“He’s more machine now, than man” What will we do with obsolete brain implants?
“He’s more machine now, than man” What will we do with obsolete brain implants?
The broader implications of brain-computer interfaces
As the field of implantable brain devices moves in leaps and bounds, there will come a time in the future when we will need to consider obsolescence of these devices, and as the implants grow in complexity and scope, will we eventually have to redefine our idea of what it is to be human?
If you let anyone put an implant in your brain you’re dumber than a roomba.
What if that implant was capable of curing you of a disease, like blindness or paralysis?
There are really good points in the article about obsolescence. Like if some poor shmuck actually goes and takes the neuralink surgery, even if it's for a valid medical or QoL reason and not just because cool early adopter factor and then the firm goes bust and customers have useless electrodes in their brains that is no longer supported by any company and made near impossible to hack because of close source software. Even if a company stays in business, but the tech itself might get old and then it's a whole new thing to getting it removed and upgraded. There are other reasons why these things can't really require cracking open a persons skull when installing or doing maintenance.
For wider adoption a BCI can't be no more invasive than a injection and preferably being non permanent. Like Darpa N3 programs has studied these kinds of things with totally non invasive methods and injectable nanotransducers...
Excellent summary! Yes the obsolescence will be a massive problem given the high-risk nature of any procedure to access the cranial vault. I can’t see this technology moving out of the therapeutic realm until viable non-invasive alternatives exist, I feel people will be much more comfortable to experiment with this tech once they know they can simply switch it off or detach it without risking their biology. I can see a cultural shift occurring with the advent of this type of technology, from short sighted consumerism to something a bit more holistic and long-term