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RE: Third arm?
By Brandon Hill (blog) on 5/29/2008 3:10:45 PM , Rating: 2
Wouldn't you have to have the brain "pathways" to control a third arm first?

Otherwise, it's be like turning a pedaling on a bike without the chain attached to the rear wheels...

That's my reasoning, and I'm sticking to it ;)

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RE: Third arm?
By bobdeer1965 on 5/30/2008 2:36:48 AM , Rating: 1
What does "turning a pedaling" mean.

Look at your post below.



That's my reasoning, and I'm sticking to it ;)

RE: Third arm?
By aBott on 5/30/2008 4:26:46 PM , Rating: 2
What is wrong with you?

RE: Third arm?
By Visual on 5/30/2008 5:42:00 AM , Rating: 2
In an earlier set of experiments, a monkey has been trained to control a cursor on the screen, and a robotic arm in a different room. This was initially done by monitoring its brain activity while it was using a joystick to move the cursor and eventually re-programming the computer to react to the brain activity instead of the joystick. For a while the monkey continued using the joystick even while it was actually controlling the cursor directly with its brain, but soon it learned that it doesn't need the joystick and was eventually able to control the cursor completely independently from its hand.

What I'm trying to say is, there are no hard-coded "pathways" in the brain. They can change and adapt and new ones can be created - that is called brain plasticity.
So it is completely likely that people might be able to learn to control a third or fourth arm, a tail, wings, wheelchairs, lights at home, TV channels and USB printers ;) OK maybe not the last one... there sure is a limit to this adaptability, but who knows where it is? Maybe we can even control a whole second body? Or a small army of them...

RE: Third arm?
By geddarkstorm on 5/30/2008 1:52:01 PM , Rating: 2
Yep, right on. The brain has the ability to change shape even in response to the simple thoughts and day dreams we entertain throughout the day. It is truly an incredible organ with potential limited mostly by only our imagination. As long as the interface works well enough, it wouldn't be too hard to learn to use a third, robotic arm, or four of them like Doc Oct.

