Back on May 2 of 2002 the Washington Post had a fascinating article which headlined, "Scientists use electrodes to make ‘roborat'."
The Post reported that, "Scientists for the first time have managed to remotely direct the movements of rats by using implanted electrodes to control their behavior - in effect transforming a living animal into a robot.
The technique has potentially important implications for activities ranging from land-mine detection to earthquake recovery to spying to the emerging field of "neural prostheses" - using electronics to bridge nervous system gaps caused by spinal injury, stroke or other physical infirmities.
"It's really just conditioning behavior," said physiologist John Chapin, of the State University of new York's Downstate Medical Center, noting that training animals to do human bidding is as old as teaching dogs to fetch. "But it's different in that you can do it all with remote control," he added. "In theory, you could guide the animal anywhere."
In fact, after implanting electrodes and training a "roborat" for eight to 10 days in a figure-eight-shaped maze, the Chapin-led team can steer it through any three-dimensional route. It can induce the animal to climb ladders, descend ramps, walk a pipe or navigate uneven terrain. The rat will even climb trees or wander a brightly lit room - alien behaviors for the untrained...The Chapin team implanted three electrodes in the rats' brains. One was placed in a "generic" pleasure center that records satisfaction whenever needs - food, water or warmth - are satisfied. The others were implanted to stimulate the whisker bundles on either side of the rat's nose.
By triggering one of the whisker implants and then stimulating the reward center, the researchers were able to make the rat turn in one direction or the other and move forward - much as a sled driver can order his dogs to "gee" or "haw."
After up to 10 days of training, the rat can navigate practically any landscape, wearing a receiver and a power pack on its back and being steered by a technician issuing commands from a laptop up to 550 yards away, Chapin said.
The rat thus becomes a living robot, controlled remotely by a human handler but able to go anywhere a rat can go. And its supple anatomy gives it a huge and - at least for now - insurmountable advantage over any mechanical robot., which can be confounded by a pair of shoes lying on a carpet.
"This trumps that problem," Chapin said. "The rat is much more adept than a robot at getting around difficult terrain - and it has a nose."
The military and public-service potential of the project has won funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the army's research arm. Camera-equipped rats may have a future as land-mine detectors, or as couriers or scouts searching for human victims trapped in collapsed buildings or mine shafts, Chapin said."
In 2004, as we look back on this fascinating development to solicit a conditioned response from a living creature, we can consider an intriguing comparison of the days ahead when mankind will receive the "mark" of the beastly Anti-Christ.
In Revelation 13:15-17 we can read of the fast approaching day when all upon the earth will be offered the choice of taking a "mark" upon their bodies in order to be able to purchase the things they need to live, or else reject the "mark" and die.
In Rev. 13:16-17 we read, "And he [the false prophet] causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast [that is the Anti-Christ], or the number of his name."
Of course some might say that the allegory has been carried too far by comparing men with implant- controlled rats.
With that thought left hanging in the air we will just quote from a short July 13, ‘04 Denver Post article titled, "Microchips implanted in some prosecutors," - "Mexico has required some prosecutors to have tiny computer chips implanted in their skin as a security measure for access to the Attorney General's Office National Information Center.
The chip - which is not removable but can be deactivated - primarily serves as an identity device that will ensure only authorized prosecutors enter the information center."
Interestingly, the reward for receiving the permanent implant is that the prosecutors get to keep their jobs...so they can buy the things they need to live.