Watch a monkey equipped with Elon Musk’s Neuralink device play Pong with its brain – TechCrunch:
The last we saw of Neuralink, Musk himself was demonstrating the Link tech live[*] in August 2020, using pigs[**] to show how it was able to read signals from the brain depending on different stimuli. This new demo with Pager[***] more clearly outlines the direction that the tech is headed in terms of human applications, since, as the company shared on its blog, the same technology could be used to help patients with paralysis manipulate a cursor on a computer, for instance. That could be applied to other paradigms as well, including touch controls on an iPhone, and even typing using a virtual keyboard, according to the company.
[...] Musk separately tweeted that in fact, he expects the initial version of Neuralink’s product to be able to allow someone with paralysis that prevents standard modes of phone interaction to use one faster than people using their thumbs for input. He also added that future iterations of the product would be able to enable communication between Neuralinks in different parts of a patient’s body, transmitting between an in-brain node and neural pathways in legs, for instance, making it possible for “paraplegics to walk again.”
Videos:
[*] Watch Elon Musk's ENTIRE live Neuralink demonstration (1h12m46s)
[**] Snout Boops (1m28s)
[***] Monkey MindPong (3m29s)
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Sunday April 11 2021, @09:51AM (1 child)
Or Elon Musk could buy Boston Dynamics and create something like this [fandom.com] to control with his brain.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 11 2021, @02:15PM
He could own both for the synergies: Boston Dynamics creates the paraplegics, Neuralink fixes them. Win-win!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 11 2021, @12:58PM
I watched the whole video and particularly liked the part where the monkey bought two Teslas and then signed up for a suicide mission to Mars.
(Score: 2) by Muad'Dave on Sunday April 11 2021, @01:59PM (2 children)
It looks like he's got a hookah going there. Is he a meth monkey or a hash monkey?
(I realize it's probably a sugar water reward system).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 11 2021, @03:17PM
It's only part of EM's IT Bike... https://youtu.be/fGKR1Z1lRik [youtu.be]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 11 2021, @04:26PM
It would be unethical to give him the good drugs.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 11 2021, @06:11PM
How do we know it's not the other way around?
(Score: 1) by melyan on Sunday April 11 2021, @07:21PM
Ok, something that's not ego. What movie have we seen this in?
(Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday April 11 2021, @08:54PM
Conversely, before being linked with one of these, make sure YOU aren't the scratch monkey.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 11 2021, @09:23PM
There have too be hundreds of good nigger jokes in this article! Make our day, EF!
(Score: 2) by legont on Sunday April 11 2021, @10:34PM
Is it the same monkey that drives all the teslas?
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Monday April 12 2021, @12:05PM
And what are the ethical considerations of this experiment?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 12 2021, @09:00PM
just imagine the porn experience! the powers that be won't have to worry about overpopulation or resistance to ever domineering policies and laws as people won't leave their room.
(Score: 1) by CCTalbert on Monday April 12 2021, @11:00PM
We all know that the real test is to see if it will run Doom. It being Pager the monkey in this case.
THAT is something I would watch. Better yet, if he's decent, playing against him could be... satisfying.
I'm imagining "HA! Man, that monkey just lit you up!"
Of course someone's already mentioned ethical considerations. But if the monkey gets some banana each time he scores and he's happy, what's the problem? :)