Robot MonkeyScientists have progressed one step closer to my dream of being the laziest person in the world by way of controlling computers and robots with my mind. Neuroscientists at Duke University teamed up with a robot in Kyoto, Japan to take us one step closer. Back in 2003 they were able to hook up electrodes to a monkey’s brain and have it control a robotic arm. This time they went much farther and actually had a monkey in South Carolina, Idoya, make a robot in Kyoto walk simply with her thoughts. The development of a human-to-computer interface would have countless applications in every walk of life. Soldiers controlling robots, mechanized physical enhancements, computers and video games controlled directly by thoughts (no more searching for the “any” key), to any number of applications we probably can’t even imagine.

As for closer to real world applications,

These experiments, Dr. Nicolelis said, are the first steps toward a brain machine interface that might permit paralyzed people to walk by directing devices with their thoughts. Electrodes in the person’s brain would send signals to a device worn on the hip, like a cell phone or pager, that would relay those signals to a pair of braces, a kind of external skeleton, worn on the legs.

Which seems simply amazing to think about. Dare I say, the singularity is near?

(image from Robot Death Monkey)

Update- Others Blogging: The Speculist, Frank J, Instapundit

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