Turns out ‘mind over matter’ might just be a thing – if you’re willing to participate in Elon Musk’s neurotech company’s first-ever human trials to test their brain chip.
The company, Neuralink, has so far appealed for a director to oversee the trials. According to their website, they aim to create a “brain computer interface” that will allow people to wirelessly transmit and receive information between their brain and a computer.
A paralyzed person, for example, could control a mouse and keyboard without moving their limbs by implanting a Neuralink chip inside their brain. Information could be transferred in the opposite direction, causing the brain to simulate the sensation of tactile touch.
The technology owes thanks to the neurons in the brain that produce electrical impulses. Electrodes positioned close to the neurons can collect and record those signals. Repeating these impulses can simulate the same sensation of a variety of experiences, like holding an apple or kissing someone.
“[The] First Neuralink product will enable someone with paralysis to use a smartphone with their mind faster than someone using thumbs,” Musk tweeted last year. “Later versions will be able to shunt signals from Neuralinks in the brain to Neuralinks in body motor/sensory neuron clusters, thus enabling, for example, paraplegics to walk again.”
While Neuralink persistently emphasises the technology’s invaluable promises to assist a number of disabilities such as blindness, paralysis, hearing loss or paraplegia. Equally, it comes to no surprise that many can’t turn a blind-eye towards the potentially harmful nature of the technology.
Although Neuralink’s technology is now being utilised to treat medical issues, the company’s long-term vision is to create an artificial internet-connected overlay for the brain that would allow users to interact with future intelligent technologies.
In a 2020 company presentation, Musk said: “In the future you’ll be able to save and replay memories. Ultimately you could download them into a new body or a robot body.” He has also previously mentioned other purposes of the chip, including adding ‘a layer of super-intelligence to the human brain.’
Alongside issues involving ownership and data transparency, peoples minds’ would be susceptible to technological threats such as hacks, payments for software updates or deactivation.
As the technology progresses beyond correction to enhancement, the possibility of behavioural and emotional alterations could have detrimental psychological impacts. Twitter users were quick to draw parallels between Musk’s Neuralink brain implant chip to a similar device featured in the Netflix dystopian series, Black Mirror. In a 2011 episode “The Entire History of You”, where characters could replay memories or feelings via chips implanted inside their brains, leading to consequential damages to their mental health and privacy.
In addition, concerns are raised over testing the technologies in animals. Neuralink devices were trialled on pigs and monkeys – including one test where a chip was implanted into a monkey’s brain.
Rest assured, Musk’s ambition for Neuralink could take a long time to come to fruition. In 2019, he announced that the neurotechnology company would shortly commence human clinical trials on brain implants. As of April 2021, Neuralink has only released a video of an ape using the gadget to interact with a computer and play video games like “mind pong”, demonstrating how humans may be able to utilise the chip to command computerised devices with their minds in the future.
The desire to sensationalise and even fantasise possible ramifications is hard to shelve. More importantly, the need for informed discussions and strategies to address plausible issues is pivotal, and this means greater consideration of ethical and responsible innovation.
