Security

Darpa's Monkey Business Pays Off

Back in 2004, during a sometimes contentious oversight hearing of Pentagon R&D (about the last time I remember an R&D hearing being anything other than a love fest), Republican Congressman Jim Saxton wanted to know why the heck Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) was fooling around with monkey brains and joysticks:

I have seen a couple of things, particularly some of [DARPA Director] Tony’s projects, that I’m not sure about. I certainly see the scientific value, for example, of the research with the monkey and the brain and the arm. I, frankly, have a question about how that relates – I know how it relates to health. I know how it might relate to some future procedure at Walter Reed or Bethesda. I understand that. But I have a tough time relating that to why we’re doing it with national security dollars.

Four years and countless IED attacks later, few in Congress would question the utility of this research, which promises a revolution in prosthetics. New Scientist has a video of the some of the latest results:

To Saxton’s credit, he ackowledged a year later the program was making progress, saying: "Well, you got a lot further with your monkey and the finger than I thought you would."

Also: