How Elon Musk could make the Matrix a reality: Researchers reveal how his new firm could build a 'brain chip'
Computers and brains already talk to each other daily in high-tech labs – and they do it better and better.
For example, disabled people can now learn to govern robotic limbs by the sheer power of their mind.
The
hope is that we may one day be able to operate spaceships with our
thoughts, upload our brains to computers and, ultimately, create
cyborgs.
Now Elon Musk is joining the race.
The
CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has acquired Neuralink, a company aiming to
establish a direct link between the mind and the computer.
Musk has already shown how expensive space technology can be run as a private enterprise.
But just how feasible is his latest endeavour?
Neurotechnology
was born in the 1970s when Jaques Vidal proposed that
electroencephalography (EEG), which tracks and records brain-wave
patterns via sensors placed on the scalp (electrodes), could be used to
create systems that allow people to control external devices directly
with their mind.
The idea was to use computer algorithms to transform the recorded EEG signals into commands.
Since then, interest in the idea has been growing rapidly.
Indeed,
these 'brain-computer interfaces' have driven a revolution in the area
of assistive technologies – letting people with quadriplegia feed
themselves and even walk again.
In the
past few years, major investments in brain research from the US (the
BRAIN initiative) and the EU (the Human Brain project) have further
advanced research on them.
This has
pushed applications of this technology into the area of 'human
augmentation' – using the technology to improve our cognition and other
abilities
WAKE UP!!
ALERT!!! NUERALINK'S FUTURE
Neuralink
was registered in California as a 'medical research' company last July,
and he plans on funding the company mostly by himself, a person briefed
on the plans told the Wall Street Journal.
It
is unclear what sorts of products Neuralink might create, but people
who have had discussions with the company describe a strategy similar to
space launch company SpaceX and Tesla, the Journal report said.
In recent weeks, Neuralink has also hired leading academics in the field, the Journal reported
Musk previously hinted at the plans online.
The
astonishing revelation came in response to a tweet, asking Musk if he
was working on 'neural lace' – a way of installing computers into the
human brain.
It is not known what the
brain chip could be used for, but Musk has previously said that it will
be the 'thing that really matters for humanity to achieve symbiosis with
machines.'
The neural lace could initially be used to study the brain mechanisms and treat disorders such as epilepsy or major depression.
