Elon Musk has implanted a microchip in someone else’s brain.
No, this isn’t some weird conspiracy theory, it actually happened.
Well, it probably wasn’t him, but rather someone a bit more qualified to do so from a company he founded, Neuralink whose stated mission goal is to:
Create a generalized brain interface to restore autonomy to those with unmet medical needs today and unlock human potential tomorrow.
It’s an FDA approved operation. The end goal is to let folk use their computers just by thinking, developing a “Brain Computer Interface”. This has obvious applications for people who can’t use the limbs for instance. In the future the same technology might be used to restore vision to the blind.
So it’s all exciting and potentially “good-for-the-world” stuff. If only the show wasn’t being run by Mr Musk I’m sure I’d be slightly less worried about it. It seems like The Guardian couldn’t resist a bit of a commentary on the guy and what he chooses to spend his time on in-between whatever running his businesses involves:
In follow-up tweets sent in between arguing about video games and bantering with far-right influencers, the businessman said the first Neuralink product was called Telepathy.
Telepathy of course, despite its potential for revolutionary good, also sounds like something straight out of Black Mirror. Musk might have a vision for it beyond the medical it seems:
Speaking in 2017, Mr Musk said the ‘merger of biological intelligence and machine intelligence’ would be necessary if humans were to stay economically valuable.