Neuralink company founded by Elon Musk that develops implantable brain-computer chips. The idea behind this project is to help people with disabilities such as blindness, sensory-motor function problems or even Parkinson and Alzheimer.
Neuralink developed highly advanced technology called The Link. The Link is a device in size of a quarter that will be connected to the brain by threads made of polymide that will process and transmit neural signals. It will be implanted surgically by a robot. It is impossible to implant the device by a human because humans are not capable of such a precision and delicacy. Wires are to thin and flexible for that. Device will not be visible after the surgery and will be wireless charged from the outside.
Elon Musk has great hopes in technology. He thinks that this device will help a lot of people and bring a lot of good into people lives. However nothing is perfect and such a technology that involves human brain to be operated comes with high rewards and risks.
Pros of The Link are very much known. Helping people with movement disabilities and blindness, hope for people with several diseases or even controlling devices with your thoughts. Although not much is known about the cons of this concept.
Recently there has been some reports made regarding the harm and cruelty to animals. Many former employees of Neuralink have been making complains about how they were put under pressure by Elon which led to many unsuccessful experiments that resulted to death and harm to animals. As one of the former employees says the company is responsible for over 1500 death of various animals including over 280 death of sheeps, pigs and monkeys. Animal cruelty is an awful thing but what is most concerning is that if the device is safe to people. Well on a short run it is because we can easily test this out, on a long run we cannot be completely sure. There are possibilities that device after some time will cause some damage to the brain for example it may cause not only physical injury but also depression, anxiety or addiction. Even the surgery by it self makes greater risk of injury or infection to the brain.
What is more it is another thing that infringes our privacy. We cannot be sure if the BCI (brain-computer interface) is safe from hackers that steal our data or even if the company itself is not abusing technology to their advantage. Elon Musk stated that in future even our dreams could be visualised, so it is not so impossible to use such a device to some advantage. Overall the idea is brilliant but there are people who will for sure abuse or misuse this technology.
Last but not least the cost of The Link. At first it will for sure be only for wealthy people. The founder of Neuralink states that the price will rapidly fall down some time after realising to a shocking ammount of few thousands of dollars. At least he hopes so however we cannot be sure. This might never happen, this technology is highly advanced and is not so cheap to produce and instal into humans brain. Of course after couple of years there will be new technology so by force of fact the price will go down but we cannot be sure how many years it will take.
All things considered The Link might help a lot of people but it comes with high risk. To every coin there are two sides. Hopefully this technology will work properly and bring a lot of useful assets to our life but we have to be aware of the danger that this technology introduces. As it is said high risk high reward.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuralink#Technology
https://scifilogic.com/neuralink-pros-and-cons/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLUWDLKAF1M
This idea that a chip, put in the brain, could help some people with various diseases is surely great, but I agree with Your concerns regarding privacy and the negative health consequences it can possibly bring. I am also skeptical about the part where a robot surgically puts the chip in people’s brains. How would that work? Additionally, I think it’s important to ask a question: Is the chip removable? Because despite the many benefits it can bring, surely it will not work in every single case. And if so, will these people be able to get rid of it or will they have to suffer the consequences of this chip forever?
Elon in one of presentations said that it is just impossible for a human to plug such a delicant device into human brain. It is because robots are much more precised and brain is very complex. Even minimal mechanic mistake could lead to a disaster. That is why they come up with such an idea and in my opinion it’s great. They stated that it is the only way this could be done. Your second concern was if the chip is removable. In the presentation posted in sources under this post Elon said that the chip is fully removable. What is more in evidence he presented a pig with removed chip. Pig had no visual effects of having this device and was healthy. Animal had device for two month from what I recal and had no furhter complications from removing this device. On the other hand we don’t really know how it will affect humans until we try it out. Unfortunatelly progressing especially in medicine science needs some sacrofices that is inevitable.