The Race to Put Brain Implants in People Is Heating Up

www.wired.com The Race to Put Brain Implants in People Is Heating Up

Thanks in part to Elon Musk, the field of brain-computer interfaces has captured both public and investor interest, with a cadre of companies now developing implantable devices.

The Race to Put Brain Implants in People Is Heating Up::Thanks in part to Elon Musk, the field of brain-computer interfaces has captured both public and investor interest, with a cadre of companies now developing implantable devices.

News @lemmy.world MicroWave @lemmy.world 6 mo. ago

The Race to Put Brain Implants in People Is Heating Up

www.wired.com /story/the-race-to-put-brain-implants-in-people-is-heating-up/

45 comments

I'm sorry, this version of i-plant is no longer supported. Please subscribe to a get a free replacement for your assisted eye sight, the premium option has no ads!
- You joke but they’re actually people running into that problem right now. A company that made bionic eyes shutdown and their users nolonger have support.
  
  "Intellectual property" protection has gone too far. It should not be illegal to repair your own devices, it should not be illegal to reverse engineer and break encryption on your own devices. Intellectual property should be inseparable from public interest responsibilities. If you buy a movie (and have proof of such), then whoever owns the IP for the movie should be required to provide you with additional copies, and if the IP gets lost in the legal weeds, then the movie is no longer copyrighted and people can copy and distribute it freely.
  
  As a society, we have no interest in making your rich just because you're a passive owner, you provide no benefit to society and society should provide no benefit to you. However, if you create a popular movie, and you distribute it and you take responsibility for ensuring that those who have purchased the movie are able to view it freely, then you are rendering a service to society and deserve to profit.
  
  Wasn't that specifically because the inventor and doctor died unexpectedly and he just didn't write any of that stuff down or train others on how the procedure was done?
  
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Yeah no. Smartphones have ruined our mental health and privacy enough I can't even imagine what an implant would do to us.
I will sooner implant a bullet before this proprietary bullshit
- You and me won't put up with proprietary shit but most people will, times and times again i see how people adore proprietary merchandise and utterly hate open source, and it shocked me at first, but reading comments on another posts, looks like more and more people adore corporations that exploit them to their hearts content and it repeats time and time again only to be slightly paused in times of giant fuck ups by corporations
  
  The case for requiring all body implants to be open-source is strong.
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- Free open source cybernetics will be the shit in like 40 years if humanity hasn't been completely wiped out by then.
  
  Just not super excited for the back alley ripperdocs
  
  Can't wait to debug and rice Arch OS on my brain chip
  
  Just in time for me to jack in at a retirement home!
- How would you feel about an implant being offered by an independent street vendor?
- I dunno, BioDyne and Arasaka make a pretty high-quality product
  
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Is this going to be like those neurotech implants for the _deaf blind that the company went under and now the people get no service, support or anything?

https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-022-03810-5/index.html
- Unlikely. These implants require far less in terms of outside-the-body tech.
  
  Also those people were blind, which is a whole other issue because you need external feedback processing.
  
  Its novelty is that it doesn’t require open brain surgery. Instead, it’s implanted through a slit at the base of the neck and threaded up through the jugular vein into the motor cortex—the part of the brain that directs movement. The device is powered by a small battery pack placed under the skin of the chest. Synchron has implanted 10 patients, including six in a US feasibility trial supported by the Brain Initiative.
  
  Being up to "cure" paralysis is a great thing.
This sounds like a nightmare.
- Why do you hate the paralyzed?
- Why?
  
  Because there is 0 chance these companies don’t force ads into our brains or require us to pay subscriptions not mentioned before the implant was put in but may harm our brain if we don’t pay. Europeans will maybe be safe from that due to consumer protection laws but we Americans are fucked.
  
  There's plenty of reasons to be fearful or suspicious: corporations who develop all the new tech we use today have shown already they don't respect our privacy. Our smartphones, computers, and other Internet connected devices are always harvesting data to advertise to us, so it follows that any brain-implanted device could be used to harvest data for similar purposes. Not everyone gives a shit about this one, but there are plenty who would at least like to be paid for the data that is collected from them and used for profit; barring that we should have the right to forbid data collection without consent.
  
  There are, of course, more sinister applications for brain-implanted devices that can interface with the Internet (and if they don't now, they surely will in the future). I think a lot of us immediately think of the science fiction book and movie, "Minority Report" wherein law enforcement has access to the private thoughts of citizens and arrests and convicts those who have contemplated crime but have not yet perpetrated the crime. Any sane person would never allow the police access to one's private thoughts, let alone a corporation.
  
  Elon Musk has said his ultimate goal with Neuralink goes beyond merely restoring function to injured parts of the body; he wants to make it possible to save and load memories and with those two functions we may also be able to delete memories too. Imagine someone hacking your memories, it could fundamentally alter your perception of yourself and your reality. You could become a prisoner in your own brain, subjected to the censorship of a corporation or government.
  
  These are worst case scenarios and I'm not saying we are there yet, maybe not even close to that level of technology, but we should be aware of what kind of control we may be giving away to a company or authority by allowing such implants to be installed. I hope that we will use it as a means of improving people's lives, but I'm very cautiously optimistic as well.
  
  While the idea is awesome, I'm certain that greedy corporations or other bad actors will abuse this.
  
  Tired of ads in your dreams? For the low price of $15.99 a month you could get ad-free dreams with Brain+!
  
  I’d like to see you sign up for Elon’s chip:
  
  https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-pcrm-neuralink-monkey-deaths/
People seem to think it is a one time thing. But are you going to have invasive brain surgery every time you need a major upgrade because your current implants are no longer being supported?
Thanks in part to Elon Musk

He wants to get one, too? Finally?

/s
- Wouldn't fit with all the bullshit he currently stores there.
I'm not getting anything put in my brain or otherwise until we get away from the current mindset of disposable electronics. Also not until I know its not going to be used to funnel ads into my brain.
Just a matter of time before we get Ghost in the Shell style cybernetics replacing parts of our brains
These companies are more interested in the prestige of getting there first, and securing venture capital than the actual applications, implants, and patients.

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