Neuralink brain implant is not as innovative as Elon Musk would have us believe

Despite all the excitement that arose around the death of several experimental animals NeuralinkCompany Elon Musk continued to follow the plan and has already tested the device on people.

This, logically, added further fuel to a fire that flared when several former company employees warned of improper practices with laboratory test subjects. Although Musk himself stated that the animals participating in the study were terminally illthese former employees claimed that some of them were young and healthy individuals and that they died not from previous illnesses, but from infections resulting from the installation of a neuroimplant. Now that this step has been taken in human patients, it is a serious cause for concern.

However, at the moment no final decision has been made on this matter. That is why we were able to continue promoting the project, which is presented as a very innovative. But is this really so?

Role of Neuralink

Neuralink was founded in 2016 as a neurotechnology company whose goal is to create implants that can create direct communication between brain and machine.

Its founder, Elon Musk, has always defined the project’s goals as a dual task. On the one hand, helping people with Neurological disorders restore the ability to communicate. And, on the other hand, to create a symbiosis between man and machine without affecting medical purposes. This is included in the so-called transhumanisma movement aimed at gradually transforming people with the help of new technologies, thereby improving their capabilities.

The first Neuralink devices operate via brain stimulation. They are implanted in patients with paralysis or neurodegenerative diseases so they can communicate through a computer that reads their brain activity. It can also be used, for example, to allow people who cannot move their limbs to move certain objects.

Tests carried out in pigs and monkeys In recent years they have shown good results in terms of device efficiency. The same cannot be said about the risks if what former company employees warned about turns out to be true. Now, even if everything were completely safe, to what extent can we consider what happened with Neuralink as an achievement of science?

There is little news at the moment

As explained Hypertext Psychologist Miguel Omar Herrero, what Neuralink has achieved is nothing new. “Neuralink is not really innovating, these are things that have been done in labs for a long time,” he explains. “In patients Parkinson’s disease There are examples of control of the activity of the red nucleus and even studies on the recognition and reproduction of speech patterns in people who lost the ability to speak”

When he talks about the red nucleus, he is referring to the area of ​​the brain associated with coordination of movements. Monitoring activity in patients with Parkinson’s disease can help reduce coordination problems, so this type of study is very useful.

Philosopher and transhumanist expert Antonio Diegues also speaks about this type of research. “Since 1997, electrodes have been inserted into the brain to monitor diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and, more recently, others such as Parkinson’s disease. epilepsy or depression“

A few examples before Neuralink

The philosopher cites as an example a study published in 2021 in the journal New England Journal of Medicine. It discusses the case of a patient with vocal cord paralysis that prevents him from speaking. By implanting a series of electrodes into the brain, brain activity could be detected and converted into electromagnetic waves read by a computer, which could be used to write down words from a list of 50, at a speed 15 words per minute.

For his part, Omar Herrero also mentions a 2021 study, this time published in Nature. In this case we analyzed motor cortex activity when the patient thinks or imagines that he is writing by hand. Thanks to an artificial intelligence algorithm, brain activity is recorded. patterns which correspond to a specific letter, so you can write any word.

Both cases are similar to what Neuralink does. Therefore, in principle it is not something exclusively innovative, although it does include some interesting technical improvements. “Musk has fame and money, although it is true that his electrode technology could bring some benefit due to its flexibility– says Omar Herrero.

Neuralink’s Next Step

Even if Neuralink goes further and treats other diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s or even depression, it still won’t be anything new. They already exist neuroimplants are aimed at such conditions.

And in fact, the company’s great innovation will be related to transhumanism. An expert on the topic we’ve consulted since Hypertext He tells us that Elon Musk has always been an enthusiast of this trend and has never hidden his goals in this regard. “Elon Musk’s goal is to go further and achieve improvement of dentures“, he elaborates. “He said on Twitter that his first target is paralysis patients and so on, but that’s the initial target, what he says is to get on with the task and get a lot of public recognition. Their next target is prosthetics that are focused not on solving a medical problem, but directly on improving the human being.”

This refers, for example, to implants that allow people to communicate directly with electronic devices. Regarding whether this is possible in the more or less short term, Diegues explains that there are two points of view. “There are experts who think it is viable and progress can be made quickly, and there are others who think that while it is not impossible, it will happen much more slowly than they are telling us.”

In fact, everything happens slower than we think

According to Diegues, overall things are going well slower than usually advertised. “We must not forget that behind all this there are companies that make large investments and have to advertise.” Therefore, we are promised things that are still at an early stage. “Putting chips into the brain is not easy, and there is still a lot of confidence about the long-term effects.” You also need to consider that a lot of regulation will be required. And here we can ask ourselves a new question.

Fact or science fiction?

Early on, Neuralink even talked about the possibility of making chapter-specific improvements Black mirrorhow to store memories. However, it’s not that simple. Miguel Omar Herrero also explained this. “Indeed, autobiographical memory is not a photo album located at one point, but rather the reproduction of experience through complex activities in several areas“

This will make it very difficult to obtain the Neuralink app. However, according to Antonio Diegues, experts on transhumanism are already emphasizing the need to prepare for a future in which this is possible.

“Spanish neuroscientist Rafael Yuste, the ideologist of the American BRAIN program, is a scientist very concerned about protecting neuro-rights. That is, the possibility that in the future, using these types of brain-machine interfaces, it will be possible to access our thoughts and violate our privacy if we know what we are thinking about in more detail. “For some time he has been promoting the creation of a neuro-rights charter that protects people from the potential abuses that these technologies can entail.”

Antonio Diegues, philosopher-expert in the field of transhumanism

In short, Neuralink took a widely recognized step that actually this is nothing new. The steps yet to be taken, those leading to transhumanism, will be truly new. But to get there, he will first have to demonstrate that his neuroprosthetics are safe, while facing possible regulation that would make the journey much slower. All that glitters is not gold, even if it belongs to one of the richest men in the world.