Musk's Neuralink Hopes to Implant Computer in Human Brain in Six Months

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

(Bloomberg) -- Elon Musk’s Neuralink Corp. aims to start putting its coin-sized computing brain implant into human patients within six months, the company announced at an event at its Fremont, Calif. headquarters on Wednesday evening.

Neuralink has been refining the product, which consists of a tiny device and electrode-laced wires, along with a robot that carves out a piece of a person’s skull and implants it into the brain. Ongoing discussions with the US Food and Drug Administration have gone well enough for the company to set a target of its first human trials within the next six months, according to Musk.

In typical fashion for an Elon Musk venture, Neuralink is already bounding ahead, aiming implants at other parts of the body. During the event, Musk revealed work on two major products in addition to the brain-computer interface. It’s developing implants that can go into the spinal cord and potentially restore movement in someone suffering from paralysis. And it has an ocular implant meant to improve or restore human vision.

"As miraculous as that may sound, we are confident that it is possible to restore full-body functionality to someone who has a severed spinal cord," Musk said at the event. Turning to Neuralink’s vision work, he added that “even if they have never seen before, we are confident they could see.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/musk-s-neuralink-hopes-to-implant-computer-in-human-brain-in-six-months/ar-AA14Lkat

Sounds like the Matrix or the Borg. Soon to be a requirement for all of Musk's employees.

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Robocop.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

2. They were worrying about Gates inserting microchips with the COVID vaxx

But you know those Musk-stans will be lining up to get their mind-control chip.

[Kid Berwyn]

3. Manchurian Droneworks

Good luck, humanity.

[gratuitous]

4. Whoa, what a coincidence

Isn't that the same day that Teslas are supposed to be fully self-driving?

[patphil]

5. Nothing could possibly go wrong here. Or maybe...

How about attitude adjustment for people who don't like their government?
Or perhaps absolutely loving your 70 hour work week.
Or perhaps turning the right kind of women into baby factories that really like pushing out a baby every 9 months.
Or soldiers who are fully dedicated to the state.
Or perhaps remote controlled assassins.

The possibilities are endless!
The anime series Ghost in the Shell is based on this theme:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell

In the Anime they do explore, but don't get to deep into, the most sinister concepts of mind/body control which could easily result in the end of personal freedom. In the anime, Cyber brains are used to create a more deeply connected society that offers more and more fulfilling experiences to the masses, while soft-peddeling the absolute danger of such a society, where reality is what you are made to believe.
In actuality, it would never be so benign. It would be the ultimate control mechanism...chipped at birth.

The movie Total Recall uses a similar theme of programmed consciousness.

Don't be misled by the benign examples he puts forth, this is Muskie's view of the future.

[DetlefK]

6. According to neuroscientists, Neuralink's technology isn't actually that revolutionary.

I think, the biggest feature is the robot-surgeon. Cybernetic implants themselves are a widely-researched topic.

Brain-Machine-Interfaces (BMIs) have been around for about 5 years. Except that the wires were always either attached to the skin or implanted into muscles.

Bionic eyes have been around for 10 years. There was a swiss company who offered artificial eyes "Argus II" for blind people: A camera was attached to the optical nerve of the eyeball. But the company went bankrupt.

And the talk about making paralyzed people walk again is typical elonmuskian empty hype.

[lpbk2713]

7. Has anyone ever checked to see if Musk has a pulse?

This clown is starting to worry me.

[DBoon]

12. Has anyone checked to see if he has a flesh-and-blood brain?

Musk may already be a cyborg.

[lpbk2713]

13. That's what I was thinking.

Does he even blink his eyes?

[marble falls]

8. Worst idea of the new year. First, try it out on Elon, insert it anally.

[Caliman73]

9. I don't trust anything that Musk is a part of.

I don't doubt the sincerity of the work of the professionals at Neuralink. If they were to jettison Musk, I would feel much more confident that we are getting something legit, with no nefarious purpose.

