A New Meaning to Mind Games

Elon Musk is many things. He is an environmentalist, a car manufacturer, an astronaut, a controversial tweeter, and most recently, he is the man trying to make The Terminator, a reality. Neuralink, one of Musk's more recent endeavors, is a neurotechnology company that is developing implantable brain–computer interfaces (BCIs), and has been quite the controversial project as well. The complexity of the technology is a lot for most people to understand, and I myself tend to think that putting a computer chip into a person's brain, is only a hop-skip-and-a-jump away from some level of mind control, or at the very least a REALLY bad sequel. Public fears aside, Neuralink maintains a seemingly positive mission statement, "Create a generalized brain interface to restore autonomy to those with unmet medical needs today and unlock human potential tomorrow.", but will see whether or not they stick to that plan

1. The History

Neuralink was originally founded in 2016 by Musk and a small team of engineers, but became more publicly known in March of 2017, after a feature in The Wall Street Journal. Musk had already established himself financially at the time, and was running Tesla and SpaceX on the daily, but seemingly so, that just wasn't enough for him. Since then, Neuralink has grown to over 200 employees on LinkedIn and has continued to develop upon the capabilities of their mind-enhancing tech. They have successfully implanted a chip in a pig, named Gertrude, in order to test the software's ability to predict brain and bodily function, and were also able to give a monkey the ability to play a game of pong, on the computer, with its mind. Some scientists dispute the relevance of these trails, but I think that experimentation is the only way to innovation, so it's positive to see the progress overall.

2. What Are They Making

Neuralink is advertised as developing two primary products, the implantable chip, and the machine that is used to implant the chip. This is important to know for several reasons, one being that this process isn't as simple as cutting someone open and plugging in a USB drive. The chip is small, and is "hermetically sealed in a biocompatible enclosure", that is built to withstand much harsher conditions than the human body. The chip includes a small battery, wireless connectivity for charging and transmission, and "1024 electrodes distributed across 64 threads." The threads are what connects the chip to the brain and are crucial for maintaining the integrity of the chip, as well as the prolonged safety of the user.

The machine is equally as important as the chip itself, and stands at a massive 8ft tall. With how fine the threads are for the implant, the robot is some form of a super hi-tech sewing machine. It's equipped with the "optics and sensors of 5 camera systems and the optics for an optical coherence tomography (OCT) system", "a needle thinner than a human hair", and a "3 axis linear motion" base that it sits on.

The people, who are much smarter than me, in this video explain the complexity of the machine a hell-of-a lot better than I can. Elon has even tried to claim, via Twitter, that it could soon be capable of performing the implant as simply as LASIK. While that remains to be seen, I am interested to see where he takes the technology next, which leads me to my next question.

3. What Now

As of May 25th, via an announcement on Twitter once again, Neuralink confirmed that it has finally been approved by the FDA for human clinical trials, after a previous rejection in 2022 over multiple safety concern.

Since then, they have begun accepting patient applications for future trials, and are currently developing a robust, patient registry for future product applications. The trials are open to anyone 18+, but will require you to enter a considerably amount of personal medical data, in order for the, to determine if you are the right fit for the trial. While they do not have any upcoming trials scheduled on their website, they are actively hiring for a number of positions that would support trials, and my guess is that they are analyzing applicants to determine the best initial use case

While I still don't love the thought of a potential Skynet scenario, it isn't enough for me to ignore the incredible things that could be done with this technology. From my work with The Special Olympics, I have seen how hindering a disconnect from your mental to your physical abilities can be, and this technology has the opportunity to virtually eliminate those issues. I think of someone who has lost a limb, or anyone that has dealt with some form of paralysis, and I can see them walking, or even running, thanks to an exoskeleton controlled by a tiny little chip in their head. It is a pretty out-of-this-world thought, but it takes a new way of thinking to solve the most complex issues. And while I am still skeptical of Elon and his intentions, I am curious to see how his team, and others alike, are able to use their current momentum to make real advancements in medical technology. Who knows when we may need it.