Last January Elon Musk announced that for the first time his company Neuralink managed to successfully place one of his brain implants into the creature Human. At that time we didn’t have many details about it. Over time, we learned more about the lucky guy. Called Noland Arbaugh and became paralyzed in 2016 in a diving accident when he was just 22. Gradually we have seen him surpass milestones such as play chess or video games like Mario Kart or Civilization I, but smarter. But not everything was perfect. He Wall Street Journal just announced the first bug discovered in the implant. This is not something serious, but it shows that the procedure was not error-free.
In particular, it appears that some of cables placed in Arbo’s brain failed. As a result, the implant cannot collect as much information at once. Neuralink is investigating the reasons, but so far they have ruled out the possibility of removing the implant.
Musk’s company insists that although this will slightly reduce the potential what Arbo can achieve with his implant does not pose any risk to his health and is not so counterproductive as to subject him to further intervention.
What happened to the Neuralink implant?
Although they don’t yet have a definitive answer, Neuralink scientists believe the implant failed due to a phenomenon known as pneumocephalus. This consists of air entering the cranial cavity. It can occur for many reasons, but its origin is usually due primarily to traumatic injury or surgery. Therefore, this most likely occurred during implant placement.
The implant consists of 64 wire cables, thinner than a human hair. Each contains 16 electrodes that collect signals from the patient’s brain and translate them into information that is processed like a computer. Removing some of these threads from their places means there are fewer electrodes collecting brain signals, so the processing is not as efficient. Despite this, Neuralink continues to show a video of Arbo being grateful for everything he has learned during this time. Because yes, it really is education.
Shortly after the intervention, the patient said that he was discharged a day later and that at that time he could not yet use the implant. should have gotten education To think adequate to what I wanted to do. This made his life easier, even with fewer wires in his brain.
Will this increase criticism?
Criticisms from the scientific community about Neuralink are quite repetitive. There are several reasons for this. On the one hand, although it is promoted as something super new, it is actually not that new. There are many research groups that have developed implants similar to Neuralink, but they have not received much attention. There is also criticism of the company’s true purpose. Currently it is planned to use an implant with paralyzed people Like Arbo. However, they strive to ensure that in the future we live in a reality similar to reality Black mirror, in which people who can afford it can perform tasks such as storing their memories or controlling gadgets with their thoughts. This is not yet possible, especially the first one, but it is very close to the following tasks.
In any case, the main reason for criticism of Neuralink is the possible lack of safety of the implant. The scientists fired from the company explained that the treatment laboratory animals was not the best and that many of them died for reasons other than those stated by Neuralink. Presumably these were very old or incurable animals, but these complainants claim otherwise.
Yes, several cases of infection have been reported, which are of great concern to specialists in this field. But nevertheless, Neuralink assures that everything is in order. In fact, they offer to place an implant. 10 more people for the rest of the year. The controversy will continue, especially now that some cables appear to have failed. This is not a serious flaw, but there are enough precedents to worry many detractors.
Source: Hiper Textual
