In Tesla Earnings call, Elon Musk mentioned that Neuralink will be able to drive artificial arms and legs for amputees. He equated this to the $6 million man. It is also Star Trek Borg, which have the motto Resistance is Futile.
Elon has the most entertaining earnings calls.
Elon says it will be cheaper…the $60,000 man instead of the $6 million man.
The actual useful purpose for this is to help millions of amputees globally.
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Elon has the most entertaining calls
I would also venture to say that, long term, unaugmented humans probably don’t have much of a future living almost anywhere off planet.
Further, the augmented will be the leading wave of humanity. Those who fall behind will not be. Hopefully, they will choose to leave non-technical, off-the-grid, enclaves or reservations for those that will neither lead nor follow where the majority of the species is going.
It will probably be necessary if we wish to remain in charge, or at least competitive, with regard to AI.
That’s not really news, just a confirmation. Anyone who knew anything about Neuralink (or any other BCI) already knew that it could potentially drive prosthetics.
Of course, the Chinese copious nerds and their likes see their prospects in becoming Elon cyborgs as well without admitting it.
Historically, the biggest problem with inserting needle arrays into the brain has been the buildup of scar tissue, which makes them stop working after a while.
I wonder why he’s never mentioned this problem. Maybe he hasn’t solved it?
One alternative has been laying a net of electrodes on the surface of the brain, which means no scar tissue, but only gives access to the very surface neurons.
Another alternative has been electrodes on the surface of a stent placed inside large blood vessels in the brain. This is less invasive. But gives less useful access to neurons.
I wish he would comment on the scarring issue. If he has solved it, then his approach seems better than both those alternatives.
A lot of people are immune, 1 neuron,
Historically large electrodes are inserted crudely by human surgeons doing damage in the process which is what results in scar tissue. The Neuralink approach to this is a robot surgeon and a complete novel tech with very fine electrodes and very fine placement control at a microscopic level beyond the capacity of a human surgeon.
They seek to place very fine electrodes so carefully they don’t do damage that results in scar tissue.
I don’t know how much progress they’ve made toward doing this, but this is the what Neuralink is based on.
The big question is whether they’ve achieved that goal. I haven’t seen him release any data on it. I’d be very interested to know.
I’d love to be a cyborg (if I’m only connected to AI, not other humans) but nobody is exposing my brain to the atmosphere without a life or death medical reason.
I should say that goes for minimally invasive probes too. Anything that starts out outside my skull and ends up inside is not something I’m doing on an elective basis.
That’s what most people would have said about surgery on their eyes, that they’d never risk that just to not need glasses, but in fact laser eye surgery just to improve vision is a big industry that doesn’t have a problem with demand.