For an extra challenge we launched our weather balloon wifi rig at one of the most canine-dense areas of Central Park.
The paralyzed rat is not walking
I’ve seen this video going around, advancing the idea that science has enabled a paralyzed rat to walk. This follows on some other impressive medical feats like the brain-controlled robotic arm.
The thing that struck me in the video, though, is that the rat is moving involuntarily. The rat’s body is walking, but it’s an advanced QWOP-style computer algorithm that’s in control. To me this research seems more similar to those creepy Boston Dynamics robots than other advances in rehabilitative medicine.
The rat, in this case, is just a meat-based robot. Now watch the video with that in mind, watch the spasms of the front legs, and the cooing encouragement from the lab tech. Creepy right?
All In The Mind on Dolphin brains
All In The Mind is a great Australian radio show on a variety of mind-related topics: “dreaming to depression, addiction to artificial intelligence, consciousness to coma, psychoanalysis to psychopathy, free will to forgetting.”
The most recent episode describes dolphin brain biology and explores the philosophical status of the animals, as well as the ethics of keeping seemingly intelligent animals captive in aquariums.
The segment includes an interview with Thomas I. White (starting around 22:20) who wrote In Defense of Dolphins. He argues that dolphins have cognitive traits that qualify them as “non-human persons.”
