in the latest update from Elon musk's
brain implant company neuralink we have
learned the fate of their very first
human
patient neuralink has begun the most
controversial medical experiment of the
21st century bringing science fiction
into a real world that might not be
ready for the consequences of a cyborg
revolution neuralink has arrived now
what comes next
on Sunday January 28th 2024 Elon musk's
neuralink carried out their first
robotic operation on a human brain the
patient was implanted with a total of 64
wires directly into the tissue of their
cerebral cortex each wire containing 16
microscopic electrode sensors and then a
very small battery powered computer
device was nestled inside inside this
person's skull before the incision was
sealed up and the N1 chip was powered on
for the first time inside a live human
being Elon Musk has confirmed that
patient zero survived the procedure in
good health and is recovering well Elon
also noted that the neuralink device has
already begun to show promising neuron
Spike detection ever since the concept
was introduced 8 years ago nurlink has
felt like a purely speculative techn
fantasy but in 2024 neuralink is real
and it works he did it he really did it
Elon put a fit bit inside someone's
skull so now what well Elon Musk
promises that the first neuralink
product that will be tested is called
telepathy and by that he means the first
software application that will harness
the capability of the N1 device that is
currently resting inside the skull of at
least one human being I'm not getting
getting over that anytime soon nurlink
telepathy will enable the user to
control a smartphone or computer simply
by thinking and by extension the nurlink
patient can use telepathy to control any
external device that is connected to
their computer or smartphone so in
theory telepathy should allow the user
to reach out and control pretty much
anything it is important to acknowledge
right now that neuralink has not just
created a superhuman cyborg in fact our
patient zero and all of the other
initial users of neuralink are people
suffering from an extreme physical
disability full body paralysis so the
purpose of this first clinical trial for
neuralink is to help restore some level
of autonomy to people who have the least
the initial application that neuralink
has demonstrated is telepathic typing
and cursor control just by thinking
about the movement of the cursor on a
computer screen the neuralink will
enable a user to write messages open
applications browse the web and even
play video games this is all stuff that
has already been demonstrated in the
company's monkey experiments for years
now so this is what we can assume the
first human neural users are doing right
now and as Elon pointed out if you can
use a smartphone you can operate any
smart device that is linked to that
phone so even without having to move or
speak a patient could change their
thermostat dim the lights open the
blinds activate the Roomba lock their
doors all of these Internet of Things
enabled devices are now accessible
through neuralink telepathy but that's
not all that Elon Musk has in mind for
neural Link's first human trials Elon
also teased that neuralink is working on
a second application that will join
telepathy this one is called blindsight
Elon has been surprisingly optimistic in
recent months that even an early version
of neuralink could restore eyesight to
the blind the idea here is that the N1
implant could be used to beam digital
vision from a camera directly into the
brain this one is a little further out
but in theory it is possible so with
telepathy the nurlink device is being
used exclusively as a transmitter the
implanted wires are picking up neural
activation signals from inside the
cerebral cortex and then those signals
are converted into computer language by
the N1 chip and Broad cast via Bluetooth
into a nearby computer or device if this
is possible then it would stand to
reason that you could flip the process
and transmit digital information from a
device through Bluetooth into the N1
implant which would then convert the
digital signal into neuron activations
to accomplish this the implant would
send electrical pulses through the tiny
wires into the brain tissue to stimulate
the neuron response if those wires were
implanted directly into the visual Cort
region of the brain the specific
patterns of neuron activation should be
interpreted by the brain as visual input
so even a person who has never seen with
their eyes before would be able to
visualize the world around them now this
won't be anything like having real
eyesight but a low resolution black and
white image should be possible as long
as we can activate the right neurons in
the right patterns imagine something
like an old Atari video game from the
1970s where each pixel on the screen is
either on or off the graphics were very
limited but you could still create a
recognizable image and just like video
game technology has improved over the
decades to become more and more detailed
the same thing could be done with this
new digital brain Vision only progress
will happen much much faster thanks to
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neuralink has always been the biggest
headline grabbing product in the modern
world of brain computer interface elon's
company is really just one piece of a
much larger puzzle that neuroscientists
have been trying to solve for decades
how do we understand the human brain the
pursuit of decoding the human brain will
become a multi-trillion dollar industry
in the decades to come and neuralink
will have no shortage of competition but
in true Elon Musk fashion his radical
pursuit of innovation might stand the
best chance of coming out on top
