Two Brains Linked Electronically Through Cables

Scientists from the Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, building  on their previous work with brain-machine interfaces have connected the brains of lab rats, allowing one to communicate directly to another via cables.

The  implants allowed  signals to be sent from one rat to another, creating the first ever brain-to-brain interface.  The devices allowed sensory and motor signals to be sent across the interface, even if the interface nodes were thousands of miles apart. 

The interfaces do not have to be connected to another brain, but can also be connected to a variety of sensor.  The team interfaced on rat with infra-red detectors, allowing the animal to "touch" infra-red energy directly. 

Although the signals were in real time, results did not occur instantly.  Training for 1 hour a day for 45   days eventually brought a success rate of close to 70%.

For more information you can read the BBC News Article here

or the Scientific Reports article here

Original Boing Boing article

12 Shocking Ideas That Could Change the World

Shaun Saunders sends in this thought provoking article found in Wired Magazine. It is in fact 112 Shocking Ideas that could change the world. Shocking...yeah, that's a good euphemism!

Who remember's "The Minority Report"? Three mentally challenged people used to ferret out future crimes? Well Thorkil Sonne wants to Recruit Autistics for various positions in business and government. Sonne already has founded Specialisterne (Danish for "Specialists"), an IT consultancy that hires mostly people with autism-spectrum disorders. Sonne's "specialists" have already demonstrated proof of concept finding software errors for Microsoft and Cisco.

John Arquilla want to go on a Cyberoffensive. He'd like the US military's coders to team up with network specialists abroad to form a global geek squad. Together, they could launch preemptive online strikes to head off real-world battles. Today's armed forces around the world depend on digital communications. Such an attack would cripple a countries ability to communicate with it's forces. It is suspected that some countries already use this method in secrecy, Arquilla says, do it openly in the hopes that countries would think twice about progressing with ANY attack.

Gregg Easterbrook says "Embrace Human Cloning" Do you know any clones? How many? I know several. Far from being "monstrous perversions of nature" somehow "less than human" however clones in nature are common place. Twins. Far from being unnatural cloning is the pinnacle of the natural process of passing on one's genes. As Easterbrook suggests "In vitro fertilization was once seen as depraved God-playing and is now embraced, even by many of the devoutly religious. Cloning could be a blessing for the infertile"

How about the story "With folded hands"? Well Ralph Keeney suggests that we can cheat death. How? Well Keeney suggests that most people are the agents of their own demise. "A remarkable 55 percent of deaths for people age 15 to 64 can be attributed to decisions with readily available alternatives." What does that mean exactly? Many deaths in the US are due to personal choices—things like smoking, overeating, or unsafe sex. Keeney states that we are facing an epidemic of ignorance. Keeney says that some workplaces disqualify smokers as job candidates and alcoholics are often denied liver transplants. Kenny suggests we could deploy costlier health insurance for the obese, or criminalizing texting while driving.

These and many shocking and or frightening suggestions from radicals, heretics, agitators—big thinkers with controversial, game-changing propositions. Click here for the complete Wired list

The Onion: Are We Giving Robots Too Much Power?

From the Wired Danger Room via Boing Boing is The Onion doing a very slick skit which entails a news cast from the future discussing the pros and cons of to many robots in human society. As the clip unfolds, you discover that things are MUCH worse than you think. Wildly funny and well done