Point of Contact

(A brain cell grown directly onto a microchip, the process through which all Brain-Computer Interface technology works.)

From the NY Times:

Two monkeys with tiny sensors in their brains have learned to control a mechanical arm with just their thoughts, using it to reach for and grab food and even to adjust for the size and stickiness of morsels when necessary, scientists reported on Wednesday.

The report, released online by the journal Nature, is the most striking demonstration to date of brain-machine interface technology. Scientists expect that technology will eventually allow people with spinal cord injuries and other paralyzing conditions to gain more control over their lives.

You really have to just see it:

Just beneath the monkeys’ skulls, the scientists implanted a grid about the size of a large freckle. It sat on the motor cortex, over a patch of cells known to signal arm and hand movements. The grid held 100 tiny electrodes, each connecting to a single neuron, its wires running out of the brain and to a computer. The computer was programmed to analyze the collective firing of these 100 motor neurons, translate that sum into an electronic command and send it instantaneously to the arm, which was mounted flush with the left shoulder.

Like that cell-phone implant a few months ago, this is another example of a technology that's been steadily progressing behind the scenes for years. In both cases, announcements were only made once there was something really interesting to show the press. On one hand, this is good. It keeps the hype to a minimum until there are real results (think "Segway incident"). The flipside is that it freaks people out that we can suddenly do these things.

The thought that we'll soon be able to drive cars and operate computers without touching them, through a microchip in our brain is terrifyingly revolutionary enough that we should maybe let people warm up to it a bit before showing them cyborg-monkeys.

Warren Ellis' response (unquotable in this blog) has been my favorite.

"How Stuff Works" (of all places) has a great overview of this technology.