Would somebody read this article and tell me what their saying?

Are they trying to get peoples paralized damaged limbs to respond thru mind power only?....Kirk

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/06/020607072445.htm

-- Anonymous, June 10, 2002

Answers

Its cyborg technology. This was explained to me by neurologists many years ago as a futuristic solution to CP paralysis by replacing the natural neural system with an electronic one. It was to far out for me then and I was to chicken to be a guinea pig. Now I'm too old. Looks like it may be happening finally.

-- Anonymous, June 11, 2002

It could also be used for cybernetic control of robotic prothesis limbs in addition to neural control restuctrure. An amputee with the technology would definately rate as a "cyborg".

-- Anonymous, June 11, 2002

Very interesting!

Speaking of technology, about 20 years ago, in a computer programming class, the teacher was waxing enthusiastic about how someday there would be organic computers (chips maybe?) that could be implanted into your brain and grow right in. You could have an implant for, say, French, and be able to speak and understand French. I thought that sounded SO cool. Now, I'd worry about what else was included on that chip! :-(

-- Anonymous, June 11, 2002

Oh Joy, that is so funny about the French computer chip! We humans love to invent things to prevent us from having to so any real work, dont we? Trouble is, most of the gizmos we have that weren't available a hundred years ago don't make us any happier as a species, in fact in the long run havent saved us any labor, cuz we made up new stuff we just 'hafta' to do instead.

Kirk, I think when technology can do interesting stuff like that, it doesnt bother me like most other 'progress' does. Most of it seems to be motivated by greed and human ego, with no thought to the future repercussions.

-- Anonymous, June 11, 2002

I just can't wrap my mind around how thats supposed to work. Thought interacts with an implanted brain chip? Then the chip moves the robotic limb? ......Kirk

-- Anonymous, June 11, 2002

Kirk,

When you move, your brain produces a chemically generated electrical current that passes through your neural system to stimulate the muscle. Cybertechnology routes that signal to a computer network to condition it to control a robotic prothesis or organic muscle neural receptor. Think of a muscle twitch caused by a shock, only the shock is regulated and conditioned to produce the sequence for movement instead of just jerking.

-- Anonymous, June 11, 2002

Maybe this will help, Kirk.

Read about a prosthetic limb, a lower arm and hand in this particular case, which fit over the stump of the person's arm. The prosthetic limb had electrodes that would pick up the muscle movement from the forearm and "interpret" them to make the prosthetic hand open, close, etc. Of course, the person had to learn to produce certain muscle movements to make the hand work. Totally different from the muscle movements used to control the natural hand.

Okay so far? Seems pretty normal? Well, then add in the fact that the brain produces the neurotransmitters that make the muscles move. The person had to learn to produce these particular muscle movements. We have learned to make muscle movements all our lives, mostly when we were very young. Our brains have been trained! We don't "think" about it, unless we're learning a new movement. Once we've 'learned' it, we can make it become automatic. The technology in the article seems to be just a further progress of that in the prosthetic limb I described.

I sure hope that helped!

-- Anonymous, June 11, 2002

Jay n Joy ....Thank you I think I have the picture!! Fasinating...Kirk

-- Anonymous, June 11, 2002