Neuroscientist David Eagleman explains how the brain's plasticity lets it control different bodies, from infants learning to walk to adults riding bicycles. He argues this same ability means we could eventually operate robots on Mars or distant cranes through brain-machine interfaces, if we invent the right wireless connection.
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One of the things that I'm writing about in my next book called "Livewired" is about brain plasticity. And one of the things I think is interesting is how our brain drives the body and it can do so very flexibly. So, you know, I can, you know, when I grow from an infant to an adult, I'm driving a very different kind of body. So you've got this 3-pound control center. and then this huge monstrous robot that gets driven around. But I can get on a bicycle or a surfboard or a skateboard. I can do all kinds of things. My brain has no problem just adjusting and driving different things. So I think it will be no problem at all for us to be able to drive other kinds of machinery with our brain, whether that's driving a big crane or taking my robot for a walk on Mars where I'm controlling it or whatever. Need for the thing to even be attached to me. And I hypothesize that we'll be able to drive it at a distance because Mother Nature came up with lots of great stuff, but she never came up with Bluetooth. And so there's no reason that when I'm controlling this limb that it couldn't be detached from me.
