Thought control

Brian Micklethwait (London) · Science & Technology

This looks really interesting, from one of the constantly excellent not-so-political pages of the New York Times:

Monkeys that can move a robot arm with thoughts alone have brought the merger of mind and machine one step closer.

In experiments at Duke University, implants in the monkeys’ brains picked up brain signals and sent them to a robotic arm, which carried out reaching and grasping movements on a computer screen driven only by the monkeys’ thoughts.

The achievement is a significant advance in the continuing effort to devise thought-controlled machines that could be a great benefit for people who are paralyzed, or have lost control over their physical movements.

As seems to be the usual practice nowadays, a technology fraught with general implications for mankind and his ever increasing power to manipulate his environment is first presented as a mere trick to enable cripples to do just a bit less badly. But okay, if that’s what it takes. And I suppose that this is where the first big money for this stuff has come from and the first money-making applications will be applied.

That trivial grumble aside, just think of it … Soon we’ll all be able to put on our Telekinesis 5.2 helmets and do the washing up while still at the office just by thinking about it. We will be able to live our entire lives without ever getting out of bed.

I gave up believing a long time ago that robots would ever be much use at telling themselves what to do other than in the case of totally repetitive tasks like car making. Any job requiring initiative, like pouring out a cup of tea, say, or flower arranging or doing a half decent blog posting, needs a human in charge. If, in the future, Metal Mickeys get to push vacuum cleaners around our houses this will be because real men (well maybe not Real Men but you know what I mean) are operating them in some House Cleaning Control Office nearby.

And now that day is nearer, because our ability to communicate our wishes to the Metal Mickeys just got better.

S. Weasel

October 13, 2003 at 2:50 pm

Uh oh. Bad news. Don’t think about scratching your ass with the robot arm…don’t think about scratching your ass with the robot arm…don’t think about scratching your ass with the robot arm…

James Merritt

October 13, 2003 at 6:05 pm

If you think about it, all tools are merely technological ways of mitigating disadvantage. Depending on the context, we are all “challenged” in one way or another. As humans, we naturally turn to various forms of technology, in order to meet our challenges and mitigate our disadvantages. People who do not have a particular physical disadvantage, however, can often use the “crutches” created to mitigate that disadvantage as a way of amplifying their own effectiveness in the world, or connectedness to it. For instance, closed-captioning on TV was originally developed (and sold) in order to benefit the hard-of-hearing. Yet many people with perfectly well-functioning ears now use it routinely in circumstances where they, too, are effectively “deaf”: in loud bars, for instance, or late at night when the regular TV sound would disturb others in the immeidate area.

It should surprise nobody whenever an idea that was first hatched (or promoted) as a way of overcoming handicaps, goes on to spawn a crucual, world-changing technology.

Still, crutches are crutches after all. Our routine dependence upon them carries as much danger as their availability provides opportunity. Also, we need to question thoroughly any enterprise that cannot be carried out at all in the absence of a particular technological crutch. Not so much in the sense that we should avoid such enterprises, as in the sense that we should be very careful about ambitious undertakings before we have thoroughly incorporated and mastered our prostheses.

Matt W.

October 13, 2003 at 6:32 pm

Just thought I’d mention that those robotic vacuum cleaners already exist, they’re called ROOMBA’s, and they retail for about $200(US). As to how effectively they clean…I don’t know, I imagine they require fairly open rooms without alot of obstacles, as the robot is only a few inches high. Also, this technology would OBVIOUSLY be beneficial for military applications…aerial drones would just be the beginning, seems you could also control modified tanks and other vehicles just as easily. Oh, and a big reason that robots (until relatively recently) weren’t much good except for repetitive tasks was that they simply couldn’t cope with a 3 dimensional environment that changed on the fly, they could walk a path for instance, but if a major impediment got in the way, they wouldn’t know what to do. Maybe its the technophilia clouding my judgement, but there have been a lot of anthropomorphic robots coming out (or quadrupedal ones, such as the AIBO variants) ASIMO being the big one to come to mind, but Sony is also releasing very small bipedal robots as “toys” however they can understand voice commands, a persons face, and can follow them around, as well as have the presence of mind to know when they are running low on energy. Granted, I doubt robot maids or waiters are ever going to be practical, i’m sure eventually we’ll get the technology down to allow it to be technically feasible, but why buy a 100k dollar robot when you can pay some 19 year old kid $7.50 an hour to do the same thing? (baring the Wow factor for upscale places maybe) Still, I think robots will eventually be integral in life, theres already talk of placing low power “motes” in select areas that monitor a variety of things without needing maintenence, they’re technically robots…even if nothing like the Jetsons…

Dishman

October 13, 2003 at 7:24 pm

This is one of the techs on the path to “the jack”.
I want my jack.

zack mollusc

October 13, 2003 at 10:23 pm

If you aren’t crippled, couldn’t you fly your rpv with a joystick? Or am I missing something?

Anyway, I look forward to all manual jobs in the West being done by telechir from China. Hooray! Jobs for those who don’t like working in factories all the time.

Scott

October 13, 2003 at 11:06 pm

Wait, so did they teach the monkeys to concieve and use a tool that was not connected to them? I find that aspect of the study amazing.

Jacob

October 14, 2003 at 12:27 am

We need are robots that capture human thoughts. I could use such a robot to tell me what the persons that I meet (or girls) are thinking. Imagine that. Forget vacuum cleaners or dishwashers.

Yobbo

October 14, 2003 at 6:35 am

Metal Mickey was a great show. I especially liked the one where he taught the bloke how to play soccer, but used the wrong rulebook and taught him how to play gaelic football instead.