Skynet Meets Caesar From Planet Of The Apes

This is not good. Not good at all.

Using only its brainpower, a monkey can direct a robotic arm to pluck a marshmallow from a skewer and stuff it into its mouth, researchers said on Wednesday.

"They are using a motorized prosthetic arm to reach out, grab and bring the food back to their face," said Andrew Schwartz of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, whose study will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Nature.

…The monkey guides the robot arm the same way it does its natural limbs, through brain signals.

Schwartz' team picks up those signals through an array of microelectrodes half the size of a thumbtack that has been implanted in the monkey's brain. These signals are amplified and relayed to a computer that operates the robotic arm.

I for one welcome our new robot controlling monkey overlords.

Actually it’s pretty cool stuff that could lead to great things for amputees.

Still, I worry about the idea of letting man’s two greatest threats, smart monkeys and robots, team up.

posted by DrewM. at 11:08 AM

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