Why, I remember the olden days before/. user accounts. I consider my UID to be artificially high because I waited days (weeks?) before signing up when they became available.
That these signals exist in our brain is no marvel. It is obvious. The news coverage focuses on the wrong aspect of the research. The question is how well their technique works. A device to control a prosthesis better have very high accuracy.
Burning biofuels produces CO2, as does burning fossil fuels. The production of biofuels requires clearing land and driving tractors, both of which also produce CO2. Cleared land is worse for fixing carbon from CO2. The amounts probably are bigger than the amount of CO2 produced by fossil fuel extraction. This story has been big in the news, but the finding seemed obvious with minimal thought.
How long is a portion? How sensitive is the control to temporal resolution? How many neurons were recorded? What was the decoding strategy? What was the information rate of the recorded neural signal in bits per second?
These questions are some of the ones I had in mind. The article does not go into this level of detail.
Being able to read the monkey's brain sounds like the only innovation here, not making the robot walk.
No, reading the monkey's brain has been done many times before. This report is gee-whiz, but nothing in it is very innovative.
So, what is the monkey really doing? I doubt if he is even thinking "left, right, left, right" because even that would be hard to coordinate with so much lag.
When you walk, you don't think "left, right, left, right." A lot of the rhythm generator is accomplished by central pattern generators, many of the ones involved are in the spinal cord. The same way the brain engages the walk routine built into downstream parts of the nervous system, the brain can engage the walk routine built into a Japanese robot.
Finally, why is there a damn robot in the first place?
There is a robot because this group's ultimately goal is to develop neural prosthetics. They have done experiments controlling computer animations, as have quite a few other research groups.
My guess is that they are simply getting a binary command value from the monkey: "walk" or "don't walk".
You have a good point here. How finely grained is the monkey's control of the robot? The article does not tell us. I looked unsuccessfully for a corresponding scientific publication. I hope this study is published soon with more details about how specific and how precise the control really is.
Where there is no median, have the emergency vehicle drive on the wrong side of the road. Where there is a median, have the light in that direction turn green and all the rest turn red.
I, too, thought of toxoplasmosis when I read this news. Here is an article from back in the spring about research into the specific effects on rats and mice. Parasite-host interactions are fascinating, especially ones that involve several life cycle stages and multiple hosts, such as this one.
For some people, the desire for longevity is overriding, but that motivation is not universal. Many humans behave in many ways that are highly likely to result in immediate death. People jaw on and on about longevity and certain death when facing these questions, but it misses the point. There have always been adventurous individuals among us. The scale of the question posed is different, but I'm not so sure we're wired up to think so well about scale anyway.
Despite medical advances, death remains 100% certain. Are you posting from a ship?
The Age of Exploration? Yes, but the story is not limited to that time and place. The Age of Exploration did not set out from east central Africa. The story has been repeated in many age throughout human existence.
It is not always a matter of choosing emigration over squalor. Adventure has its appeal, and while the bulk of people might prefer to follow tradition, there always are some who buck it. For one of the immigrant ancestors, the family lore is that his life was good at home. He was being funded by a wealthy uncle to attend college. It was not his plan, though, and he took off.
It is strange how averse many people are to the idea. I know of specific ancestors who boarded ships with vague notions of their destination and slim possibilities for return. Many families have similar stories.
Considering that only a small fraction of humans live in central eastern Africa or wherever humans originated, leaving home to seek new lands with little hope of return is a historically common event. Of course, nobody yet has set out for a barren world many millions of miles away, but many have faced daunting journeys and long odds.
I wondered whether a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) would have been a good choice. The batteries used weigh 7.15 kg to deliver about 100 W (1). RTGs in development to deliver about the same power weigh 34 kg and 2). These RTGs are being developed for the next generation rover, the Mars Science Laboratory.
Slashdot Mirror
Why, I remember the olden days before /. user accounts. I consider my UID to be artificially high because I waited days (weeks?) before signing up when they became available.
Do you know about Al Green?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Green#Turn_to_Gospel
I waited until those sidebars got cool to register. 510 has served me well enough, though.
That these signals exist in our brain is no marvel. It is obvious. The news coverage focuses on the wrong aspect of the research. The question is how well their technique works. A device to control a prosthesis better have very high accuracy.
