People have tapped into a rats brain and can give it directions. They stimulate the whiskers, and the rat is trained to go in the respective direction of which whisker is stimulated. If the rat does what it is told, its reward center of its brain is stimulated. Not actually being awarded and being told what to do is a concept that seems like a breakthrough – unruly children now only need to be silenced with the click of a button. However, taking away that control that we all have to make our own decisions and then tricking us into feeling good about what we did, a fake reward, is just creepy, and i hope the human race does not resort to the “easy way” to resolve the problems we have with the more stubborn of us. By the way, these rats are now being trained to sniff out bombs. Thats great, but at what price?

Ana Luczynski