Elon lied about the monkeys — and he shouldn't be trusted to put his Neuralink chips in human brains.
Elon lied about the monkeys — and he shouldn't be trusted to put his Neuralink chips in human brains.
"They are claiming they are going to put a safe device on the market, and that's why you should invest," Ryan Merkley at the Physicians Committee, told Wired. "And we see his lie as a way to whitewash what happened in these exploratory studies."
Really heartbreaking reading what happened to the monkeys.
People quite rightly think of Elizabeth Holmes as a fraud for making false medical claims about what the Theranos machines could do. So why aren't Elon's claims at Neuralink being held to the same level of scrutiny?
Ah damn I didn't think of that. I feel for them, but elon is the last person they should trust for that. I don't honestly know who they should trust these days. But techbros aren't one of them.
Honestly, interface chips in our brains would be a logical step at some point in the future. But hell would need to freeze, then thaw, then freeze over again before I trust anything of elons being inserted in my brain.
@ajsadauskas@technology
I was astounded to read Neuralink is to be permitted to experiment on humans. Instead they should have any animal experiment licences revoked.
Why? We already have brain interface links that do similar damage to neuralink, this isnt unusual or unexpected. In its current form it is rightfully used on terminal patients with locked-in syndom. In other words, people before it damaged their brain in a meaningful way and whom cant be further paralyzed.
It would give these people a chance at someinteraction with the real world... What happened with the monkeys was about in line with other neural interfaces, its a consequence of the limits of the tech not negligence.
I'm not well-versed on the subject, but can locked-in patients consent to these risks? How do we know they want to risk getting these life-threatening side effects?
TERRIBLE THINGS HAPPENED TO MONKEYS AFTER GETTING NEURALINK IMPLANTS, ACCORDING TO VETERINARY RECORDS
What are these terrible things?
Up to a dozen monkeys suffered grisly fates after receiving a Neuralink implant, including brain swelling and partial paralysis.
First is the case of the monkey "Animal 20." In December 2019, an internal part of the brain implant being inserted into the primate "broke off" during surgery. Later that night, the monkey scratched at the implant site, drawing blood, and yanked on the implant, partially dislodging it. Follow-up surgery discovered that the wound was infected, but that the placement of the implant prevented treatment. The monkey was euthanized the next month.
Before that, a female monkey designated "Animal 15" began to press her head against the ground after receiving the brain implant, pick at the site until it bled, and eventually lost coordination, shivering when personnel entered the room. Scientists discovered she had brain bleeding, and in March 2019, she too was euthanized.
The following year, a primate called "Animal 22" was put down in March 2020 after its brain implant became so loose that the screws attaching it to the skull "could easily be lifted out," according to a necropsy report.
"The failure of this implant can be considered purely mechanical and not exacerbated by infection," the necropsy states.
As Wired notes, that statement alone seemingly contradicts Musk's claims that no monkeys directly died from Neuralink brain implants.
And so would the account of an ex-Neuralink employee, who told Wired that Musk's claims that the monkeys were already terminally ill are "ridiculous," even a "straight-up fabrication."
"We had these monkeys for a year or so before any surgery was performed," the ex-employee said.
The testimony of an anonymous scientist conducting research at CNPRC seems to corroborate the ex-employee's allegations.
"These are pretty young monkeys," they told the magazine. "It's hard to imagine these monkeys, who were not adults, were terminal for some reason."
Unfortunately, these experiments are being performed by people who know EXACTLY what they're doing. We're not in the 1940s any more. Fucking hell. If I had the personal power, I'd gladly rain holy hellfire upon these wholly inexcusable, inexorable, inexcrimentinable human fecal chunks.
Elon is already dreaming up ways to blame his human test subjects for his failures after they die horrifically from infections, brain bleeds, seizures, and psychosis.
@ajsadauskas@TrismegistusMx I’m guessing something like: “The human test subjects were always going to die (eventually), with or without the brain implant”
First time I've seen a post from that side of the verse. This seems pointless and harder to read than standard Lemmy 😅 I'm assuming the mastadon UI makes it make more sense.
That's probably one of the biggest cancers of mastodon at the moment; because of the near-useless search functionality, you have to spam hashtags everywhere. Thankfully it's being patched out but for the time being it's just something you have to put up with.
I say let him do that and then let congress legislate this once the grim details of how the human subjects died creates a scandal and political unity across the aisle. It's the American Way®
I don't think many people are but enough are and they're the ones with political influence. Not to defend Elizabeth Homes but why Elon Musk gets away with it is sexism, and being able to deliver on the odd promise then highlighting that success to cover for his failures. He's done much worse but he's given a pass because he presents the image of a male entrepreneur. Maybe not you or I but enough of those people with political influence are sexist and that's why the hammer came down on Homes. They both deserve to face justice but only one did.
@jonne@rood
What makes you think that?
tRump's lies have been exposed, and the media is still pushing him as a savior.
They're doing the same with Melon Husk.
Theranos went down because Holmes was trying to run the same tired start-up scam all the big boys pull but within the confines of the medical industry. She would have succeeded if she had picked something non medical. The FDA doesn't fuck around. If Elon thinks he's smart enough to pull the same shit he's going to "find out" too.
@ajsadauskas@autolycos@technology Because he has the most money. Because any who should hold him accountable have their hand in his pocket. Because he has government contracts with every single one of his businesses. He is a monster created by those who are supposed to protect us from the monsters. It is not remotely possible to control him. He is the worst case scenario.
The government convicted Michael Vick after they found out what happened to his dogs. Same government turning a blind eye to Elon's monkeys and giving him a green light to experiment on humans. Elon playing through capitalism in god mode RN.
@ajsadauskas@technology
The only reason something happened to Deep Voice Barbie was because some Very Important People were publicly embarrassed by their association with, and gullibility of her.
That's horrible, and also confirms what I said just the other day, who would trust him putting an implant in your brain, not me, and I already have brain damage.
Yeah I'm regularly missing words these days, your brain should fill them in as they aren't important words really, just link filler ones to make it sound right.
Ah well, what can I do, constantly edit everything I guess, but I get lazy.
Didn't we already go through this with Whatsername and her fake blood tests?
Maybe read more than the title before commenting? I know, it's a novel concept.
People quite rightly think of Elizabeth Holmes as a fraud for making false medical claims about what the Theranos machines could do. So why aren't Elon's claims at Neuralink being held to the same level of scrutiny?