Brain-Computer Interface

Elon Musk's Neuralink Corporation is developing an implant intended to treat severe brain disorders and enable paralyzed patients to control devices remotely. As a long-term goal, the company envisions "human enhancement, sometimes called transhumanism."

Neuralink

Here's a brief article on the capacities and limitations of brain implants:

Brain Implants

A Wikipedia article on brain-computer interface technology, which goes back further than I'd realized:

Brain-Computer Interface

In fields such as treatments for paraplegics and quadriplegics, this technology shows promise. It "was first developed to help people paralyzed with spinal injuries or conditions like Locked-in syndrome — when a patient is fully conscious but can't move any part of the body except the eyes — to communicate." Connection between the brain's motor cortex and a computer has enabled a paralyzed patient to type 90 characters per minute. Another kind of implant allowed a man with a robotic hand to feel sensations as if he still had natural skin. A "brain-spine interface" has enabled a man with a spinal cord injury to walk naturally. Deep brain stimulation has been helping people with Parkinson's disease since the 1990s. Most of these applications, however, are still in the experimental stage with human patients or have been tested only on animals. For instance, a monkey fitted with a Neuralink learned to control a pong paddle with its mind.

Will such an implant eventually achieve telepathy, though, as Musk claims? Experts say no, at least not in the current stage of neuroscience, because "we don't really know where or how thoughts are stored in the brain. We can't read thoughts if we don't understand the neuroscience behind them."

What about a paralyzed person controlling a whole robotic body, like the protagonist of AVATAR remotely living in an alien body? Probably not anytime soon, but I was amazed to learn how much closer we are to achieving that phase of "transhumanism" than I'd imagined. If it's ever reached, might the very rich choose to live their later years remotely in beautiful, strong robotic bodies and thereby enjoy a form of eternal youth -- as long as their flesh brains can be kept alive, anyway?

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt