Backyard Brains has created a teaching kit which should appeal to the little children who enjoy frying insects with magnifying glasses. The $99 kit, RoboRoach, lets students turn any cockroach they can get their hands on into a remote-control cyborg roach. Of course, Backyard Brains supplies most of the cockroaches used by purchasers. The company plans to create a Smartphone application for its kits so that students can control cockroaches with their phones.
The procedure described by the kits involves dipping a live cockroach into ice water so that the roach is anesthetized. The roach’s antennas are cut open and wires are placed inside the antennas, with superglue holding the contraception together. The result is a cockroach with a washcloth on its head and a backpack on its wings.
The purpose of the backpack and the wires is not to cause the roach pain. Instead, the kit is designed to feed information directly to the neurons, or brain cells, of the roach’s brain through electrodes which are attached to the roach’s antennas. Students control the roach by influencing how the roach perceives the world.
The roach could turn left or right on human command because the electrodes make the animals believe that there is a wall or other obstacles in its path. Eventually, however, the cockroach will get wise to what is going on and the effects will wear off.
Legal Complaint Filed Against RoboRoach
Unfortunately for Backyard Brains, the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has filed a complaint with the attorney-general of Michigan, where Backyard Brains’ corporate headquarters is located. PETA claims that that Backyard Brains is practicing unlicensed veterinary medicine, a felony under Michigan law. According to state law, “practicing veterinary medicine” includes giving instruction or demonstration on how to alter an animal from its normal condition. It is very difficult to argue that inserting wires into a roach to make it see walls is not alternating the roach from its normal condition.
Lucky for Backyard Brains, another section of Michigan law creates an exception for certain conduct. One section declares that “conducting experimentation or scientific research in the development of methods, techniques, or treatments directly or indirectly applicable to problems of medicine and who in connection uses animals” is not a practice of veterinary medicine. The exception was probably written to allow cosmetic companies to experiment on animals without fear of prosecution, but Backyard Brains has a far more noble purpose than observing the effects of lipstick on a pig.
The technique used to stimulate the roaches is similar to techniques used to treat Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and other human mental conditions. Experimentation on roaches could, in the short run, lead to scientific breakthroughs. In the long run, RoboRoach could inspire children to take up medicine or neuroscience as a career. More importantly though, RoboRoach users will be less likely to view cockroaches as mere pests. PETA claims that RoboRoach will cause children to devalue animals, but with parental guidance, that need not be true.
Although the legality of RoboRoach will soon be debated, two other issues should be remembered. First, the slippery slope could raise a few eyebrows. If RoboRat and RoboPiegon enter the market, things could spiral out of control. Laws should be created to ensure that Terminators are not in our immediate future.
Second, America’s biggest contributions to the global market have always been technological innovations and we need our children to carry on this legacy. If we need RoboRoach to encourage our children to pursue neuroscience, then I for one welcome our new cybernetic roach overlords.