Soon, we will start to download knowledge
Researchers have managed to create a neural link between the brains of 2 rats, allowing spontaneous transfer of knowledge between the 2 rats, even as they’re continents apart!
Here’s how the experiment went:
An “encoder” rat, in Brazil, was trained to do a specific behavioral task – push a lever in a cage, and earn a reward. A brain implant in this rat records the activity from the rat’s motor cortex, and transfers the signals via neural links to a second implanted rat, also known as the “decoder” rat.
Now, this second rat was located in North Carolina, and had never been exposed to the lever pushing test. Despite that, once the second rat’s motor cortex processed the information from the neural link, the rat somehow accessed that information, and knew to push the lever.
This. Is. Mindblowing. Stuff.
Quite possibly the start to a technological singularity.
Read more about the brain-to-brain interfacing at io9.