An experiment, conducted by neuroscientists at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, involving a pair of macaque monkeys with electrodes implanted in their brains, were able to quickly learn how to operate a robot arm as though it were their own, successfully feeding themselves more than half the time. Aside from building a fleet of potentially potbellied test subjects, however, could this apparent breakthrough bring mind control to human prosthetics anytime soon? Or could it mean even more? Although research has been going on since 2000 and a similar break through occurred in 2003, now however they were able to make a monkey walk on a treadmill in Duke University and control the motions of a robot in Japan. Current prosthetics, even devices as advanced as Johns Hopkins superstar Proto 2, rely heavily on brain plasticity. A user might train himself to close a prosthetic pincer by shrugging his shoulder, and his brain adapts, with the shrug-grasp motion eventually becoming second nature. Without a direct connection to the brain, the best it can do is simulate the sensation of pressure or heat wherever the electrodes come into contact with the body. The key to cybernetic devices that restore function and increase it rests with the humble electrodes currently popping out of monkey skulls.

Current problems lie with the speed and of the human brain and the hardware which is yet to be invented to understand us. For sci-fi fans, the implications don't need spelling out: prosthetics that are faster and stronger than normal limbs, with roughly the same level of control as their flesh-and-blood predecessors. The biggest obstacle of all could be the interface itself. Only with the promise of restoring bodily functions would most human test subjects agree to have electrodes permanently implanted in their heads. Barring some bizarre shift in values (and a corresponding spike in unethical surgeons), the leap from rehabilitation-oriented interfaces to elective ones is nearly impossible to fathom. Reaching a wider audience would require a revolution in noninvasive interfaces, such as electrode-studded caps. The problem is you can't get the same kind of resolution. You only get binary data. To reconstruct true trajectories would require new technology—something that might allow you to go through bone without opening it, some optical method we haven't seen yet. And that would amount to a breakthrough in physics, as there is zero indication that any such transmission method is imminent. Until someone reinvents the electrode, the most advanced brain-controlled devices will be reserved for the disabled. So far, the majority of mind-machine interface experiments involving humans have involved remote controls and computers. Someday this technology will help someone truely live a life with effortless ease even if they do not have something the rest of us take for granted.

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