World, Writing, Wealth discussion
World & Current Events
>
Implications of this experiment with mind-controlled rats?
date
newest »
newest »
Scenario 1: Prisoners are wired with wireless implants and used in cage fights. Their operators are skilled controllers. The fights are televised and lots of money is made from gambling and advertising. Prisoners who's controller gets them through to winning a championship get their crime pardoned in full. The controller wins a huge cash prize. It is not uncommon for prisoners to die in the cage. An innocent man, wrongfully convicted for murder signs up for the 'Cage,' and his chance at freedom. He is selected (by bid) by a young Korean guy who hasn't had much success...Scenario 2: Homeless people are nabbed off the street. Wired for external control and used to clean toxic chemical waste from a spill. The controllers are safe a 1000 miles away. The homeless people die in droves, but in the end the spill is fully cleaned up. One of the controllers grows a conscience and decides to shaft the company the next time around.
Scenario 3: A charming, charismatic presidential candidate is wired for control by a nefarious billionaire. His candidate wins the election in a landslide. The billionaire uses his control to initiate a number of policies that benefit the rich at the expense of everyone else. An investigative journalist uncovers the plot and publishes her story - she is not believed and is ridiculed by her boss. Fired, she is then hunted by corporate assassins.
Scenario 4: A nefarious religious cult leader wires his devotees for control, and with explosive vests. He marches them into a major sporting event and explodes all of them in a major terrorist incident killing 1000s. One of the devotees has 2nd thoughts on the way to the stadium but is unable to extract the implants in time.
Scenario 5: Young, attractive men and women are recruited to be 'sex-bots.' They sign up for remote control at a high-class brothel in NYC run for the wall-street elite. They have no memories of what happens, but all their college tuition fees are paid, and they have a healthy bank balance at the end of their degree. Some mysteriously disappear never to be seen again.
Graeme wrote: "Scenario 1: Prisoners are wired with wireless implants and used in cage fights. Their operators are skilled controllers. The fights are televised and lots of money is made from gambling and adverti..."No. 3 - Think that experiment has already started with an older test subject :-/
Cool stuff, Graeme! Each with a potential for a bestselling book, until reality kicks in and kills it as fiction
Nik wrote: "Cool stuff, Graeme! Each with a potential for a bestselling book, until reality kicks in and kills it as fiction"Well, given that the tech is a unifying factor - one could wrap all the scenario's into a single world....
The next step? I get hold of the device and turn the rest of the world into my personal playthings......8^)
Thanks for your thoughtful and interesting reply, Graeme. This experiment was pretty creepy to me in that humans could in the future control other humans but also compel animals to do their bidding. The experimenters tried to make it seem innocuous. Which was disingenuous - and, well, creepy.
Scout, did the article indicate if the experiment resulted in the rat then recalling the maze on it's own? If the brain or even muscle memory could result in being retained, I could see positive uses for it. The ability to learn new skills.
Scout wrote: "Thanks for your thoughtful and interesting reply, Graeme. This experiment was pretty creepy to me in that humans could in the future control other humans but also compel animals to do their bidding..."It is creepy.
Lizzie, no, the article only reported on the experiments where the rats were directly controlled by the thought > EEG > computer signals > receiver and electrodes on the rat > behavior. No mention of the ability to learn new skills. But I'm sure that's coming. Can you explain the positive uses you see if this happens?
What does interest me is if they can take this technology and help paraplegics to reuse their limbs again.
Scout wrote: "Lizzie, no, the article only reported on the experiments where the rats were directly controlled by the thought > EEG > computer signals > receiver and electrodes on the rat > behavior. No mention ..."Along the lines of what Papaphilly mentioned. I recently saw a medical drama episode (New Amersterdam, I think) where they did things to the brain that then allowed the person to do things. In this case, to make the connect they used a flight program as the guy was a pilot, and the muscle memory allowed him to finally connect to the medical device and implants to give him more quality of life.
All new tech has good and evil uses. I can see it used for training from military to pilots to driving a car, where muscle memory reacts faster than thought. Reflexes can be trained to be faster. Perhaps for Alzeheimer's patients, such tech could be used to help them care for themselves longer.
Yes, we can all think of evil uses by scientists and governments. I just don't think it is innately evil. Nuclear energy can bomb cities or power them.
Papaphilly wrote: "What does interest me is if they can take this technology and help paraplegics to reuse their limbs again."Cyborg wetware interface.
Agree with Lizzie. This has tremendous potential for good and evil.
That's the thing with scientific advances. They seem to be a double-edged sword, and we allow them, hoping for the best.
Scout wrote: "That's the thing with scientific advances. They seem to be a double-edged sword, and we allow them, hoping for the best."That is the course of all human history. If we hadn't invented indoor plumbing, maybe we wouldn't have TP hoarders.
:-) Well, my mom grew up in the days of outhouses, and they still needed something. In their case, the Sears Catalog was the thing - and the occasional corn cob :-)
Use your imagination. What's next?