The distinction between hardware and wetware is going to really start to blur in the coming years:

Charles Higgins, an associate professor at the University of Arizona, has built a robot that is guided by the brain and eyes of a moth. Higgins told Computerworld that he basically straps a hawk moth to the robot and then puts electrodes in neurons that deal with sight in the moth's brain. Then the robot responds to what the moth is seeing -- when something approaches the moth, the robot moves out of the way.

Higgins explained that he had been trying to build a computer chip that would do what brains do when processing visual images. He found that a chip that can function nearly like the human brain would cost about $60,000.

"At that price, I thought I was getting lower quality than if I was just accessing the brain of an insect which costs, well, considerably less," he said. "If you have a living system, it has sensory systems that are far beyond what we can build. It's doable, but we're having to push the limits of current technology to do it."

There are going to be some humdinger ethics issues to deal with along this road.

Really? Only $60,000. That seems pretty cheap for a human brain like processor.

I didn't know that there were human brain like processors available at any price. But then, he did say "nearly".

My understanding of the article is that he talking about a processor that has "only" visual processing of human brain. Still, I was not aware such exist yet.

"There are going to be some humdinger ethics issues to deal with along this road."

Especially once the Environmental Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front gets involved. They will have to decide whether to devote attention to shutting down this moth slavery by all means necessary, or whether to devote themselves to mammals.

/snark off

Actually MG, I came here to post the same thing - only without the snark. I honest expect anti-progress groups as diverse as PETA, ELF and George Bush's "bioethics" Council to all condemn this tech long before we get to wiring up monkeys or primates. I expect it to catch their attention around the time we're wiring up lab rats or small birds, and certainly by the time we get to cats, dogs or parrots.

I think it is only fitting that after riding around on animals this whole time that we know give the animals something to ride around on.

Next step: tweak perception of targets to that of light (moths), sugar (ants, cockroaches, etc.), alcohol (slugs, various beetles), or similar as applicable.

I have enough apprehension as it is about various "stingers", it won't help when they're riding Stingers! ^_^;