http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20041018/brain.html That's worrying, yet, so incredibly cool. 15 years till we see the military using it on humans and 30-40 years till we see commercial neural interfaces?
I could definitely see the US military wanting this tech and I agree - very worrying: From CNN - "Yes, it has been confirmed. The rat brain pilot of the F-22 did in fact fire 2 missiles at the zoo's large cat compound." Seriously though, a neural interface would
Its even better u close Ive seen heart cells up close and working in groups in a petri dish before. Very cool. Begs the question though: Why do we pay men and women lots of money to risk their lives when a rats noggin and a remote connection can do the same?
A very interesting and impressive breakthrough imo, especially that it can learn. There was a show on Discovery I think last year that had a dude who had a remote controlled rat with electrodes in its brain. Bit o/t but it was pretty cool when he was driving it round a maze.
Pretty soon they may be using human brains! Everyone that fears their work will be taken over by machines will love the possibility of a rat doing their job.
Funny. Years ago I pitched to the designers of the game I-War (if you remember that one) the idea of a bee brain interfaced to the flight computer. It would have great innate flight and navigational capability. Other ships in its fleet would be seen as other members of its hive, weapons would be its "stinger", and it would see planets as flowers and the home base as a hive which it would instinctively defend. Enemy vessels would be perceived as hostile wasps. An insect brain would be more logical. Some studies have been done of the fly's inertial navigation and flight systems, and I tell you, how these little pests are put together is more impressive than the best fighterjet!