synchron is another us-based BCI startup
company that has already completed their
first round of human trials in 2023
implanting 10 patients with their own
neuron sensing electrodes this company
is important to watch because it is
currently being funded by Jeff Bezos and
Bill Gates two wealthy and Powerful
individuals who do not seem to like Elon
Musk very much the method used by
synchron to access the brain is
considerably less invasive than the
procedure being done at neuralink which
is a big factor in allowing human trials
at synchron to move at a faster pace
instead of approaching the brain through
the skull synchron uses a stent-based
procedure that they call a Sten Road a
stent is basically just a wire that is
inserted into a blood vessel which is
just a large vein they're like the
highways of the circulatory system
typically doctors will use a stent to
free up a blockage inside the vessel
that might cause a heart attack or
stroke in the case of the Sten Road the
device is using a primary blood vessel
as an express lane directly from the
chest into the cerebral cortex once the
stod arrives in the brain to an area
directly below the motor cortex an
expandable mesh is deployed that
interfaces with the walls of the vessel
and this mesh contains 16 electrode
sensors that can begin detecting and
transmitting neural activity back down
Through the Wire and into a device that
is attached to the patient's chest so
how does that compare to neuralink well
let's go back to what we were just
talking about at the beginning the first
neuralink patient has had 64 tiny wires
inserted into the surface of their brain
by an ultra precise surgical robot and
each wire contains 16 electrodes just in
the microscopic tip that goes around 2
mm deep into the brain tissue that is a
total of
1,24 individual electrodes that are
distributed across the circular hole
that's been cut into the patient's skull
and then looking at our stod again we
have 16 electrodes placed inside a blood
vessel that is adjacent to the brain
material we want to monitor even with
this significant disadvantage on paper
in practice the synchron BCI is
currently able to achieve the exact same
function that neuralink is demonstrating
with their current telepathy system
basic control over a keyboard mouse and
smartphone device and synchron currently
has 10 active human patients in their
initial feasibility study that began in
the summer of 2022
so a pretty significant Head Start in
product development but the biggest
problem with synchron is that they've
already pretty much reached their full
potential with the stod system
controlling a smartphone telepathically
is about all that this particular style
of implant can really accomplish which
is still cool but it doesn't exactly
provide much of an outlook for the
future while if we apply the same logic
to neuralink then we can assume that the
current telepathy application is is only
using something like 164 or less of the
total potential that the hardware is
capable of which gives neuralink a
long-term Outlook that is almost Beyond
Comprehension Elon Musk has speculated a
lot of potential outcomes like curing
brain disease correcting mental illness
ending obesity and interfacing the human
brain with an artificial super
intelligence now there is obviously no
evidence to say that neuralink actually
can do any of those things but there's
just as little concrete proof to say
that it can't all we really know is that
we don't know the full potential of the
neuralink hardware but we can take a
look at another BCI technology that is
as close to neuralink as anyone else has
come this is Black Rock neurotech it
sounds like a scary name and it kind of
is Black Rock along with another company
called Vanguard are famous for owning
the entire world BCI technology is one
of the longest plays that black rock has
been involved with conducting their
first human trial almost 20 years ago
Black Rock neurotech are one of the
pioneers of the invasive BCI which is
the same category that nuring falls
under meaning that the operation has to
go in through the skull and gain access
to the surface of the brain obviously
microscopic electrode wires and high
Precision surgical robots didn't really
exist 20 years ago so the best option
available at the time time was an array
of stiff straight electrode pins due to
the larger size and rigidity of the pins
in the Black Rock array they can't
penetrate as deep into the tissue as a
neuralink thread but even still that
direct connection through hundreds of
electrode pins can provide a significant
amount of bandwidth between the brain
and the computer even with their
relatively primitive approach Black Rock
has already demonstrated telepathic
control over a computer many years ago
they've allowed people to control
robotic arms just by thinking they've
even allowed a man who lost the use of
his legs in a traffic accident to walk
again on his own so while their
technology approach may be a bit
primitive by Modern Standard the list of
accomplishments at Black Rock is
extensive something that will take
neuralink a very long time to match but
it won't take them very much longer to
exceed if the Black Rock array can
seemingly perform Miracles with hundreds
of electrodes penetrating 1 mm deep then
what can be accomplished with thousands
of electrodes going 2 mm deep so again
the long-term perspective is what makes
neuralink so captivating there is no
other device on the market or even in
concept that will provide such a high
bandwidth connection between brain and
computer and neuralink is literally just
getting started this year is going to
reveal some crazy disc discoveries that
will redefine what we consider to be
possible with the human brain so stay
tuned