Lab rats 'acquire sixth sense'

To me, this is just a start for people to be made into cyborgs. All of those science fiction books, movies, and tv shows may come to be science fact very soon.

When I read this article, I instantly thought of the old SNES game Shadowrun where you can go to a "street doc" and buy black-market implants.

Does anyone see a problem with this type of science? Are we playing god and forcing evolution?

The team at Duke University fitted the rats with an infrared detector wired up to microscopic electrodes that were implanted in the part of their brains that processes tactile information.

"We could create devices sensitive to any physical energy," said Prof Nicolelis, from the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.

"It could be magnetic fields, radio waves, or ultrasound. We chose infrared initially because it didn't interfere with our electrophysiological recordings."

www.bbc.co.uk...



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Biotech could take us a million year into the future with in a few years.
Think about the wide range of augmentations one could get. The most important one being a computer CPU working along side with your brain to calculate discussions. Think about your brain being connected to a network like the internet. Instantly being able to think up definitions, math formulas ect....

Would we still be human? if we let a machine do our thinking for us would we not be drones?

reply to post by Infi8nity


What happens if the human brain was "hacked" or if it got a virus? The last thing I would want is to walk around with pop-ups coming up in my eyes. LOL

What it comes down to, is if you are 'depending' on technology you are not 'evolving' in the least bit. Implants are not going to 'evolve' anyone. An implant could extend an individual's life, amp up their body, but to evolve is to grow, and the seed passed to the next generation would NOT see any benefit from their parent's choice to implant themselves with electronics. If anything it may make the next generation weaker and more dependent on technology and he who owns that technology.

EDIT: And for every marvelous piece of technology, there was an inventor that has been BOUGHT OUT by the makers of the currency. So to even feel that one would be safe placing their lives in the hands of prime technology is absurd. Take Zuckerberg or Gates for example... they have sold out to be billionaires and now our government has 'windows' into our lives and a 'face' to match it with.

reply to post by chadderson


No offense but that's kind of ridiculous.

Its like saying using a cell-phone doesn't make you evolve.

Well of course not. That's not its purpose and they are not related whatsoever. I personally would love to be a cyborg and I'd implant all kinds of stuff to make myself more efficient, I'd even replace my bones with some sort of highly durable metal so they never break or get old.

This would be wicked awesome. My evolution would still take place at a normal rate.

Originally posted by chadderson
What it comes down to, is if you are 'depending' on technology you are not 'evolving' in the least bit. Implants are not going to 'evolve' anyone. An implant could extend an individual's life, amp up their body, but to evolve is to grow, and the seed passed to the next generation would NOT see any benefit from their parent's choice to implant themselves with electronics. If anything it may make the next generation weaker and more dependent on technology and he who owns that technology.

EDIT: And for every marvelous piece of technology, there was an inventor that has been BOUGHT OUT by the makers of the currency. So to even feel that one would be safe placing their lives in the hands of prime technology is absurd. Take Zuckerberg or Gates for example... they have sold out to be billionaires and now our government has 'windows' into our lives and a 'face' to match it with.

edit on 16-2-2013 by chadderson because: (no reason given)

Well said, however, I see this as bypassing evolution, which by definition is, "Develop over successive generations, esp. as a result of natural selection.". Instead of developing naturally over the next hundreds/thousands of years, we implant senses automatically. I can foresee so many positives, as well as, negatives with such science.

Originally posted by Hopechest
reply to post by chadderson

 

No offense but that's kind of ridiculous.

Its like saying using a cell-phone doesn't make you evolve.

Well of course not. That's not its purpose and they are not related whatsoever. I personally would love to be a cyborg and I'd implant all kinds of stuff to make myself more efficient, I'd even replace my bones with some sort of highly durable metal so they never break or get old.

This would be wicked awesome. My evolution would still take place at a normal rate.

edit on 16-2-2013 by Hopechest because: (no reason given)

What do you mean by "Its like saying using a cell-phone doesn't make you evolve."? A cell phone is an external source that has many uses, but it is not a part of you nor does it have any impact on your thought process, reasoning, etc. What I meant by the OP is that implants become a permanent part of you and therefore bypass the natural evolution process by instantly giving someone senses and augmenting their body that would normally take many many generations to do naturally.

Originally posted by Catalyst317

Originally posted by Hopechest
reply to post by chadderson

 

No offense but that's kind of ridiculous.

Its like saying using a cell-phone doesn't make you evolve.

Well of course not. That's not its purpose and they are not related whatsoever. I personally would love to be a cyborg and I'd implant all kinds of stuff to make myself more efficient, I'd even replace my bones with some sort of highly durable metal so they never break or get old.

