![\"\"](\"http:\/\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/2008\/05\/29\/us\/brain650.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Scientists<\/em>\u00a0are at it again. \u00a0This time inserting tiny chips into the brains of monkeys. \u00a0The goal of this test you ask? \u00a0To see if the monkeys can use mind control<\/a> to manipulate a mechanical arm. \u00a0Sounds like a good idea to me… if you want to create an army of super monkey\u00a0cyborgs<\/a>.<\/p>\n Two monkeys with tiny sensors in their brains have learned to control a mechanical arm with just their thoughts, using it to reach for and grab food and even to adjust for the size and stickiness of morsels when necessary, scientists reported on Wednesday.<\/p>\n After several days, the monkeys needed no help. They sat stationary in a chair, repeatedly manipulating the arm with their brain to reach out and grab grapes, marshmallows and other nuggets dangled in front of them. The snacks reached the mouths about two-thirds of the time \u2014 an impressive rate, compared with earlier work.<\/p>\n The monkeys learned to hold the grip open on approaching the food, close it just enough to hold the food and gradually loosen the grip when feeding.<\/p>\n On several occasions, a monkey kept its claw open on the way back, with the food stuck to one finger. At other times, a monkey moved the arm to lick the fingers clean or to push a bit of food into its mouth while ignoring a newly presented morsel.<\/p>\n The animals were apparently freelancing, discovering new uses for the arm, showing \u201cdisplays of embodiment that would never be seen in a virtual environment,\u201d the researchers wrote.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It is never good when animals are\u00a0freelancing with robots.<\/p>\n Never.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Scientists\u00a0are at it again. \u00a0This time inserting tiny chips into the brains of monkeys. \u00a0The goal of this test you ask? \u00a0To see if the monkeys can use mind control to manipulate a mechanical arm. \u00a0Sounds like a good idea to me… if you want to create an army of super monkey\u00a0cyborgs. Two monkeys […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15,18],"tags":[29,312,330],"class_list":["post-2923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random-thought","category-technology","tag-animals","tag-robots","tag-scientists"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pazIS5-L9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackhandproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackhandproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackhandproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackhandproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackhandproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blackhandproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2923\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackhandproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackhandproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackhandproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}