Danwei reports that some researchers at the Shandong Technology University have turned a real pigeon into a remote-control pigeon (if you know what I mean) by inserting some microchips into his brain and controlling him from terra firma.
This is kind of weird as I wrote about Chinese universities yesterday and ‘robot monkeys’ today. It seems there is some creative stuff going opn in Chinese univertsities, even if it does look gross.
Link to Chinese article.
Do you think the pigeon volunteered to become a remote control toy?
I have to admit that pretty amazing technology though, connecting electronics directly to a brain.
Ken you might want to apply now to rights for ChinesePod language memory chip implants.
The world of ‘Ghost in the Shell’ and ‘The Matrix’ is becoming more and more a reality. I am afraid that the formations of reconnaissance pigeons carrying made-in-China digital cameras on their backs would fly all over the world someday in the near future!
This is the beggining of the BORG. It’s sick torture on the bird. It’s like the old Nazzi experiments. Maybe they’ll start experimenting on the unwanted babies and unwanted eliments of society.
Jemini,
I agree that this looks gross and it is pretty gross to see the bird’s brain sticking out like that. I wouldn’t agree, however, that this rises to the level of Nazism. The Nazis did, er, a lot worse things than that.
Ken Carroll
This reminds me of that rabbit who got a “face-job”… His face was half his own and the other half was from an another rabbit. I think I read it in John’s blog…
I think this is quite disgusting and really shows that animal rights are not the big thing there yet. To me this pointless cruelty, it doesn’t even seem to have anything to do with curing diseases or stuff like that. Or does anyone know if there is a good reason for doing this?
Makes me sad
-(bu) Kaixin
With today’s brain science, it is relatively easy to control your ‘movements’ with similar devices, not only in birds but also in humans, because neural circuits regarding body movements are well elucidated, thanks to a lot of scientists working in this field. Prosthetic devices using the same technology as mentioned in the article, if refined sufficiently, will surely benefit patients with motor neuron diseases or spinal cord injury.
On the other hand, it is quite difficult to control your ‘thoughts’, because neural circuits regarding thoughts have many puzzles to solve. Therefore, at this stage, I don’t think you have to worry much about Nazis, although even now, it is possible to ‘paralyze’ your thoughts by ‘injecting random thoughts’ into your brain using magnetic fields. This technology, called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), is used in clinics for patients with depression, and is considered harmless if employed properly.