TED Talk-Prompted Discussion, Part 2 – Remote Brain Control?

Paul Wolpe’s TED Talk discusses many facets of bioengineering, some of which I talked about in my last post, but one he spends relatively less amount of time on I think is one of the most fascinating.  A Scientist used a computer to study the brain waves of a monkey when it moved one of its arms.  He then connected the computer to a prosthetic arm that eventually mimicked the monkey’s arm movements, based on the information from the computer as it translated the monkey’s brain waves.  They then set up a video monitor in the monkey’s cage that showed the arm in another room.  The monkey observed that the arm did whatever its right arm did, and, eventually, the monkey figured out how to control the prosthetic arm completely by itself, without moving its own arms.  As Wolpe concludes, it became the first primate with three separate functioning arms.

 

As with many of the subjects his TED talk covers, Wolpe moves on after that.  But I want us to pause and think about the potential for this technology.  What will it look like if we can one day apply this technology to human beings on a wide scale?  The benefits are obvious—better prosthetics mean a better chance at readjustment for those who do not have all their limbs, for whatever reason.  I think this reason alone is enough to encourage research in this area.

 

As with all emerging technologies, however, caution retains its role.  Wolpe’s TED Talk is focused on maintaining an ethic-based skepticism in bioengineering, and I think that applies here as well.  One connection I can immediately think of is drones.  Theoretically, we could one day apply this technology to remotely-controlled robots with arms controlled by their pilots.  If you want to get even more theoretical, we might one day use virtual reality technology along with this kind of brain wave transferring to pilot humanoid robotic drones, not dissimilar to the short film on VR that I mentioned in my post about virtual reality.  Again, this would become a kind of extension of human capabilities in war, while at the same time create a removal of the soldier from combat.  That kind of removal can have negative effects.

 

Beyond TED Talks, we can see depictions of this kind of thing in movies.  For example, Iron Man’s remote-controlled suits.  On a different note, if we could create Falcon’s wings, might ne be able to wire the pilot’s brain waves to them as well?  Regardless of what remains speculation and science fiction or becomes reality, we ought to be aware of how technology that in some way enhances human activity might shape how we view the activity, whether we are talking about VR or war technology.  But then another question arises—might VR applied to the humanoid drone concept actually mitigate the concern of overstepping bounds because of how vivid the experience is?  Some of this might turn out to be a good thing.  Let’s be on the lookout for what is good, and what is not, and proceed accordingly.