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| Neuralink Implant (Creative Commons License). |
The Company Neuralink, founded in July 2016, was created for the sole purpose of building neurotechnology and developing implantable brain-machine interfaces. Elon Musk, the founder of Neuralink, has listed the potential benefits of the breakthrough and set out to make it a reality. However, the idea of introducing foreign materials in the brain makes many people squirm. Musk is not ready to stop, as he is now seeking the Food and Drug Administration’s approval to commence human trials of Neuralink.
What is Neuralink, and why are people apprehensive about it? We look at these concerns people have and more in this article.What Is Neuralink
Neuralink is a gadget Musk plans to insert into the human brain using robotics controlled by neurosurgeons. As part of the procedure, a chipset known as the link is implanted in the skull and attached with wires to the brain. It is the size of a large coin.
Musk says the main function is to bridge the gap between the human brain and technology. According to the billionaire industrialist, Neuralink will help people with paralysis walk again. It will pick speech signals in the brains of people with speaking disabilities and transform them into human-understandable speech, restore sight to blind people, etc.
Neuralink has tested its tech in animals, with the first pubic demo reading and displaying signals from a pig’s brain. Another test showed a monkey playing a Ping-Pong game with its mind.
While some people consider it a privilege to be alive at the time the technology of sci-fi flicks is becoming a reality, other people are not so impressed, while others are still wary.
Though the technology is impressive in its objective to cure human affliction and enhance life for the people of the world, there are some skeptics who raise some concerns about the technology. After watching the pig demo, Professor Thomas Nowotny of the University of Sussex dismissed the technology as decades old, a point Musk himself admitted.
Andrew Jackson, a professor of neural interfaces, also panned the technology, saying the 1024 channels for carrying data to and from the brain are not that impressive these days.
Other professionals warn about the danger of Musk’s Neuralink. For example, the possibility to control the mind with Neuralink has been pointed out, with the ever-present risk of hacking and taking control by bad actors. This fear cannot be discarded as unfounded, given that the chip can connect to the internet.
The chip could malfunction after being implanted. Just what could happen in that scenario has not been researched enough. The possibility of elevating the human brain’s potential is terrifying to some people because of what bad actors could choose to do with the extra brainpower.
Lastly, there is the fear that tech like Neuralink will widen the chasm between the rich and the poor. Neuralink would most likely be expensive, making it only a preserve for the rich. This will make the field less even for competition in all aspects of life.
Neuralink is a gadget Musk plans to insert into the human brain using robotics controlled by neurosurgeons. As part of the procedure, a chipset known as the link is implanted in the skull and attached with wires to the brain. It is the size of a large coin.
Musk says the main function is to bridge the gap between the human brain and technology. According to the billionaire industrialist, Neuralink will help people with paralysis walk again. It will pick speech signals in the brains of people with speaking disabilities and transform them into human-understandable speech, restore sight to blind people, etc.
Neuralink has tested its tech in animals, with the first pubic demo reading and displaying signals from a pig’s brain. Another test showed a monkey playing a Ping-Pong game with its mind.
While some people consider it a privilege to be alive at the time the technology of sci-fi flicks is becoming a reality, other people are not so impressed, while others are still wary.
Neuralink will help people with paralysis walk again. It will pick speech signals in the brains of people with speaking disabilities and transform them into human-understandable speech, restore sight to blind people, etc.
Concerns & Criticisms
Though the technology is impressive in its objective to cure human affliction and enhance life for the people of the world, there are some skeptics who raise some concerns about the technology. After watching the pig demo, Professor Thomas Nowotny of the University of Sussex dismissed the technology as decades old, a point Musk himself admitted.
Andrew Jackson, a professor of neural interfaces, also panned the technology, saying the 1024 channels for carrying data to and from the brain are not that impressive these days.
Other professionals warn about the danger of Musk’s Neuralink. For example, the possibility to control the mind with Neuralink has been pointed out, with the ever-present risk of hacking and taking control by bad actors. This fear cannot be discarded as unfounded, given that the chip can connect to the internet.
The chip could malfunction after being implanted. Just what could happen in that scenario has not been researched enough. The possibility of elevating the human brain’s potential is terrifying to some people because of what bad actors could choose to do with the extra brainpower.
Lastly, there is the fear that tech like Neuralink will widen the chasm between the rich and the poor. Neuralink would most likely be expensive, making it only a preserve for the rich. This will make the field less even for competition in all aspects of life.
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