Think And Click

cecil36 writes: "Yahoo! has reported that scientists have discovered neural technology that allowed a monkey to control a mouse cursor using the brain. ... Further reading states that this technology can be used with the paralyzed or those with Lou Gehrig's Disease to allow them to use their computers."

It wasn't reported but...

[Anonymous Coward]

They used the monkey's internal wiring to allow it to manipulate a peripheral "arm" that was attached to a "hand" with several digits allowing not only the movement of the mouse but also pressing of buttons as well.

Hooray for Science!

Finaly!

[bflong]

Does this mean that I can finaly have the "Focus Follow's Brain" option in my window manager? I'm tired of telling people in IRC what shell commands I'm trying to run and I don't like my naughty IRC comments being logged in .bash_history.

Re:Neat.

[Winged Cat]

It might improve your response time, if the signal travels faster from brain through reader to cable into computer, than from brain through neural system to hand to mouse to cable to computer.

The upgrade I'm looking forward to is when they can emulate the individual neurons in chips, then replace the neurons (one by one if necessary) and accelerate any discrete subsystems that have been fully replaced. Output to computer should then go a bit faster, not to mention better possibility of revival if my body gets shut down (and I don't mean just sleep).

Integrating protheses in the neural loop

[SysKoll]

The real nifty applications will come when this neuronal interfacing technology will be used to bypass deficient nerve links (spine damage) or to supplement/replace deficient muscle (muscular dystrophy and a ton of other debilitating illnesses).

I think focusing on computers is missing the point. It's not the ability to send email that is important here. It's the possibility of having protheses and artificial capacities integrated in the neural feedback loop. Prothesic legs that 1) you can contol by thought instead of having to provide commands, and 2) send back balance information, now that would be a revolution.

We are getting closer. That's an excellent news.

-- SysKoll

Potential for abuse...

[MenTaLguY]

While I'm sure this could substantially enhance the lives of the paralyzed (for example), the widespread use of such systems in e.g. driving or piloting (particularly by healthy individuals) could be a real problem.

If there's one lesson the Internet has taught us, it's that the less separation there is between thought and action, the more people will do stupid things.

The area of the brain mentioned in the article has to do with the early "desire to act", long before many of the normal checks and balances governing our actions come into play.

Has anyone seen the episode of Red Dwarf where Lister gets the prosthetic arm and can't stop it from beating up Kryten?

New research field for AI?

[hklingon]

Bare with me for just a moment - Anyone read the Quantum Leap books? Beckett used a part of his own brain to help create Ziggy.. to help bridge the gap between sheer computation and human reasoning.. .

That and this article provoke an interesting thought - can this sort of technology be used to prematurely enable "artificial" intelligence in computers? Think about it: an advanced, organic brain being fed information from digital sources, and those sources of information reacting to the thoughts of the brain. It could enable a monkey to have very advanced visual and auditory inputs... would human-like intelligence come about? This is another form of the question chimpanzee researchers have been asking for ages: What if chimps had the physical ability for something as advanced as vocal speech?

Wendell