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Asked by christiancox to Fiona, Joanna, William on 24 Jun 2010 in Categories: General.
Question: A recent techonlogical advancement allowed humans to control large insects using a computer chip implanted into its brain. Excluding all of the ethical dilemmas, would this ever be possible in humans?
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Fiona Randall answered on 24 Jun 2010:
The insect brain is less complex than the human one. But maybe it will be possible to control one part of the brain to replace a function. In spinal cord injuries they are developing machines to bridge the gap between the brain and body blocked by the break. They hope that they can send the signals the brain is thinking to the muscles. It isn’t perfect yet but could give a lot of hope to people with those types of injury.
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William Davies answered on 24 Jun 2010:
probably – at the moment work is ongoing to implant computer chips in the brains of monkeys so that they can control robotic arms just by thinking about moving them. this work might have relevance for people who are paralysed. in theory, in the future, you could make someone in your class hit themselves in the face just by thinking about it, but it wouldn’t be a very nice thing to do 🙂
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Joanna Brooks answered on 24 Jun 2010:
Hello good question! Yes, computer chips have already been implanted into the human body – one scientist recently implanted a computer chip into his forearm that could switch lights on and off and also open doors! Computer chips have also been inserted into mice brains (not by me) and using a remote control scientists have been able to control the movement of the mouse (I saw a video of this at work).
The ethical issues are very complicated for humans – on one hand technology like this would completely change the lives of people who are paralysed from brain damage because it could act as a ‘second brain’. On the other hand, imagine if the technology fell into the wrong hands? I think this will happen but probably not for another 10 to 15 years and there will be lots of controversy!
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