This would be wicked awesome. My evolution would still take place at a normal rate.

edit on 16-2-2013 by Hopechest because: (no reason given)

What do you mean by "Its like saying using a cell-phone doesn't make you evolve."? A cell phone is an external source that has many uses, but it is not a part of you nor does it have any impact on your thought process, reasoning, etc. What I meant by the OP is that implants become a permanent part of you and therefore bypass the natural evolution process by instantly giving someone senses and augmenting their body that would normally take many many generations to do naturally.

edit on 16-2-2013 by Catalyst317 because: (no reason given)

Who's to say that we are going to evolve to a point where we can text message with our brain?

Probably not.

However if you could implant that technology its something you never would have had. That was the point I was trying to make so I certainly didn't mean to disregard your point.

We simply don't know what we are going to evolve into so denying yourself something based on an unknown makes no sense to me. Perhaps by using implants that will make us evolve into something even greater than we naturally would.

Originally posted by chadderson
What it comes down to, is if you are 'depending' on technology you are not 'evolving' in the least bit

Not true.

Technology was created by humans, assisting our evolution. The automobile gave us more freedom, the plane allowed us to fly, the camcorder allowed us to record our history, the clock allowed us to track time accurately, the internet improved our communication, the fridge allowed us to store food for longer, the lightbulb allowed us to see at night.

Adapt or die.

And what are you using right now?

Originally posted by angryhulk

Originally posted by chadderson
What it comes down to, is if you are 'depending' on technology you are not 'evolving' in the least bit

Not true.

Technology was created by humans, assisting our evolution. The automobile gave us more freedom, the plane allowed us to fly, the camcorder allowed us to record our history, the clock allowed us to track time accurately, the internet improved our communication, the fridge allowed us to store food for longer, the lightbulb allowed us to see at night.

Adapt or die.

And what are you using right now?

I agree with this. Humans have gotten to this point because we "leveled up" with the industrial revolution, then the computer revolution. Whats next is going to be beautiful! Singularity gets closer each day.

"Mwhahahahaha....all the easier to flip a switch and destroy you," says the evil one as he walks away, rubbing his hands together.

reply to post by kyle43


Let's say that this is the next step into innovation. Would the implants need to be hooked into a world wide net? What would happen if people, Anonymous for instance, hacked into everyone's brains? What if the government or corporations used this to control what we though and bought? Would be able to even know or diffirentiate between our thoughts and the microchip's input? Seeing as how the human mind is far more powerful than any processor, would the implant hinder us?

So many questions come to mind and I would love to hear what everyone thinks.

To be honest, I would definitely be one of the first to sign up for implants. X-ray vision and spidey sense would be my first choice.

Originally posted by westcoast
"Mwhahahahaha....all the easier to flip a switch and destroy you," says the evil one as he walks away, rubbing his hands together.

edit on 16-2-2013 by westcoast because: (no reason given)

LMAO... this made my day!!! Thanks.

reply to post by Catalyst317


Other possible implants :

- Integrated circuit

- RAM

- Hard Disk Drive

- Bluetooth device

- Wireless device

- X- ray detector

It's a New Age rat that sees auras! The Six Million Dollar Rat!

This makes sense in perspective of all those time traveler claims online where they say they come from a future where brain implant chips are a reality and they use the chips to communicate with computers and experience virtual environments.

In essence it is a computerized enhanced hallucinations. As though all those other people in our modern days without implants are seeing things that "aren't really there"? Maybe they are seeing things that are really there, and they don't need a chip to see it. Or, maybe aliens/other people came around and gave them a chip so they hallucinate. Too much to think about that, moving on.

In the article there is also mention of using computers to repurpose a brain into doing something different. That's along the idea of artificially enhanced synesthesia. What did the rat sacrifice for this virtual reality/ESP cybernetic enhancement? How many did they have to go through until they found a rat that was compatible?

Infra-Rats. Rats with magical powers to see infrared. Those aren't beady red eyes; those are two red LED bulbs. Franken-rats.

Anyone consider the possibility of having electronic equipment in their bodies and the effect of the EMFs? What if you had a chip in your brain and you were hit with an EMP? Does this technology pose as many risks as benefits?

reply to post by Catalyst317


Since the rats are fitted with infrared detector , aren't they going to see the paranormal entities ?

Originally posted by turboneon
Anyone consider the possibility of having electronic equipment in their bodies and the effect of the EMFs? What if you had a chip in your brain and you were hit with an EMP? Does this technology pose as many risks as benefits?

Very good point. What would happen if it came a time to "reformat" our brains? Would we have a "system restore point"?

I do not think this would assist us in evolving physically just as synthetic testosterone "steroids" doesn't lead to evolving. Not to say we wont evolve socially but synthetic enhancements will not equal natural development.

Originally posted by Infi8nity
Would we still be human? if we let a machine do our thinking for us would we not be drones?

Machines do your walking for you when you drive a car. They do your seeing for you when you wear glasses. They actually do think for you now when you use a calculator.

Technology isn't hindering our evolution. It's part of it.