Re: Those Darned Extropians at it again?

From: Alex Ramonsky (alex@ramonsky.com)
Date: Sat Feb 02 2002 - 05:41:04 MST


I found it in the magazine 'Frontiers' way back in 1999.
I quote;
'A man left completely paralysed after a heart attack is once again
communicating with the outside world, thanks to a direct neural link with
his computer. Neurosurgeons at Emory university in Atlanta, Georgia, have
placed an electrode inside the paralysed man's brain that enables him to
control a computer cursor by thought alone. He has become capable of
clicking on icons to make the computer say words for him, send email or even
dim the light in his room....
Another paralysed patient...also had an electrode implanted at the same time
he did.
...But what makes the Atlanta achievement special is the way they have
directly connected man and computer. Nerve cells in the patient's brain have
actually been fused directly with the specially designed electrode.
The electrode ends with a hollow glass cone about the size of the end of a
ballpoint pen. This cone was dipped in chemicals extracted from the
patient's knees which induce nerve growth. Over a few months the nerve cells
grew into the cone and eventually linked up to the electrode. The electrode
interprets and transmits neural signals to a reciever outside of the scalp.
There are no wires going through the skin, and the electrode has no internal
power source; it is powered by an induction coil in his head.'
The leading neurosurgeon is Dr. Roy E. Bakay.

Has anybody heard any more about this since?
Ramonsky

----- Original Message -----
From: "animated silicon love doll" <cheshire@velvet.net>
To: <extropians@extropy.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2002 22:59
Subject: Re: Those Darned Extropians at it again?

> 2002.01.31 13:14:30, "Randy Smith" <randysmith101@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> >From
> >http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20020130/hl/monkeys.html
> >
> >>>
> >- It may seem like science fiction, but scientists say they have
developed a
> >technology that enables a monkey to move a cursor on a computer screen
> >simply by thinking about it.
>
> monkeys? i read an article about humans doing this in wired six months
ago... and that
> was a back issue.
> i just spend half an hour looking for it, and i can't find it. i remember
getting to it by
> following interesting links from a story about kevin warwick, but can't
seem to find which
> links they were. damn.
>
> cheshire morgan. we all create life, some of us with wombs,
> some with smiles, some with patient hands.
> we are all gods, if we choose to be.
> -kitten.
>
>



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