Elon Musk recently introduced the Neuralink, a new company under his control.Second generation brain chip LINK V0.9, indicating that a chip with an area of 23mm x 8mm can connect to the brain through 1024 signal channels and correspond to a million-bit data transmission rate, wirelessly connecting brainwave information with external devices, thereby achieving a deeper "human-computer interaction" effect.
Neuralink was founded in 2016 and is owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and eight other co-founders. Headquartered in San Francisco, USA, it mainly develops implantable brain-computer interface technology and hopes to connect the human brain with artificial intelligence technology through implanted brain chips to find treatments and improve diseases such as epilepsy, Parkinson's disease or depression.
In a recent public announcement, Elon Musk used a pig named Gertrude with a LINK brain chip implanted as a demonstration, showing that the pig would exhibit different brain wave signals when walking, eating, etc. Neuralink expects to use artificial intelligence analysis to determine the response characteristics of human brain waves to body movements or emotional changes, and then explore ways to treat various diseases related to brain wave signals.
In addition, Elon Musk emphasized that in the future it will be possible to communicate directly with others through brain chips, and even back up human brain memory, erase bad memories, or connect with external artificial intelligence to enhance the human brain's thinking ability and enable the brain to be further "upgraded."
However, to gain this "function," one must be willing to undergo a surgery that takes less than an hour to implant a small brain chip in the top of their head. Neuralink only received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to test its brain chip in July of this year, initially using it in pigs, but has yet to be used in humans.
Therefore, even though Neuralink claims that recovery can be completed in a short time after surgery, there are still certain risks.
Apart from the risks of surgery, brain chip implantation may also carry the risk of foreign matter invading the human body. At the same time, if power supply problems require surgery to remove, repair, or replace the chip in the future, the risk of infection may increase due to the increased number of surgeries, which may cause people to have a psychological aversion to it.
In addition, although Neuralink boasts that LINK V0.9 can connect to the brain with 1024 signal channels, its main purpose is to better understand the transmission structure of brain neurons and other transmission structures, thereby exploring the treatment of Parkinson's disease or limb damage caused by brain damage. In terms of in-depth application, it hopes to establish a connection between the human brain and artificial intelligence, and then realize applications such as direct communication through perception and memory backup.
Once the human brain is connected to the outside world, will it also require protective measures such as firewalls, like computers, to prevent malicious intrusions by hackers? We may even face the question of whether artificial intelligence will affect the human brain, or whether government agencies may use it to more efficiently manage the thoughts and behaviors of the people in the country. These situations are bound to cause conflicts in moral cognition, religious concepts, etc.
However, from a positive perspective, "upgrading" the human brain through external surgical implants may realize the "superhuman" mentioned by Elon Musk. By speeding up communication, increasing memory and thinking ability, or allowing scientists and other talents to retain brain memories permanently, it is indeed beneficial to the development of science and technology.
A long time ago, "Ghost in the Shell", drawn by the Japanese manga genius Shirow Masamune, depicted a similar scene. People could connect to others at any time through the Internet. However, the technology at that time was still imagined to be connected by wired connection, rather than the current wireless connection. However, it also mentioned how to enhance human brain thinking or back up memory through external connections.
Whether Neuralink’s ideal blueprint can be accepted by the public or become an act of exploring taboo areas may depend on how Neuralink develops in the future.