Burning biofuels produces CO2, as does burning fossil fuels. The production of biofuels requires clearing land and driving tractors, both of which also produce CO2. Cleared land is worse for fixing carbon from CO2. The amounts probably are bigger than the amount of CO2 produced by fossil fuel extraction. This story has been big in the news, but the finding seemed obvious with minimal thought.
What did these researchers make go extinct? They wiped out a whole kingdom? Awesome. Humans are awesome.
No, you not know monkey talk.
"Monkey hate technology"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_QsCXm1vrk
James Kochalka Superstar
Look article. Now monkey control robot. Robot walk for monkey, even when monkey stop walk. Monkey p0wn robot. Monkey win!
How long is a portion? How sensitive is the control to temporal resolution? How many neurons were recorded? What was the decoding strategy? What was the information rate of the recorded neural signal in bits per second?
These questions are some of the ones I had in mind. The article does not go into this level of detail.
No, reading the monkey's brain has been done many times before. This report is gee-whiz, but nothing in it is very innovative.
When you walk, you don't think "left, right, left, right." A lot of the rhythm generator is accomplished by central pattern generators, many of the ones involved are in the spinal cord. The same way the brain engages the walk routine built into downstream parts of the nervous system, the brain can engage the walk routine built into a Japanese robot.
There is a robot because this group's ultimately goal is to develop neural prosthetics. They have done experiments controlling computer animations, as have quite a few other research groups.
You have a good point here. How finely grained is the monkey's control of the robot? The article does not tell us. I looked unsuccessfully for a corresponding scientific publication. I hope this study is published soon with more details about how specific and how precise the control really is.
Where there is no median, have the emergency vehicle drive on the wrong side of the road. Where there is a median, have the light in that direction turn green and all the rest turn red.
RTFA, rm999 and moderators. This very point comes up at the end.
I, too, thought of toxoplasmosis when I read this news. Here is an article from back in the spring about research into the specific effects on rats and mice. Parasite-host interactions are fascinating, especially ones that involve several life cycle stages and multiple hosts, such as this one.
Good for us
http://www.resurrectdead.com/
http://www.toynbee.net/
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=40111350
Yeah, I lurked for a while, too. I think customization, specifically slashboxes, led me to register.
How about gifts for loyal /.ers? Let's say UID = 1000.
For some people, the desire for longevity is overriding, but that motivation is not universal. Many humans behave in many ways that are highly likely to result in immediate death. People jaw on and on about longevity and certain death when facing these questions, but it misses the point. There have always been adventurous individuals among us. The scale of the question posed is different, but I'm not so sure we're wired up to think so well about scale anyway.
Despite medical advances, death remains 100% certain. Are you posting from a ship?
The Age of Exploration? Yes, but the story is not limited to that time and place. The Age of Exploration did not set out from east central Africa. The story has been repeated in many age throughout human existence.
It is not always a matter of choosing emigration over squalor. Adventure has its appeal, and while the bulk of people might prefer to follow tradition, there always are some who buck it. For one of the immigrant ancestors, the family lore is that his life was good at home. He was being funded by a wealthy uncle to attend college. It was not his plan, though, and he took off.
Just imagine being the Martian Virginia Dare. Someday centuries from now, bigots will idolize you and use your name.
It is strange how averse many people are to the idea. I know of specific ancestors who boarded ships with vague notions of their destination and slim possibilities for return. Many families have similar stories.
Considering that only a small fraction of humans live in central eastern Africa or wherever humans originated, leaving home to seek new lands with little hope of return is a historically common event. Of course, nobody yet has set out for a barren world many millions of miles away, but many have faced daunting journeys and long odds.
Not mine. You can't.
The less than sign threw off parsing. The link leads to a table of RTGs used. Yes, Galileo had two RTGs.
I wondered whether a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) would have been a good choice. The batteries used weigh 7.15 kg to deliver about 100 W (1). RTGs in development to deliver about the same power weigh 34 kg and 2). These RTGs are being developed for the next generation rover, the Mars Science Laboratory.
e r#Power_and_electronic_systemso ry#Power_source
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Exploration_Rov
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Science_Laborat
Nor do I.
In America, composers build songs.
In Soviet Rosslyn, composers sang a building.