Monkeys and scientists develop persistent "plug and play" control over brain-to-computer interface

While we've seen some pretty amazing things so far with computers jacked into human and monkey brains, systems so far have had to be re-learned each session by their subjects. In a new development, researchers at Berkeley have managed to get their monkeys to develop a "memory" for the controls, and recall them instantly each day. To do this, the scientists kept track of specific neurons from day to day -- a little tough to do, but obviously worth the hassle. It's good news for future brain-to-computer interfaces that will enable the disabled and the truly lazy to perform tasks and kick ass through the mere power of thought, but we're a little afraid of giving these monkeys too much in the way of internet access: the world doesn't need another 4chan.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 25th 2009 4:20PM]

Yo. Keep the synthetic away from da organic, dew.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 25th 2009 4:23PM]

7chan?

[barCODE Posted Jul 27th 2009 9:19PM]

ApeChan.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 25th 2009 4:25PM]

"The world doesn't need another 4chan".

Ahhh that's rich. =)

[Rafe1621 Posted Jul 25th 2009 4:31PM]

what is 4chan? i've gone to it before, but i don't understand the purpose of the site.

[DWells55 Posted Jul 25th 2009 4:34PM]

It exists for the lulz.

[Nerdtalker Posted Jul 25th 2009 5:21PM]

Idiots don't understand rules one and two. Nice.

[DWells55 Posted Jul 25th 2009 5:58PM]

Not really, his post didn't really break rules one and two, nor did mine. Besides, may will argue that rules one and two only apply to raids anyways.

[Whiternoise Posted Jul 26th 2009 12:16PM]

The explanation at the top of the website sums it up pretty clearly, if you don't understand:

"4chan is a simple image-based bulletin board where anyone can post comments and share images."

then, well...

Suffice to say /b/ is in another world altogether.

I think if you don't know what 4chan is, you don't need to know =P

[Gad Get Posted Jul 25th 2009 4:49PM]

Headline of the week!

[snidely Posted Jul 25th 2009 5:08PM]

lol, I have seen 4chan take down some boards, hope they dont see your comment!

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 25th 2009 5:58PM]

Meh >.> 4chan gets taken down more than it takes others down XD

And screw the rules, I have money!

[MittenFace Posted Jul 25th 2009 5:53PM]

Monkeys mouth looks like USB!

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 25th 2009 6:05PM]

RULS ONE AND 2 FA99OTS!!!1

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 25th 2009 6:21PM]

Great, Now we're just one step closer to Planet Of The Apes becoming a reality.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 25th 2009 6:49PM]

Why are they putting spikes in the Slime's mouth?

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 25th 2009 6:59PM]

We're one step closer to become cyborgs.
Man and machine, fused together into a super being.
Borg! Here I come!

Imagine a future like the one portrayed in the Ghost in the Shell comic books and Anime's where regular people can get cyborg brain implants that permanently jack their brains to the internet or go partly cyborg replacing limbs or go full out cyborg where the only living part of you is your own brain and the rest is machine..

I guess it's not a question of if that will be possible one day, but when it is feasible for the masses.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 25th 2009 7:38PM]

I love that there's no Error(n) handling in the Brain Control diagram.

[Hazman Posted Jul 26th 2009 7:32AM]

That's because there's nothing to compare to: with the manual control diagram, joint positions are predicted (just like in the brain control version) and compared to the actual joint positions. The difference is the Error(n) part. But in the brain-only diagram, there's no way of calculating error because there are no 'actual' joint positions.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 25th 2009 8:30PM]

Imagine a world where humans have implants used for mind control...starts out with the simple.....

Enjoy your future..

[Hotrod Posted Jul 26th 2009 3:03AM]

So how long before computers tell the brain what to do? I hope I die before that time.

[Haha Posted Jul 26th 2009 5:24AM]

I thought it was a turd with eyes.

[Rena Posted Jul 26th 2009 2:58PM]

I'd be curious to see what happens if the monkeys *find* 4chan... but that might be considered animal cruelty. On the flip side, it might seriously improve the content of the average post.