Not to go all PETA on everyone, but it is interesting to observe how comfortable we are doing certain kinds of experiments on different...
Not to go all PETA on everyone, but it is interesting to observe how comfortable we are doing certain kinds of experiments on different types of animals. Testing on cats and dogs is wrong but lab rats are okay because they aren’t as cute? Again, not making a judgment, just an observation. And by that logic, no one is going to object to radical studies on gross insects. Seemingly proving that point, researchers at Texas A&M University have developed a fascinating but arguably ethically questionable method of controlling roaches by hijacking their nervous systems with a computer backpack.
The team, led by Hong Liang, wanted to create a way to gather kinds of data only insects could effectively gather. When given little cameras and microphones, roaches can sense things in tiny places that humans and plain old robots cannot. So Liang and her team needed to figure out a way to reliably control the roaches. The solution is some real sci-fi stuff.
The scientists constructed small, three-gram backpacks with a battery-powered computer chip and attached them to the roaches. They then wired the chip to the parts of the brain that control each roach’s legs. Once successfully set-up, an operator can steer the roach in whatever direction they want, completely usurping the insect’s free will and agency.
Check out this video of the “robo-roaches” in action.
Specifically, the signals stimulate nerves while disrupting certain legs with electrical pulses to force the lowly beast to move in different directions. And while the team tried to make the device as light as possible, roaches wearing the backpack would still eventually tire. So the team put them on little roach treadmills to see which potential drones were right for the job. However, the system is still a work in progress. Perhaps in an attempt to rebel against their new masters, roaches disobeyed the computer around 35% of the time. Could a cockroach Neo be not far behind?
This isn’t the first attempt at remote-controlled roaches, though. We’ve seen previous experiments that saw a cockroach controlled using Kinect, and another that was wired up to use its own body fluids as a power source. And to the team’s credit, they are honestly grappling with the morality of “interfacing with another biological thing.” Liang even said she has gained newfound respect for the insects.
Still, for as cool, impressive, and possibly valuable as this science is, using machines to control living creatures has “dystopian future” written all over it. So if by some chance we wake up in a nightmare new world where insect overlords have enslaved humanity with cybernetic implants, turns out we’ll only have ourselves to blame.
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