The first human recipient of a Neuralink brain implant has shared new details on his recovery and experience of living with the experimental assistive tech.
It sounds like things are going well for this guy and that is great and all, but how much would we honestly expect to hear if it wasn't going well?
This story is circulating all the media outlets and feels more like PR than a legit example of how this procedure is actually going to work for most people.
My only concern is that people are going to think that he only stayed playing civ all night because it’s exciting to do something. But that’s not the case.
Innocent people are going to try this game and keep saying “one more turn”.
I think it's an amazing advancement and that's awesome for a quadriplegic person to interact with the world.
The part that I haven't heard anyone mention is what is the life cycle of these chips. Computers and cell phones all become outdated so quickly. Are recipients guaranteed upgraded chips as they become available?
I was reading an article recently about people who have had implants in their eyes that help them to see become obsolete. One because the company stopped supporting the specific version that was in the patient. The other because the company had gone out of business.
The start of the article is confusing. Given what it tells us that the patient has been doing, it sounds like the chip only acts as a receptor of the brain's outputs, this is, the chip should act on the brain as little as possible. However,
The billionaire also hinted at the time that the implant was functioning well and had detected a “promising neuron spike”.
Which makes it sound like the very opposite. Honestly it wouldn't surprise me if Elon had no goddamn idea about what the implant does yet rushed to comment on it anyway.
I don't know why, I have zero reason to even think this. Maybe it's my growing distaste for Musk and his bullshit. But something about this whole thing has my "press X to doubt" meter going off the charts.
If I'm wrong. Great. But something in my gut tells me that you don't just go from multiple dead test subjects and a steven king novel's worth of FDA investigations, to suddenly having someone using it perfectly fine with no side effects.
Again, this is all allegedly. I have no proof or evidence either way. It's just my own gut. So don't sue me, Elon.