Behind Elon Musk’s Neuralink, the Company Developing Brain-Machine Interfaces

All About Circuits ^ | 07 20 2020 | Adrian Gibbons

[yesthatjallen]

In the past, the notion of human brain-machine interfaces (BMI) was confined to science fiction, depicted most recently in film and television shows like Anon and Altered Carbon. These two productions and others like them foretell of an age where human interactivity with machines will be seamless, providing enhanced data capabilities and beyond.

The technology to make such BMIs a reality may not be as far-fetched as you might think. Neuralink, a company co-founded by Elon Musk, is developing next-generation brain-machine interfaces with scalable neural channel density and real-time data processing.

Some of the stated use cases for this technology include a full articulation of the digits in a prosthetic hand via a wireless Neuralink implant or the ability to see with electrodes replacing the optic nerve.

Featured in the Neuralink Launch Event in 2019, the N1 is a hermetically-sealed SoC featuring 1,024 channels in a 4 mm x 5 mm package, processing 200 Mbps of data per channel using only 6.6 microwatts of power.

It is capable of compressing neurological data up to 200 times making it suitable for Bluetooth transmission. The chipset is embedded in the skull and connected to ultra-thin filaments called "threads," containing 32 gold electrodes per thread. These threads are embedded in the flesh of the brain, with electrodes less than 60 microns from their target neuron by a custom-built, surgeon-assisted robot.

SNIP

[aquila48]

Music? How about downloading 4 years of college learning in a minute or two.

Reading and attending lectures is such a slow and old fashioned way to learn.

[Ozark Tom]

The ‘Droud’ implant of Laurence van Cott Niven, depicted as a drug-free perpetual high encompassing all human vices.

[Ozark Tom]

Micro-second symmetric pulses trigger neuron firing without resulting in substantial ion migration. There is potential to train neuron clusters to produce a sustained patterned firing.

[Ex gun maker.]

What I do know for certain is that NO ONE is getting near me with anything remotely resembling this garbage!
2A to resist tyranny, and I cannot think of anything more tyrannical than Gov. Org. directly taking control/access to our minds.

[Ozark Tom]

“Dollhouse” for a personality transplant with memories plus skills.

[adorno]

Think bigger!

Think even bigger.

No need to watch your steps when your brain and body can be contained inside an (robotic) exoskeleton that can do the walking for you, while the AI inside that exoskeleton communicates directly into your brain.

In fact, why even bother with the human body when your brain can be extracted and then becomes part of the exoskeleton with AI? When people die, their brains might be kept alive and could live on inside an exoskeleton. Most functions and joys that the human body 'performs' would be gone, but perhaps sometime in the future, somebody could create and 'android' (no, not the phone OS) that can feel like a human.

[roadcat]

When people die, their brains might be kept alive and could live on inside an exoskeleton.

Think even bigger. There was a Star Trek episode where they encountered aliens who consisted of brains encapsulated in globes. No bodies. The brains could control and explore the environment outside of the brain. No need to put a brain in an exoskeleton at all.

[adorno]

No need to put a brain in an exoskeleton at all.

Yet, even in your example, the brains were 'encapsulated in globes', sort of an exoskeleton housing the brain. The globes must've served as the means of movement, otherwise, they'd be like trees sitting in just one place exploring only their immediate surroundings.