has Elon Musk just made telepathy possible a wireless brain chip named telepathy has been successfully implanted in a human at least that's what the US tech billionaire announced on X basically musk's goal is to be able to connect human brains to computers and let users communicate with digital devices via their thoughts sounds very futuristic still how much of a breakthrough is it really and what's in it for me so-call bcis can measure bre bra activity and translate it into digital commands if you were using such a device you could in theory communicate with digital devices
in a completely new and seamless way as musk puts it telepathy would enable you to control your phone or computer and through them almost any device just by thinking sound intriguing well there's a big downside musk's chip has to be implanted in your brain the surgery is conducted by a robot it connects 64 flexible thread sprads thinner than a human hair from the chip to the brain for people with diseases or disabilities this invasive procedure might be worth it though for example if you suffer from epilepsy bcis could detect a potential seizure in advance and
could help avoid it musk himself mentions other possibilities in his tweet initial users will be those who have lost the use of their limbs imagine if Steven Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or Auctioneer well the late Cambridge genius would most probably have liked the technology and benefited from it and in general bcis have huge potential in the medical field Steven Hawking was suffering from ALS a fatal type of motor neuron disease it is characterized by the progressive degeneration of nerve cells people affected by it lose their motoric capabilities a BCI could have
enabled Hawking to type texts with his thoughts but this isn't something neuralink has actually invented there are other companies that have already conducted successful human trials Australian founded company synchron for example other researchers are even building neural connections between brain implants and muscles in May 2023 Swiss company neuro restore managed to help a man walk again whose legs were paralyzed after an accident by the way these two examples have a big advantage over the neuralink model while they also need to be implanted in a patient's head the surgery needed is far less invasive so why
does musk's neuralink get so much hype to be fair the companies I just mentioned didn't invent bcis either actually the first time a chip was implanted into a brain dates all the way back to 1998 so musk is by no means the first to do it despite the hype but so far there hasn't been a person with a clout comparable to musk's pushing the technology musk didn't even shy away from turning animal testing into PR events in 2020 he introduced the world to Gert food a pig with an implanted neuralink chip and in 2021 he
boasted about pager a monkey that could play the video game pong with his thoughts via a chip implant apart from that he has made some pretty steep predictions about the possibilities of the technology we can save and replay Memories the future is going to be weird he said at a 2020 neuralink event for example musk seems to be determined to hack our brains and he believes that bcis can improve individuals far beyond the medical benefits but would you let a musk run company literally drill into your brain there's a lot at stake just think of
all the sensitive data that is potentially recorded while tapping into your thoughts what do you think of musk's BCI Ventures let us know
