27/05/2022
HOW FAR ARE WE FROM DIRECT BRAIN – COMPUTER INTERFACE? AN UPDATE ON ELON MUSK’S NEURALINK START-UP
In the previous article I wrote about the plans underway to insert some coin-sized chips into human brains in order to enable patients with certain type of paralysis to interact with devices such as computers and smart phones in a more naturalistic way. Elon Musk’s firm Neuralink promises that this technology “will enable someone with paralysis to utilize a smartphone with his/her mind faster than someone using thumbs”. Neuralink is determined to do so. So far successful experiments have already been carried out on a monkey and pig 2 years ago. This time around, Neuralink intends to take this experiment to the next level on human subjects. In this regard, the firm recently posted a job advert for the position of a Clinical Trial Director which indicates that brain-computer interface start-up is warming up for human trials anytime soon, although the U.S.’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approve the trial.
The firm’s website claims the “link is a starting point for a new kind of brain interface, hoping that as the technology develops, it will be able to increase the channels of communication with the brain thereby accessing more brain areas and new kinds of neural information”. Elon fears that as Artificial Intelligence (AI) advances, it will surpass human intelligence hence his vision to help humans achieve “symbiosis” with artificial intelligence to avoid being “left behind” by machines.
However, this project is not short of alarms, criticisms and other fears from industry experts. Experts worry about every step of Neuralink’s trajectory starting with the trials themselves. Some doubt the sincerity of Neuralink in that this will be very niche products once achieved. As such, if Neuralink is really only talking about developing them for paralyzed individuals, the market is very small for this kind of expensive devises and rare condition.
Again, if “the ultimate goal is to use the acquired brain data for other devices, or use these devices for other things such as to drive Tesla cars, an electrical driverless car manufacturing company he also owns, then there might be a much, much bigger market. But, this would then mean that all those human research subjects, a people with genuine needs are simply being exploited and used in risky research for someone else’s commercial gain.”
There are also concerns about “the rigor of the scrutiny” from the board that will oversee Neuralink’s trials, noting that some institutional review boards “have a track record of being maybe a little mired in conflicts of interest.”
There’re also some questions without clear-cut answers such as “what happens if Neuralink goes bankrupt after patients have already devices in their brains? Or who gets to control users’ brain activity data? What happens to that data if the company is sold, particularly to a foreign entity? How long will the implantable devices last in the brain, and will Neuralink cover upgrades for the study participants whether or not the trials succeed?”
Other experts cast doubt on the realism of the startup’s claims that it will be utilized therapeutically to help disabled persons. These experts point out this to be overpromising because they believe this is a long way from being able to do that.
Nevertheless, it is difficult to tell exactly how far we are from this human brain-computer link. But, one thing to note is that Neuralink rival Synchron has already been granted approval by FDA for an early feasibility study involving human test subjects, and late last year, Synchron reported that a patient in Australia became the first person to tweet a message “Hello World” to the world using only direct thought via its implantable brain-computer interface.
Some religious groups especially Christian prophesy watchers believe this is technology for the Beast Kingdom spoken of in the Bible – Revelation 13:15. They believe this technology will one day become a reality and might be forced upon all people during the One-world government era where there will no buying and selling for without the mark of the beast. During that time, the Image of the beast will force all people to worship the first Beast and it will order anyone who refuse to do so to be killed. How will this be possible, if not with the help of this kind of technology coupled with advanced Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Nano technologies? For now, there can only be speculations, only God knows.
Thank you.