Apart from the moral and legal implications of this animal research with a monkey, what’s so interesting about today’s New York Times report, “Monkey’s Thoughts Propel Robot, a Step That May Help Humans,” is the way in which it is presented.
In the online version and underneath the heading are two photographs of the researchers with the caption — “THE PLAYERS Dr. Miguel A. L. Nicolelis, left, at Duke University, and Gordon Cheng in Kyoto, Japan, with the robot.” — and a video. Well, a video of sorts.
This is because the video is an animation of a monkey on a treadmill which is interposed with video of the robot walking on a treadmill. So, we don’t see video of the monkey — a living animal — but we do see video of the inanimate machine.
Other than the profound implications of this presentation — the animate becomes inanimate and the inanimate becomes animate — what else can we conclude other than the researchers didn’t want us to see animal research involving a monkey walking on a treadmill?
Well, at the risk of the Grumpy Vegan being accused of sensationalism, let’s please note that the video is credited by The New York Times to Duke University. What a shame the paper coluldn’t see how it is being used.
Propaganda, anyone?
