Neuralink

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Musk and the guys developing neuralink released their first demo today (scroll to 49mins for the start)


  • Read / write capable
  • Demo of pig showed neural spikes from it's snout while sniffing / eating
  • Demo of pig on treadmill showed limb activity overlaid on body graphic: signal vs actual
  • Size of a penny
  • Implanted on top of skull - penny size chunk of skull removed, wires fed into the brain
  • Automated robotic implant procedure
  • Can be done without anaesthetic
  • 1024 channels which works out to be around 100kb/s (?)
  • Compression involved
  • Upgradable in future
  • Can use multiple
  • May solve anxiety, pain, depression, etc
  • Intend to re-able patients with disabilities - spinal, sensory
  • Can augment vision if camera is attached - full EM spectrum could be possible
  • ...
  • It can play Crysis (eventually)
Like Tesla, there is an ulterior motive to just business / environmentalism / philanthropy - Musk sees the Singularity as one of our greatest threats and wants to get ahead of the curve by making sure the machines have a reason not to kill us / give us value. To reach that goal we will see neuralink boundaries being pushed well beyond just solving ailments.

I see this as forced evolution. And I think I like it.
 
It's pretty cool - people's worries about eugenics might well be a bit small fry compared to some of the biohacking and augmentation possibilities that may be available in future.

Wonder how politicians will react in terms of trying to regulate this stuff - initial reactions if/when it matures could be quite fearful/reactionary.. only wanting it to say restore vision or to assist with disabilities.... not for some wealthy person to enhance etc.. (though that could well still be a long way off).
 
Massive Musk fanboy checking in o/

I haven't had a chance to watch the announcement/demo yet, but from what I've read it sounds like things are progressing in a typically Muskian fashion; not as fast as his goal timeline, but much faster than would have otherwise been realistically expected.

I think this will have enormous medical implications which I am very excited about, obviously, but more than that I'm interested in this as yet another "great filter" avoidance measure. AI has already changed our world, and as things progress things are likely to get whacky really, really fast. We have completely changed the way we live within just a generation, and that's going to look like a small step compared to the giant leap that should - theoretically - happen come singularity. We need some way of leveraging it on an societal and individual level to allow us to ride the tide, raising all all ships as opposed to being a figurative tsunami that wipes us out.

We've been cyborgs for years now. We carry second brains with us at all times that harbour unbelievable power, currently going largely unharnessed due to poor input bandwidth from our side. As said in the OP, it would be a form of forced evolution, but really that's what technology always has been. Man has been doing this since the moment he created basic tools, this just crosses a more obvious barrier. The digital world is already "in" our minds from a psychological/mindshare perspective, I think it will actually be more balanced if we can push back so we're "in" the digital world in equal measure.
 
...and pigs will fly.

He certainly (Musk) gives value for money. Much research that he does would not be green lit if not for his money and name behind it.
 
Zefan said:
Massive Musk fanboy checking in o/

I haven't had a chance to watch the announcement/demo yet, but from what I've read it sounds like things are progressing in a typically Muskian fashion; not as fast as his goal timeline, but much faster than would have otherwise been realistically expected.

I think this will have enormous medical implications which I am very excited about, obviously, but more than that I'm interested in this as yet another "great filter" avoidance measure. AI has already changed our world, and as things progress things are likely to get whacky really, really fast. We have completely changed the way we live within just a generation, and that's going to look like a small step compared to the giant leap that should - theoretically - happen come singularity. We need some way of leveraging it on an societal and individual level to allow us to ride the tide, raising all all ships as opposed to being a figurative tsunami that wipes us out.

We've been cyborgs for years now. We carry second brains with us at all times that harbour unbelievable power, currently going largely unharnessed due to poor input bandwidth from our side. As said in the OP, it would be a form of forced evolution, but really that's what technology always has been. Man has been doing this since the moment he created basic tools, this just crosses a more obvious barrier. The digital world is already "in" our minds from a psychological/mindshare perspective, I think it will actually be more balanced if we can push back so we're "in" the digital world in equal measure.
Click to expand...

Let’s hope that Mr. Musk will be rather more ethical in this endeavour than he has been in the running of his Tesla factories where he has consistently ignored OSHA rules and guidelines, leading to several employees being injured.
 
Hagar said:
...and pigs will fly.

He certainly (Musk) gives value for money. Much research that he does would not be green lit if not for his money and name behind it.
Click to expand...


This is what I love about the guy. He might be a freaking weirdo and a very controversial person but there's absolutely no denying his contributions towards humanity. He loves profit, but most of his actions and inventions also benefit either us or the planet. He's great.
 
Dear Citizens,

Please note that all your bad thoughts will be recorded and uploaded to the cloud for analysis and to initiate any required behavioural correction procedures.

We thank you for your compliance. :D
 
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dowie said:
Wonder how politicians will react in terms of trying to regulate this stuff - initial reactions if/when it matures could be quite fearful/reactionary.. only wanting it to say restore vision or to assist with disabilities.... not for some wealthy person to enhance etc.. (though that could well still be a long way off).
Click to expand...
Anyone without inhibition (moral, spiritual, religious, etc) and who isn't put off by the penny-sized chunk of skull that must be removed, is going to want this. And if it gets relegated to medical treatment only, there will be tourism to countries that openly allow it.
Zefan said:
that I'm interested in this as yet another "great filter" avoidance measure. AI has already changed our world, and as things progress things are likely to get whacky really, really fast.
Click to expand...
I am not convinced this will save us from the negative potential of the singularity, but I also cannot see any other feasible solution to living with it. If you can't beat them, join them. But regardless of our integration with it, any AI can still look at us as inefficient leaf nodes on a system they are trying to optimise, and off us anyway.
 
I think he's more than a bit weird if you've seen him in any interviews it's as though there's a few cogs missing or something else going on behind the scenes. Just because something can be done is not reason for it to be done.
 
It is interesting stuff.

I remember years ago in the 1990's I used to travel to 'special' school on taxi's with the other kids. I remember a kid who was deaf. I think he was probably only about 5 or 6 years old. He had a brain implant. I think there was something on his head, similar to the suggested skull device Musk is talking about, and then small cables that went down to his ear. I think the device let him hear without having to use hearing aids.

So the basic technology as been around for 20+ years. It seems like Musk is expanding its applications. Probably with more efficient technology it is possible to do what he's saying. It's not that much of a big leap from what we have today.
 
BowdonUK said:
It is interesting stuff.

I remember years ago in the 1990's I used to travel to 'special' school on taxi's with the other kids. I remember a kid who was deaf. I think he was probably only about 5 or 6 years old. He had a brain implant. I think there was something on his head, similar to the suggested skull device Musk is talking about, and then small cables that went down to his ear. I think the device let him hear without having to use hearing aids....
Click to expand...

Seriously!!! :rolleyes:
 
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