Cyborg Rat is Coming!

[MrRING]

gatech.edu/news-room/release.php?id=125
Link is dead. The MIA web article can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20030430120030/http://www.gatech.edu:80/news-room/release.php?id=125

here is a bit if the article:

Georgia Tech Researchers Use Lab Cultures to Control Robotic Device

The Hybrot, a small robot that moves about using the brain signals of a rat, is the first robotic device whose movements are controlled by a network of cultured neuron cells.

Steve Potter and his research team in the Laboratory for Neuroengineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology are studying the basics of learning, memory, and information processing using neural networks in vitro. Their goal is to create computing systems that perform more like the human brain.

 

[Timble2]

A living brain in a robot casing? - it's a prototype Dalek:eek!!!!:

Edit:

Just looked at the photos again, the creator of the cyborg, Steve Potter, bears a striking resemblance to a certain boy wizard - could they be related?

My prediction is for its descendents becoming ‘must have toy/pet’ for Christmas 2020

Seriously, I can hear the protest about ‘playing god’ already.

 

[MrRING]

A living brain in a robot casing? - it's a prototype Dalek:eek!!!!:

Exterminate! Do Not Deviate!

One thing to think about is what this might eventually mean for those people in the future who can afford it - permenent robot bodies that can house the brain of the dying.

The B-Movies of the future will be like: They Saved Ricky Martin's Brain and They are Prepared to Use It!

 

[NilesCalder]

Just looked at the photos again, the creator of the cyborg, Steve Potter, bears a striking resemblance to a certain boy wizard - could they be related?

He looks more like Bill Gates... :eek!!!!:

 

[Pete Younger]

He looks more like Bill Gates... :eek!!!!:

Oh my god, your right......send in the clones.:gaga:

 

[akaWiintermoon]

A living brain in a robot casing?

Not having a clue as to what a host of 'vitro/stem cell/nuronicthings and metal casting' as a collective is, many thanks to you Timble for explaining.
'K, so not having obviously got the full gyst of things here, I take it us humans are experimenting on the poor animals again? Well, I thought reading down, if they're looking into brain function that closely, at least look at all he nurological and mental health illnessess they could shed light on and possibly cure.
But pah, I'm such an idealist. We're not disecting innocennt creatures here to maybe even help those in need, no, silly me, how small minded, it's to build a robot. whoo-pee.

 

[lordmongrove]

Along this road lie The Cybermen.
https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/...IGfmWPGxM6cnMue-K1RFB0l5p1ov7dO1j29_GdOVWAjKs

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It’s 2019 and Scientists Have Created Mind-Controlled Rat Cyborgs

Researchers at Zhejiang University published a paper titled “Human Mind Control of Rat Cyborg’s Continuous Locomotion with Wireless Brain-to-Brain Interface” this month, wherein they revealed that they’d succeeded in controlling rats with the power of human thought.

In the paper, the authors explain that brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) already allow humans to control external devices with their minds in various ways—mind-controlled prosthetics are one example. Certain studies have taken that idea a few steps further, and posited that one could create a brain-to-brain interface (BBI) using similar methods. But no one had actually used a BBI to take control of another living creature and steer it through a complex maze, and that's precisely what the academics at Zheijang set out to achieve. ...

To conduct the experiment, researchers implanted microelectrodes into the brain of a living rat—thus rendering it a “rat cyborg”—and connected it to the brain of a human “manipulator” who was hooked up to a computer BMI. Movement-related thoughts in the mind of the manipulator sent signals to the computer, which then translated those signals into instructions and sent them to the brain of the rat. Between the manipulator, the BMI, and the rat cyborg, a BBI was created. ...

When the human manipulator thought about moving their left arm, the rat was commanded to turn left; when they thought about moving their right arm, the rat would turn right; while blinking sent signals that commanded the rat cyborg to move forward. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.vice.com/en/article/gya...IGfmWPGxM6cnMue-K1RFB0l5p1ov7dO1j29_GdOVWAjKs