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Underground > Laboratory >

dawn of the supermonkeys

12:51 / 14.03.02

http://www.salon.com/tech/wire/2002/03/13/monkey/index.html

'Monkey moves cursor by thinking'

<<<A monkey with a fingernail-size brain implant moved a cursor on a computer screen just by thinking -- the latest in a series of experiments that have raised hopes that paralyzed people might one day be able to control complex devices with their minds.>>>

Bow before your future masters...

Haus about we all give each other a big lovely huggle?

13:06 / 14.03.02

And one of them manifested a phoenix effect while doing it...

13:29 / 14.03.02

I *thought* they had already done this with humans - I think in the Carolinas, but it may have been Johns Hopkins. It was about two years ago, and a quadriplegic got the implant and was able to create sentences by moving a cursor over a menu of words just by using his brain.

14:39 / 14.03.02

good supermonkey article here: http://www.templetons.com/brad/apes.html

'If we are lucky, our pets may keep us as pets'

<<<However, the uploading scenario presents a rather disturbing conclusion. The first super-beings may not be based on humans at all, but instead may be apes.

In the course of modern science, it is always the case that we experiment with animals first, years before we attempt anything on people. It's the ethical way, and in many cases the only legal way. As such, as we develop the technology to scan or convert an existing brain into an artificial form, we'll try this first on animals. We'll start with lower ones, and then work up to our closest relatives, the chimpanzee and bonobo.>>>

16:03 / 14.03.02

Speaking as a representative of the supermonkey community, what can I say? Submit now while we still feel generous.

16:31 / 14.03.02

'it was the best of times, it was the blurst of times'

17:08 / 14.03.02

Actually, I've got this script for Shakespeare that I want you to look at...

[Actually, invix, you caught on to one of the references that my simian ficsuit comes from.]

Of course, to cease thread-rot, post-human doesn't necessarily mean "smarters than humans." The first AI will probably moreso resemble a pest - like a certain egg-sucking rodent that was our antecedent - than, let's say HAL or AM. And a computer model or a EM scan of brainwave activity of a monkey brain would just be...a funny looking monkey.

So what would a monkey brain/consciousness do, abstracted from both the social and biological aspects of existence? It becomes an ontological question of if there is a state of intrinsic "monkey-ness" that trascends the anthropometric design of a meat-monkey. If one creates a model of the eat-shit-hump-kill impulses that make up a monkey (or any other species') brain, what do those protocol systems mean in an noncorporeal environment?

And what defines life beyond the biological?
As of right now the rough scientific definition of life, which draws the lines between viruses as marginal and prokaryotes as "alive," use a set of criterion which I can't wholly remember but several of the components are:

.self-replicating/reproducing
.possesses a metabolic system - can sustain it's own biotic processes through feeding. (This is the one that marginalizes viruses.)

If anyone with their bio text on hand can freshen or stretch this list, I'd appreciate it.

A

13:24 / 29.03.02

Speaking of intelligent apes, Koko the sign-language gorilla has been estimated as having an IQ as high as 100 (it could be higher, even, they had to change the test a bit, i'd imagine). This is higher than the reported IQ of a certain Leader Of The Free World, which was being circulated recently. Unfortunately, that figure turned out to be made-up, but i still think there's a good chance that Koko has the higher IQ.

13:50 / 29.03.02

How soon we forget...

"It has three buttons on its chest. One makes it turn into a monkey, the second gives it extra strength, the third makes it invisible. He touches a lock and it breaks. But he is afraid of the light."

The Supermonkey is already here!

13:54 / 29.03.02

Last night on 'Larry King' they had a monkey that knew kung fu. It was scary and hilarious at the same time. Maybe we should let them take over.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

11:01 / 30.03.02

Yeah. Then at least our evil overlords would be sort of cute.

15:12 / 30.03.02

So this has no connection to that Indian super-monkey? Damn, I wonder happened to that..

Less searchable M0rd4nt

17:19 / 30.03.02

Given that they've already achieved the same thing with a human patient, I don't really see why anyone would get especially worked up about this (apart from the obvious animal rights issues, natch). This is a refinement of an existing technology, not a new one.