Elon Musk's company, Neuralink, implanted the first N1 chip in the human brain this week. The robot surgically implants a brain-computer interface (BCI) implant into an area of the brain that controls motor intentions. This so-called PRIME study, short for Precision Robot Implantation of Brain-Computer Interface, involves Neuralink's BCI medical device trial.
The company notes that the implant's ultra-fine threads can transmit signals in the brain. In a post on X, Musk added: "Preliminary results suggest that neuronal spike detection is promising. This suggests that the implant detected the electrical impulse signals produced by nerve cells in the brain.
When recruiting implant volunteers, Neuralink explains, "The device is designed to explain a person's neural activity, so they can operate a computer or smartphone just by wanting to move, without wires or body movement." Current medical trials use wireless brain-computer interfaces to assess the safety of robotic surgery and the interaction of implants with their surrounding biological tissues.
Neuralink's implants use custom-made micro-needles. The company explains, "The tip is only 10 to 12 microns wide, which is only slightly larger than the diameter of a red blood cell. The small size allows for minimal damage to the [brain] cortex when threads are inserted. The implant consists of 1,024 electrodes distributed over 64 threads, and the Neuralink user app connects wirelessly to a computer. "The N1 implant is powered by a small battery that can be easily used anywhere with a compact inductive charger that can be wirelessly charged externally," the company said. ”
The BCI initiative is not entirely new. In 2021, a team at Stanford University placed two small sensors under the surface of the brain of a man who was paralyzed from the neck down. Neural signals are transmitted to a computer via wires, where AI algorithms decode them and interpret expected hand and finger movements.
The implementation of the human-brain symbiosis digital layer has brought new medical opportunities. Musk reasoned insightfully: "Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a typist or auctioneer." In fact, on July 20, 2015, when I met Hawking in an empty giant hall of the Royal Society in London announcing a breakthrough listening program to find extraterrestrial electromagnetic signals from outer space, his caretakers told me, "Stephen is boring." Would you mind talking to him? I approached Stephen and invited him to the inauguration of the Black Hole Project at Harvard University, where I served as the founding director. It took Stephen ten minutes to translate the movements of his eyebrows into words using a machine, writing a brief positive response. This inefficient messaging eventually led to Hawking's three-week visit to the United States in April 2016. If Hawking had a chip to translate his thoughts, our conversations would be much more efficient.
In 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration published a medical commitment to BCI devices**, stating, "Implantable BCI devices have the potential to benefit people with severe disabilities by improving their ability to interact with the environment and, as a result, provide new independence in their daily lives." ”
Imagine an archaeological excavation of a cemetery centuries later. While human flesh decomposes over time, the electronics in it remain in good condition in the soil. The common phrase for burying the dead is "ashes to ashes, dust to dust", which needs to be updated to "ashes to chips, dust to integrated circuits" in the future.
In the long run, augmenting the human body with hardened electronic components could provide better prospects for survival during long journeys in interstellar space. Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline referred to the cybernetically enhanced concept of humans as "robots" in their 1960 article entitled "Robots and Space."
But as with any new technology, there are risks. The ability to turn ideas into action brings the opportunity to read ideas through the same portal. When it comes to blind dates in the distant future, the BCI app reveals the other person's thoughts without much to say. This unprecedented transparency can have unintended consequences. For example, when a partner shows unfaithful thoughts, even if no action is taken in practice, it can be devastating for a relationship.
There are also broader legal implications. Suppose the Department of Homeland Security, through the BCI app, discovers that some tourists or citizens are showing hostile thoughts towards the United States. If these people consider committing crimes before they put their ideas into action, is it legally reasonable for federal authorities to prosecute or imprison them?
George Orwell's book 1984 describes the concept of the "thought police" as a symbol of the overwhelming and overwhelming control over its citizens that it may have. The ability to read people's hearts may bring this idea closer to reality.
Orwell's dystopia may take a while to materialize. Currently, available brain-computer interfaces require invasive neurosurgery and pose health risks for those who want their ideas to be read. Personally, I prefer to keep most of my thoughts to myself. In my book, freedom of thought is a more sacred human right than freedom of speech.
Chris Michel (October 2023).
Avi Loeb (*i Loeb) is the director of the Galileo Project, the founding director of the Black Hole Project at Harvard University, the director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the former chair of the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University (2011) 2020). He is the Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Breakthrough Project, a former member of the Science and Technology Advisory Board, and a former Chair of the Physics and Astronomy Committee of the National Academy of Sciences. He is the author of the best-selling book Aliens: The First Signs of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth and co-author of the textbook Life in the Universe, both published in 2021. His new book, Interstellar, was published in 2021. August 2023.
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