Scientists have got one step nearer to giving paralysed and disabled people as normal a life as they could hope for.

News reports have been aired of a small monkey with a USB implanted into his brain, allowing him to effortlessly control a robotic arm to perform any tasks he wants – with a small treat as a reward. Once exercises are finished, he is simply unjacked and goes back to his enclosure.

The jaws of those who watched this televised report probably dropped in amazement. The project, headed in the United States, has been extended to victims of paralysis who have had the same implant.

Humans have been able to manipulate a mouse pointer on a computer screen which is tuned into other mechanised objects around the home which can be manipulated through sheer power of thought. The people involved said that the implant gives them freedom to live as normal a life as possible and definitely adds to their quality of life.

Of course, the scientific community must not rush. First of all, the system needs to be refined and if we look at the massive leaps which took place in the IT field over the past 20 years, then we can probably safely say there is still quite a way to go yet.

The primary use and development of this technology will be for the disabled and rightly so. But at the same time, we must not build people’s hopes up. The technology has to be affordable, least intrusive as possible to the everyday lives of others and reliable.

It will eventually come to fruition, we are sure, and it will be a revelation to all. But of course, as with all technological advances, we could be looking at a situation in the future, maybe 20 or 50 years from now where this system could be adapted to the use of heavy and dangerous machinery.

Changing heavy drill bits, maneuvering cranes, deep sea robots instead of human divers and many, many more examples can be given. It will allow us humans to perform tasks which at present constitute risk to life and limb.

The staggering progress which we have achieved in the field of IT in the last 20 years or so has been phenomenal and many experts concur that the results achieved in the sphere went beyond their wildest expectations and here is where we must urge caution.

Some might say that it is gobbledygook, but humanity as a whole must not surrender itself to integration with IT technology. In short, we should never get to a point where we become cyborgs, like you can see on Sci-Fi movies.

Developing current technology to allow an amputee to control ‘muscles’ in a robot leg is one thing – and a positive thing. But creating a robot leg that can think for itself and act independently of human thought is another thing entirely.

At some point, stakeholders are going to have to sit down and draft a bio-tech code of ethics, in much the same way as we have done in regard to cloning, IVF and the like. Let us just advance 10 years in thought and hypothetically dream up a scenario of a paralysed person making use of this technology in everyday life. Brain signals are essentially electrical impulses (mixed in with chemicals). If a whizz kid is able to hack into a computer... then we ask a very frightening question. If that computer is hooked up into someone’s brain... will that person be susceptible to hacking? Of course, the answer to that right now is a resounding No. But, if we went 20 years into the future, the answer might be entirely different. Food for thought.