Mind-Controlled Cockroach Brings Us Closer to Future Predicted by Whimsical Animation
Finally, we can bend a cockroach to our will. Next stop: 'Under the Sea'
A Chinese grad student named Li Guangye just built a headset to mind control a cockroach. Perhaps you are among the cynics who would react to this marvel with a disdainful snort. "So? What the hell good is it going to do me to boss around a cockroach with my brain?" What a weary world you inhabit.
Here’s how it works. The bug is saddled with a microchip backpack and a pair of electrodes fitted to the antenna. The electrodes are used to stimulate the cockroach’s nerve endings. Guangy’s headset reads the student’s brain patterns, then transmits the commands the the roach.
The question this presents us all is what, exactly, we're going to do with this technology once it matures beyond just steering roaches. What will we do with animal mind-control? Well, there's the obvious, of course, and Disney animators have been sketching it out for decades now. How long until country mice tailor our clothing? Till crustaceans serenade us on command? Well. Probably a pretty long time. But is this not a journey into ourselves?
