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<\/p>\nElon Musk’s new brain implant, Neuralink, has been sold as a way of helping people with various ailments and disabilities. But is it?<\/p>\n
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Recent Elon Musk news: a judge has stopped him paying himself an annual salary of $55 billion and he has implanted a computer on the surface of somebody\u2019s brain.<\/p>\n
Pretty routine stuff in Muskland but you should always read between the lines. The implant \u2013 known as Neuralink \u2013 has been sold as a way of helping people with paralysis, depression, blindness and so on. But, being Elon, he can\u2019t quite stick to the non-threatening script.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, he has said, Neuralink would be a \u201cgeneral population device<\/em>\u201d that would eventually access and store our thoughts, \u201ca back-up device for your non-physical being, your digital soul<\/em>.\u201d In fairness, he is saying his implant would be a way of giving humans the ability to match the inroads of AI \u201cwhich I think is an existential problem.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n But, first, Neuralink is intended to go to market with a product called Telepathy<\/em>.<\/p>\n Telepathy<\/em> \u201cenables control of your phone or computer, and through them almost any device, just by thinking. Initial users will be those who have lost the use of their limbs. Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, of course, he is building rockets in order to establish a human colony on Mars. He hopes to die there, though \u201cnot on impact<\/em>\u201d. Musk simply can\u2019t leave our species alone; he doesn\u2019t want to just sell us stuff, he wants to improve us. It is alleged he is not quite so nice to other species. Animal rights groups have claimed that 1,500 animals \u2013 including 280 sheep, pigs and monkeys \u2013 have died in horrible suffering in the labs of Neuralink. The future is on the far side of a lake of animal blood.<\/p>\n This, startlingly, made a big splash in the Daily Mail<\/em>, in an article titled Inside Elon Musk\u2019s Neuralink lab where 1,500 animals have been killed and test monkeys were subjected to \u201cextreme suffering\u201d<\/em>. Apparently, something called Bioglue<\/em> was used to fill holes left in the monkey\u2019s heads.<\/p>\n Also we need to point out that Neuralink is not, strictly speaking, new. We have been able to tinker with human brains for some time. Most famously in the US, Austin Beggin was paralysed from the shoulders down after a car accident. Now two devices on his head detect electrical movements in his brain when he imagines moving his arms. Cuffs on his arm pick up the signal and the imaginary movement becomes real.<\/p>\n At Stanford University scientists placed sensors in the brain of a man paralysed from the neck down. These could pick up signals when he thought of writing words and translate them into text on a computer. More familiar are the cochlear implants which improve hearing by electrically stimulating the auditory nerve.<\/p>\n Many scientists without billions of dollars to spend have made such cautious advances. There is, in short, little doubt that something like Musk\u2019s Neuralink may be possible. Equally, many scientists say he is moving too fast and, indeed, Neuralink employees have anonymously agreed.<\/p>\n Laura Cabrera, a neuroethicist, has been surprised by the speed with which the Food and Drug Administration allowed Musk to go ahead with a human trial. She also raised a point about Musk\u2019s judgment: \u201cIs he going to see a brain implant device as something that requires not just extra regulation, but also ethical consideration? Or will he just treat this like another gadget?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n One obvious risk with Neuralink arises from the way it works. A small disk is planted on the brain surface.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is<\/em>,\u201d Musk says, \u201ca Fitbit in your skull, with all the sensors you\u2019d expect to see in a smartwatch<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n From this disk tiny wires extend into the brain. What if these wires migrate randomly?<\/p>\n The problem is that we don\u2019t know as much about the brain as Musk seems to think we do. We know a lot about the structure but little about how it works in the kind of intricate detail to build what Musk calls his \u201ceverything device<\/em>\u201d, something that enhances every aspect of our brains.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it dismisses the level of complexity of the whole process<\/em>,\u201d says John Donoghue, a neuroscientist at Brown University, \u201cTackling each condition is a big effort, right? And it could take a long time. And so, I think we have to be very careful to respect the dignity of the people we\u2019re trying to help<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Muskies may respond that the level of complexity of building electric cars from scratch and better rockets than NASA\u2019s was similarly high. But their hero did it. Not that he is infallible, as Twitter users know. The delivery of his X replacement for the virtual communication network has been poorly executed.<\/p>\n There are yet further dubious implications of the Neuralink. If it works as intended then it will be connected to your phone, your watch and your computer; they, in turn, would be connected to the Cloud. What you then have to face is the possibility that every passing thought or impulse you have may become globally available. Advertisers, hackers, governments, criminals of all sorts would descend on this hitherto private realm to exploit you, judge you, steal from you or, kill you or chuck you in prison forever.<\/p>\n This points to the much bigger issue of the extent to which we will permit technology to change our lives at the most fundamental level. Over the last 300 years our species has become used to world-changing technologies and, over the last thirty years we have enthusiastically welcomed consciousness-changing tech in the form of computers, mobile phones and so on. The next step is not to change consciousness from the outside, but to transform it from the inside.<\/p>\n Musk has recognised that in his claim that Neuralink will permit the human brains to become competent to survive against the inroads of AI. He is saying we can protect our species identity from the assault of the robot species that are likely to emerge in the near future by embracing brain enhancement now.<\/p>\n This process would, of course, grind to a halt if Musk\u2019s race to get inside our heads resulted in some grotesque failure. Marcus Gerhardt, CEO of Blackrock Neurotech, is alarmed at the prospect.<\/p>\n \u201cThe communications coming out of Neuralink too often sounds like cowboy activity, right?<\/em>\u201d He added that some neurosurgeons \u201care petrified every day that something terrible could occur there and affect the rest of the space<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n But it is hard to imagine Musk ever grinding to a halt. He is, in his own consciousness, the future that should occur.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I pursue to do<\/em>,\u201d he has said, \u201cis to maximise the probability of the future being better<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Well, maybe. But it is certainly true that, if you disagree with that, you are going to have a hard time stopping his quite staggering mix of determination, hubris and self-belief. It took a judge to halt his pay demands, it will take much more than that to thwart his demands of our species.<\/p>\n Back to the chip surgery, this was not a surprise, as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had given the company clearance in September 2023 to carry out the first trial of its implant on humans.<\/p>\n \u201cInitial results show promising neuron spike detection<\/em>,\u201d Musk said in a post on X, a day after the chip was implanted.<\/p>\n The first human received an implant from @Neuralink<\/a> yesterday and is recovering well.<\/p>\n Initial results show promising neuron spike detection.<\/p>\n — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/neu2.jpg\")
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