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Why, in the name of all that is holy or unholy, would anyone consider allowing a man with his consistent record of both technological disaster and complete failure of ethics to have *anything* to do with brain-computer implants??
People should be looking at the history of vision implants: not only have blind people died of inflammation and infection during the experimental stage, but at least one company, which has blind people who had the implants installed and were using them in their everyday lives, just suddenly discontinued "supporting" that product, without notifying the users, who suddenly woke up one morning and had returned to being completely blind.
Worht repeating: most of these implants are penetrative implants, which means they are implanted deppin the brain, *beneath* the dura, which is the protective covering of the brain. The dura is there because it is really dangerous for things to be lodged in the brain, an occurrence which we normally work hard to avoid. In part, as with blind people and visual implants, I believe a lot of this risk is minimized because the lives of paralyzed people are so devalued, that participating int these highly risky experiments are considered "better than nothing." Is there a term for how certain groups of people are encouraged to take larger risks because they are considered more expendable than the mainstream group?
I used to think it was kind of gross that DARPA was funding most of this research although, both as a disability and technology scholar and as a MIT alum, I also need to acknowledge how much DARPA has contributed to the development of modern prosthetics. Perhaps it's just a matter of the Devil you know.
The Race to Put Brain Implants in People Is Heating Up
BY EMILY MULLIN
SCIENCE
DEC 23, 2023 7:00 AM
URL
https://www.wired.com/story/the-race-to-put-brain-implants-in-people-is-heating-up/
Thanks in part to Elon Musk, the field of brain-computer interfaces has captured both public and investor interest, with a cadre of companies now developing implantable devices.
In September, Elon Musk’s brain-implant company Neuralink announced the much-anticipated news that it would
start recruiting volunteers for a clinical trial
https://www.wired.com/story/everything-we-know-about-neuralinks-brain-implant-trial/
to test its device. Known as a brain-computer interface, or BCI, it collects electrical activity from neurons and interprets those signals into commands to control an external device. While Musk has said he ultimately wants to merge humans with artificial intelligence, Neuralink’s initial aim is to enable paralyzed people to control a cursor or keyboard with just their thoughts.
Rival efforts to connect people’s brains to computers are also moving forward. This year, Neuralink competitor Synchron demonstrated the long-term safety of its implant in patients. Other startups tested novel devices in human subjects, while new ventures came on the scene.
“It can definitely feel like a breakout year, but in fact it’s the result of decades of work in academia,” says Sumner Norman, a visiting researcher at the California Institute of Technology who’s also the cofounder and CEO of Forest Neurotech, which launched in October. “I think we’re really just starting to feel the effects of that exponential growth.”
The origins of BCIs stretch back to the 1960s and 1970s, when the
first ones were tested on lab animals.
Summary of over Fifty Years with Brain-Computer Interfaces—A Review - PMC
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7824107/
As researchers began to understand the brain better, these systems evolved to be more sophisticated, allowing paralyzed people to
move robotic arms,
https://www.wired.com/story/this-brain-controlled-robotic-arm-can-twist-grasp-and-feel/
play video games,
https://www.wired.com/story/this-man-set-the-record-for-wearing-a-brain-computer-interface/
and
communicate with their minds.
https://www.wired.com/story/the-long-search-for-a-computer-that-speaks-your-mind/
Once a largely academic pursuit, BCIs are now of interest to a growing cadre of companies that have emerged since Neuralink’s founding in 2016.
“Science and technology have reached a level of maturity where we can begin to have real, dramatic effects on the human condition,” says Jacob Robinson, CEO and founder of startup Motif Neurotech and a professor of engineering at Rice University. “People like Elon Musk recognize these inflection points and they put capital into commercializing it.”
Continued at original URL
People should be looking at the history of vision implants: not only have blind people died of inflammation and infection during the experimental stage, but at least one company, which has blind people who had the implants installed and were using them in their everyday lives, just suddenly discontinued "supporting" that product, without notifying the users, who suddenly woke up one morning and had returned to being completely blind.
Worht repeating: most of these implants are penetrative implants, which means they are implanted deppin the brain, *beneath* the dura, which is the protective covering of the brain. The dura is there because it is really dangerous for things to be lodged in the brain, an occurrence which we normally work hard to avoid. In part, as with blind people and visual implants, I believe a lot of this risk is minimized because the lives of paralyzed people are so devalued, that participating int these highly risky experiments are considered "better than nothing." Is there a term for how certain groups of people are encouraged to take larger risks because they are considered more expendable than the mainstream group?
I used to think it was kind of gross that DARPA was funding most of this research although, both as a disability and technology scholar and as a MIT alum, I also need to acknowledge how much DARPA has contributed to the development of modern prosthetics. Perhaps it's just a matter of the Devil you know.
The Race to Put Brain Implants in People Is Heating Up
BY EMILY MULLIN
SCIENCE
DEC 23, 2023 7:00 AM
URL
https://www.wired.com/story/the-race-to-put-brain-implants-in-people-is-heating-up/
Thanks in part to Elon Musk, the field of brain-computer interfaces has captured both public and investor interest, with a cadre of companies now developing implantable devices.
In September, Elon Musk’s brain-implant company Neuralink announced the much-anticipated news that it would
start recruiting volunteers for a clinical trial
https://www.wired.com/story/everything-we-know-about-neuralinks-brain-implant-trial/
to test its device. Known as a brain-computer interface, or BCI, it collects electrical activity from neurons and interprets those signals into commands to control an external device. While Musk has said he ultimately wants to merge humans with artificial intelligence, Neuralink’s initial aim is to enable paralyzed people to control a cursor or keyboard with just their thoughts.
Rival efforts to connect people’s brains to computers are also moving forward. This year, Neuralink competitor Synchron demonstrated the long-term safety of its implant in patients. Other startups tested novel devices in human subjects, while new ventures came on the scene.
“It can definitely feel like a breakout year, but in fact it’s the result of decades of work in academia,” says Sumner Norman, a visiting researcher at the California Institute of Technology who’s also the cofounder and CEO of Forest Neurotech, which launched in October. “I think we’re really just starting to feel the effects of that exponential growth.”
The origins of BCIs stretch back to the 1960s and 1970s, when the
first ones were tested on lab animals.
Summary of over Fifty Years with Brain-Computer Interfaces—A Review - PMC
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7824107/
As researchers began to understand the brain better, these systems evolved to be more sophisticated, allowing paralyzed people to
move robotic arms,
https://www.wired.com/story/this-brain-controlled-robotic-arm-can-twist-grasp-and-feel/
play video games,
https://www.wired.com/story/this-man-set-the-record-for-wearing-a-brain-computer-interface/
and
communicate with their minds.
https://www.wired.com/story/the-long-search-for-a-computer-that-speaks-your-mind/
Once a largely academic pursuit, BCIs are now of interest to a growing cadre of companies that have emerged since Neuralink’s founding in 2016.
“Science and technology have reached a level of maturity where we can begin to have real, dramatic effects on the human condition,” says Jacob Robinson, CEO and founder of startup Motif Neurotech and a professor of engineering at Rice University. “People like Elon Musk recognize these inflection points and they put capital into commercializing it.”
Continued at original URL
