DailyDirt: Connecting With Animals

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Technology has largely helped make our lives better. Sure, there are a few cases where technology has caused some major problems, but it's not easy putting the genie back in the bottle. Mark Zuckerberg might want to keep pushing the internet to more and more people, but there are some folks out there who want to go even further. Why limit ourselves to sharing technology with other humans? Let's give some technology to other animals. Here are just a few examples of people giving animals some technological help.

• Peter Gabriel, Vint Cerf and a bunch of other folks want to create an "interspecies internet" to help animals communicate with people (as well as other animals). If you can imagine the rage some animals might exude after a few pop-up ads, you'll probably think this is a bad idea. [url]
• People have volunteered to create all kinds of prosthetic devices for injured animals -- such as an artificial fin for a dolphin, plastic legs for elephants that have stepped on landmines, and a 3D printed beak for a bald eagle. Elsewhere, a turtle injured by a lawnmower was fitted with wheels under her shell to help with her mobility, and Denver-based OrthoPets made artificial paws for the first dog to have four prosthetic limbs. [url]
• An artificial neural connection has helped to restore the function of a monkey's partially paralyzed hand. This research could help some injured people, too, and create an alternative artificial nerve system to route around damaged nerves. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: animals, artificial neural connection, communication, interspecies internet, peter gabriel, prosthetics, vint cerf