It
is days like these and when I mean days, I mean days that I watch TED talks,
where I think we live in the twilight zone. In one of my classes we briefly
talked about brain control, a new kind of communication. After watching Miguel
Nicolelis’s TED talk, I am convinced that something that was considered sci-fi
before is now nonfiction.
In
Nicolelis’s presentation, he talks about his experiments with a monkey that learns
to control a robot arm by using its thoughts. Also another experiment shows how
the monkey is successful by using its thoughts to control a monkey avatar in
Japan while the monkey’s body itself is in the US!
Before
jumping to the implications of these experiments, I will let you finish your
shock moment. Yes, we will be able to use our brains to directly control
machines.
Brain
control and the research behind it will help the once paralyzed people to be
liberated, restoring motor functions. A different kind of mobility will be
available for quadriplegic people but it does not stop there. What else can you
think of that the power of brain control will affect? A new form of
communication will bring new meanings to everything.
“Allowing
the brain to send motor commands to move the avatar and the feedback that comes
back from the avatar is being processed directly by the brain without
interference of the skin,” says Nicolelis. He explains about one of the
experiments how the monkey is able to move the avatar without moving his
physical body. “Liberating the brain,” says Nicolelis.
In
another experiment, the monkey is in the US and is able to move an autonomous robot,
six times the monkey’s actual size, that is in Japan just by its cortical
activity. This blows my mind. I definitely think everyone should watch this astonishing TED video.
TedMed Miguel Nicolelis: A monkey that controls a robot with its thoughts. No, really. [Web]. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/miguel_nicolelis_a_monkey_that_controls_a_robot_with_its_thoughts_no_really.html
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