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Elon Musk to show off working brain-hacking device:
Elon Musk is due to demonstrate a working brain-to-machine interface as part of his ambitious plans to give people superhuman powers.
His brain-hacking company, Neuralink, applied to start human trials last year.
But Friday's demonstration will involve a robot and "neurons firing in real time", a series of tweets reveals.
The interface could allow people with neurological conditions to control phones or computers with their mind.
But the long-term ambition is to usher in an age of what Mr Musk calls "superhuman cognition".
People need to merge with artificial intelligence, he says, in part to avoid a scenario where AI becomes so powerful it destroys the human race.
[...] The device the company is developing consists of a tiny probe containing more than 3,000 electrodes attached to flexible threads thinner than a human hair, which can monitor the activity of 1,000 brain neurons.
The company has been working with monkey brains to its realize brain/computer interface.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by looorg on Friday August 28 2020, @10:30PM (8 children)
I find it somehow interesting that he is very much against the AI-revolution and that the smart robots will take over and it will end of humanity. His solution is to make us into the Borg?
It's great and all to help people with neurological conditions but th eventual goal, as noted, is to get this into every single human brain available. So we have just transferred the horror that is the IoT and the endless cycle computing problems in general transferred straight into your Brain. Time to patch the Brain with the latest security updates. OK that failed, apparently we just bricked 1.000.000 people. Oopsies!
I'm sure Zuckerberg and the others are just waiting in the wing to transmit Facebook, Twits and all kind of advertisements straight into your brain.
What is it exactly that would benefit me here? That I can look things up on the internet without using a keyboard and a computer? That isn't really a superpower. Is it so I can do long division in my brain without the aid of pen and paper? Not really all that useful either. I guess that will bring back the term Calculator again to be that poor human with that in his brain that does all the calculations for you. I guess people will have to be decapitated if they ever want to visit a casino.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 28 2020, @11:50PM (4 children)
Keep in mind that he's more or less a pyschopath. Remember that incident with the kids in that Thai cave where he takes it on himself to invent a submarine for the job that nobody asked for and wouldn't work, announces it on line and then winds up calling one of the folks actually helping a pedophile?
He's a really screwed up person. And that's above and beyond what it takes to become ultra-wealthy, he's just a horrible human being and hopefully the revolution won't spare him.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday August 29 2020, @12:10AM (3 children)
Research on brain-computer interfaces has been ongoing since the 70s. This is just an upgraded version of previous devices at best. Are all the scientists and engineers in that field also pyschotaphs?
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @12:27AM (2 children)
I'm curious where you got that from. Those other researchers don't have a history of making public statements just for attention with nothing to back it up. And they certainly don't fire people merely for walking past their desks.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Saturday August 29 2020, @12:39AM (1 child)
Nothing you brought up actually matters. This is going to be treated like a medical device for the foreseeable future, and Musk will be dead before he gets to see his cyborg vs. AI fantasy. I bet you would get one implanted if you became quadriplegic and there is nothing better on the market.
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(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @03:32AM
No way I'm risking Borgification. At least an immovable body is at rest and not committing atrocities. Alexa achieving self-awareness and a musky buffer overflow is all it could take to start.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by takyon on Saturday August 29 2020, @12:05AM (2 children)
A fully realized version of the technology could have applications ranging from science, mathematics, brain research (digital "footage" of hallucinations?), combat, the arts, and entertainment.
Brain Googling and calculating doesn't sound too great, until it becomes a subconscious ability that can happen in milliseconds rather than a conscious several seconds to minutes process. You just think or look at something, and the answer is drawn out of your "external memory". Real time translation could be possible, especially if you can see the other person's lips moving. Anyway, the capabilities could turn 60 minutes of mental labor into 5 minutes, for example.
Security risks can be managed. Brickable parts don't need to be put inside the skull, just the wires that interface with the brain. You could keep it offline and connect it to terabytes of on-person storage (microSD/eMMC can already store 1 terabyte), or hundreds of terabytes on a home network.
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(Score: 4, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Saturday August 29 2020, @06:22AM (1 child)
And when you no longer can recognize whether it is your own memory or the external one, you'll be perfectly manipulatable. Whoever controls those devices (be it the company that made it, a government agency, or some criminal hacker group) has essentially unlimited power. Want to ruin someone's life? Well, suddenly many people “remember” him to have done bad things. Need an alibi? Well, people will ”remember” having seen you at a completely different place.
Oh, and don't think keeping the system offline is perfect security. The system gets information from your senses through your brain. And when there is a communication path to the device, someone will find a way to exploit that.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday August 29 2020, @07:03AM
Nobody would ever make a deal with
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