"David - not sure if this meets your criteria but it certainly astonishs me [Ed: quoting Barry Ritholtz, below]:"

"In a jaw-dropping feat of engineering, electronics turn a person's thoughts into commands for a robot. Using a brain-computer interface technology pioneered by University of Minnesota biomedical engineering professor Bin He, several young people have learned to use their thoughts to steer a flying robot around a gym, making it turn, rise, dip, and even sail through a ring.

"The technology may someday allow people robbed of speech and mobility by neurodegenerative diseases to regain function by controlling artificial limbs, wheelchairs, or other devices. And it's completely noninvasive: Brain waves (EEG) are picked up by the electrodes of an EEG cap on the scalp, not a chip implanted in the brain."

"A report on the technology has been published in the Journal of Neural Engineering.":

David Fuller's view These developments are interesting and the process of interfacing with helpful robotic devices is still in its infancy. The upside from these technological advances is enormous. Currently, the main downside is unemployment because technology is beginning to replace jobs more quickly than most economies can create them, although this article from The Washington Post disagrees:

Have the Robots Come for the Middle Class?