[Carlitos Brigante]

10. "Did I say 6? I meant 12...... I mean 28.... err 42.... Now watch me hit this unbreakable glass...nt

[C_U_L8R]

11. What happens when he suddenly decides to charge you $8 a day for your implant?

Maybe he should fix his suicidal self-driving cars first.

[Lettuce Be]

16. That was my first thought -- it'll have a monthly fee attached and you can take that to the bank

You'd also probably need updates, so not sure how that works. Plug yourself in? I feel like we are living in Gothum City. We already have the Joker (Ye, minus Kan).

[EX500rider]

14. Going to go against the flow here & say this is a good thing.

Hard to see how letting blind people see or paralyzed people regain movement as anything else.

[Lettuce Be]

17. It's not that it wouldn't be great but it's Elon Musk and we all know he just pretends

His Boring project is dead. Self-driving cars are unlikely to ever be a thing, for the public, service vehicles maybe, but even that I doubt. He doesn't do due diligence, he doesn't do prototypes before he announces his breakthroughs, he just announces his grand plans. To the moon, or was it Mars?

Not if Musk is involved, but yeah, otherwise it'd be awesome if this could become a real thing.

[BannonsLiver]

20. Lol

None of that is going to be happening.

[EX500rider]

23. I bet people said that about SpaceX landing reusable boosters on a barge too nt

[BannonsLiver]

24. Yeah his fans always default to that.

I'm sure the engineers who made that possible (who are not named Elon Musk) thought it was possible. But mankind has a lot of experience with rockets, aeronautics etc. How many times has a brain chip made people walk again? He's full of shit. But if you want to fall for it that's on you.

[EX500rider]

25. Hey either it happens or it does not but I cheer on the effort. nt

[EX500rider]

28. Many countries have space programs

European, Japanese, Indian, Chinese Russian, etc

And yet none of them have re-landable boosters rockets.
If it was that easy to do they would be doing it.

[Emrys]

26. Let's hope he doesn't use Tesla battery technology.

[edhopper]

15. Add another to the list

of Musk promises that never pan out.

[DFW]

18. This is all from a 55 year old film. Musk has been watching too many classic movies.

https://gloria.tv/post/qmc1NyyNjWf13vRcsDnXhWfca

"The President's Analyst."

They didn't get away with it in the 1967 film. Maybe Musk thinks that there has been "progress" since then?

By the way, in case no one can find a follow-up to this clip, the president of TPC is a robot, too, who soon gets unplugged, literally.

A modern-day review pegs the film well. One of the most brilliant political satires to come out of the 1960s, and not only because most of the most insane "predictions" came to be true. I was laughing my ass off as a 15 year old. I still do today.
https://trailersfromhell.com/the-presidents-analyst/

[DBoon]

22. I was thinking of this "classic" film

[haele]

19. What can go wrong?

Of course, I will admit I don't know how far along the tech has gone and I'm not a neurologist, but I do know that the brain will re-direct signal pathways around to compensate for mild to moderate damage in most cases. So just placing a chip in a portion of the brain that is damaged might not be effective in the long term, whether or not it is initially successful.

As for human trials; someone who is paralyzed is not quite the same as manipulating a chimp's neural pathways so that it can play the piano. Unless you linked the chimp's chip with some sort of software that mimicked the brainwaves of a human consciously playing the piano.

Also, I have a concern with possible malicious hacking if it does work in human trials.

So call me a skeptic.

Haele

[sakabatou]

21. An empty promise.

If it does go to human trials, how high will the death rate be?

[HeartachesNhangovers]

27. What could go wrong? Nothing, because it's Musk, so it won't happen.

Deep skepticism is appropriate for anything he says because he's earned his reputation for over-promising and under-delivering.

[GoodRaisin]

29. Even if the spinal implant works, few would be able to afford it.

You might be able to trade your house for one, if it’s a nice house.

[Johonny]

30. Same people worried Gates was going to chip them with a vaccine

Willing to line up for a chip in the brain from a used car salesman . . .