The Merging of Man and Machine
Neuralink, a brain-machine interface company founded by none other than Elon Musk himself, aims to create a link between the human brain and computers. Through an implantable chip about the size of a quarter, thousands of electrodes are implemented with surgical precision into the brain. Then, through artificial intelligence and machine learning, the chip can recognize and pick up on certain signals that communicate important information, such as the moving of limbs, the perception of light, or any other sensory stimuli.
In 2020, the company demonstrated a video of their implant working in a pig, where they had set up the device to detect when the pig’s snout was in direct contact with another object. This way, a computer could receive biological information about the organism from just measuring brain activity. Later, in 2021, They posted another video of a monkey playing the popular video game Pong without using its hands at all. Instead, the Neuralink implant was able to learn the precise brain signals that signified ‘up’ and ‘down,’ allowing the monkey to control the paddle through mere thought.
Just yesterday, on November 30th, 2022, Neuralink announced that they were submitting papers to the FDA to approve of human testing. The goal of the company has always been two-fold: to help people with paralysis interact seamlessly with digital devices and prosthetics, and to restore vision in those who have lost their eyesight. However, Elon Musk sees the potential for brain-machine interfaces to merge the human and the machine and achieve a “symbiosis with artificial intelligence.”
Of course, the symbiosis of man and machine poses several real threats: How will security work? If a hacker gains control of the device, would they be able to hold your physical body as ransom? Could the device be the ultimate spyware tool for governments or malicious groups? In the not-so-far future, we may even see brain-machine interfaces that allow for “jacking-in” to a matrix as seen in William Gibson’s Neuromancer. Of course, the implants also may serve other functionality, like streaming music directly to your brain or communicating ideas with others ‘telepathically.’
Luckily for us, none of this technology has been knowingly brought to fruition. However, if Neuralink continues to innovate their technology faster than their sense of ethics, then we may enter into a cybernetic dark age if we are not too careful.
Sources:
https://www.wired.com/story/all-the-actually-important-stuff-neuralink-just-announced/
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