. It has already been mentioned that certain entities may want to use these possible future systems to monitor criminals.

What if the government decides to monitor anyone with access to classified information ? What if they decide they want to monitor people who are percieved to be a threat ? Let's say they get used to that sort of thing over time, will they then want to monitor everyone all the time ? After all if you have nothing to hide...

What are the boundaries ? What kind of world can this technology create ? What kind of world should this technology create ? Before moving forward too quickly we should understand the extremes of the application possible.

Science Fiction has shown dystopic visions of civilizations equipped with ultimate personal monitoring technology. (1984, Borg...) Has anyone seen a Utopian vision of a community with this technology ? What does it mean to bereft of all personal privacy ? Can humans remain sane without their privacy ? Which, if any, of our thoughts and actions does any government or community have a "need to know ? Is this sort of thing ever appropiate, regardless of the benefits it may provide to civilization ?

Cats as voyeurism-enabling devices

[kinesis]

Alternately, this could be the ultimate voyeur tool

Voyeur: Yeah, baby... take it off for Daddy! That's it... show me the goods-- Hey! Damn cat! Stop playing with blinds, there's a naked woman in there! No, no! Look the other way!

Sense/Net Star

[DrFardook]

Damnit, that cat is the world's first fucking
Sense/Net superstar. It should be eating off
fine china for the rest of its life while the
masses hail it as a godamn messiah of newest
revolution in entertainment. Instead it will
be returned to its numbered cage and end its
life at Gillette doing first hand product
testing.

Is this any way to treat a pop icon?

What's the cat's name? What color is it? Can I
have it?

I hope y'all remember Gibson's Tally Isham.

This cat is the world's first Isham... and we treat it in such a shabby manner.


Dr. Fardook
lycos@bway.net

If the roles were reversed

[DonkPunch]

I know for a fact that my cat would insert implants in my head with a dull butter knife if it meant he could control the can opener and doorknob. :)

Strange, people don't look like canopeners

[Cy Guy]

According to my cat, I look like a giant canopener, unless she has just been fed in which case I look like a doorman.

Of course once in a while I do look like a comfy chair, which is why the cat is still around.

By the way, first post. Also, the picture site seems to have already been hit by the slashdot effect.

Re:great news

[zuvembi]

Could these same ideas be used to realize the
dream of Christopher Reeves to walk again someday?

I'm not sure how well this type of technology would apply to spinal injury repair. I do know that more conventional treatments (chemical, forced tissue growth, some others) are starting to make decent advances in this direction. Scientific American had a very good article on precisely this about one issue back.

September 1999 issue

Repairing the Damaged Spinal Cord
John W. McDonald and the Research Consortium of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation

Paralysis caused by spinal cord injuries has often been seen as irreversible, because disrupted areas of the cord do not regenerate. New treatments under study, however, aim to minimize or reverse the damage from trauma.

Unfortunately they don't have this one online, you'll have to pop down to the newstand to pick it up. I personally think sciam is definitely one of the mags everyone should have a subscription to.

But it looks like (probably) within our lifespan, or even in the next 15-20 years we might be able to correct spinal damage. It's all speculative of course, but still, at least there's some hope now.

This could be trouble....for someone

[emag]

I think every place I've ever worked has had a large stray cat population. Somehow, they always seem to be able to get into the fenced-off areas of the premises. And there's always something requiring one type of clearance or another going on (that's what happens in the defense world....).

Anyway, I'm sure that just about any place w/ enough people has some population of stray animals. Imagine if Boris & Natasha happen to collect up the animals one day, and implant the next generation of these electrodes in the cats, along with transmitters. Suddenly, you've got a large roving population of cameras around places you really don't want pictures taken.

Even if they weren't able to get into any type of restricted area, you'd still likely get several shots of the employees, so you'd know who to target when trying to "turn" someone.

They could even go so far as to train animals from birth to perform certain tasks, such as getting into rooms with doors slightly ajar, knocking over file folders with papers in them and looking at the papers for X seconds, etc. Who would suspect a stray of spying?


Alternately, this could be the ultimate voyeur tool. "Hi, I got you this pet kitten."