From Wired (via DeLong):
“If a monkey is hungry but has his arms pinned, there’s not much he can do about it. Unless that monkey can control a nearby robotic arm with his brain.
And that’s exactly what the monkey in Andrew Schwartz’s neurobiology lab at the University of Pittsburgh can do, feeding himself using a prosthetic arm controlled solely by his thoughts.
If mastered, the technology could be used to help spinal cord injuries, amputees or stroke victims. ‘I still think prosthetics is at an early stage … but this is a big step in the right direction,’ said Chance Spalding, a bioengineering graduate student who worked on the project.”
And then one day, we can implant our brains into well-armed robots that can fight wars in outerspace.