www.kickstarter.com
You can now pre-order a live cyborg cockroach that can be controlled via an iPhone App.
This is actually a thing.
Backyard Brains, the team behind the “RoboRoach,” just launched their Kickstarter, with the goal of putting neurotechnology in the hands of students.
The technology works by attaching a backpack-like device to the cockroach and implanting electrodes inside its antennae.
By sending electrical signals to the roach’s antennae, it can be tricked into thinking it has bumped into a wall, and will turn to avoid it. The Kickstarter video shows how a simple swipe of the finger across the iPhone app causes the cockroach to swerve left or right.
The ethics of the “RoboRoach” are indeed questionable — imagine if it was a dog or cat being manipulated — and Backyard Brains’s website features an entire section devoted to the morality of the project.