Posted on 01/25/2022 8:06:24 AM PST by dynachrome
Elon Musk’s startup company that aims to connect people’s brains to computers is advertising for a clinical trials director, a sign the company is ready to start testing with humans.
The job description from Neuralink says the position is based in Fremont, Calif., and that the person hired will “work closely with some of the most innovative doctors and top engineers” as well as with Neuralink’s first clinical trial participants. A key qualification listed for the job is managing FDA interactions.
The Neuralink website says the “neural implant” would let a person control a computer, keyboard, or mobile device “just by thinking about it.”
An implant, or link, that stimulates and transmits neural signals would be transplanted into a person’s brain by a robotic system controlled by a neurosurgeon, the company website says. The link is connected to flexible micron-scale threads containing electrodes that are inserted into parts of the brain that control movement.
The company’s first goal is to help paralyzed people regain their independence by gaining control of computers and mobile devices.
Musk told The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit last month that Neuralink hoped to implant microchips into humans in 2022.
“Neuralink’s working well in monkeys, and we’re actually doing just a lot of testing and just confirming that it’s very safe and reliable, and the Neuralink device can be removed safely,” Musk said.
“We hope to have this in our first humans — which will be people that have severe spinal-cord injuries like tetraplegics, quadriplegics — next year, pending FDA approval.”
(Excerpt) Read more at webmd.com ...
” I want my chip in the forehead, and I want it now”.
The biochemistry of human thought is not understood. Hard to conceptualize how these chips would work. Could be nothing more than a silicon repeat of Pavlov’s dog training experiments.
Uh, this is bad. Gain social, economic, political power at the expense of having a hackable brain. This is how science-fiction dystopias happen.
It’s not for everyone. In the money tests the chips were implanted and scanned brainwaves until enough were gathered to decipher and interpret their meaning. (Not a scientist and my laypersons understanding). The chip could then be programmed to react to the brainwaves. If you were a quadriplegic and offered the ability to use a computer or control other devices this may give you some autonomy. Fast forward, a second chip is implanted beyond the spinal cord break and you gain movement in your arms and legs. The line would be long for those begging for the chip.
🤯
Finally a job Brandon can do.
Good luck finding brains that aren’t slowly being turned to mush from the CoVID ‘spikes’.
More Star Trek tech (this one from Voyager, IIRC) coming to life!
Seven cleaned up real nice!
“The Neuralink website says the “neural implant” would let a person control a computer, keyboard, or mobile device “just by thinking about it.””
I can do all that right now.
Not all things that can be done should be done.
Paging Captain Pike.
Hhmm... That’s not how this technology works. Nor will it literally “read” a persons thoughts. The impulses the device will interact with are similar to the ones you are currently using to type these words into your web browser. Nothing more.
Well... nothing more... yet. Some djinn, once let loose... are notorious for running amok.
Not all things that can be done should be done.
Sever your spinal cord around the C4 area, and let's see you do it!
“The biochemistry of human thought is not understood. Hard to conceptualize how these chips would work.”
Well,this stuff depends a lot on the ability of humans to learn and adapt to bridge that gap. Once they hook something up to your brain, the output is there, but the brain does not consciously know how to control the output. So they have to set up a feedback system, like a dot on a computer screen, to teach the person to control the output. You think of different things until the dot moves, and then you know you’ve found the right “circuit” in your brain to control the input. After that it’s just practice and repetition with however many outputs you would need.
As for input, I am not sure how they are going to handle that. I think we are probably quite a way from being able to “overlay” an image on the optic nerve or anything like that. Until then I think they will stick with traditional inputs like external monitors, VR goggles, etc.
What could possibly go wrong?
You don’t read much of what Musk writes, do you?
https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/16/20697123/elon-musk-neuralink-brain-reading-thread-robot
“It’s not going to be suddenly Neuralink will have this neural lace and start taking over people’s brains,” Musk said. “Ultimately” he wants “to achieve a symbiosis with artificial intelligence.” And that even in a “benign scenario,” humans would be “left behind.” Hence, he wants to create technology that allows a “merging with AI.” He later added “we are a brain in a vat, and that vat is our skull,” and so the goal is to read neural spikes from that brain.
Yikes!
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