"We can't blow up the first three. That's not an option here," Shivon Zilis, the Neuralink director, told Elon Musk's biographer.
Earlier this year, the US Food and Drug Administration gave Neuralink, which Musk cofounded in 2016, approval to launch human trials of its device that Musk has described as a "Fitbit in your skull." The FDA had previously rejected Neuralink's bid for human testing in March over safety concerns, Reuters reported, including that the wires connected to the brain chip could move within a subject's head or that the chip could overheat.
Neuralink said in a blog post that it was looking for people who had paralysis in all four limbs because of a spinal-cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, these people are willing to take a risk in order to overcome difficult conditions, and that should be allowed. On the other hand, it feels like Neuralink is preying on their hopes.
If the company figurehead wasn't a libertarian billionaire edgelord, I might look past that second hand. No chance of that, though. He's going to kill people, and then he's going to retweet memes about it.
What I wouldn't give for a cybernetic gastrointestinal tract. Maybe one where it combines a trash compactor with the butt, so I could literally shit bricks.
I mean, if I couldn't communicate with the outside world or have use of my limbs I would take any risk to regain that functionality. This could have a real shot of giving people with terrible conditions a better quality of life.
Dad got his brain chip in 2010. Worked great. Had nothing to do with neuralink. They've been doing these implants safely for at least that long. The fact that musk can't keep monkeys alive says a lot about the fact that neuralink isn't ready.
🎵Zuckerberg and Gates and Buffet, amateurs can fuckin’ suck it; fuck their wives, drink their blood 🎵
Come on Jeff, get em!
AAHHHHHHHH
Bro I hate that this song lives rent free in my head. FUCK Bezos but GOD it’s such a bop, I’ll always listen again when it comes up so I can listen again. Time to watch Inside again
Love that they're calling it a Fitbit in your skull. Cause Fitbit is currently dying and removing support. Imagine getting a skull implant that stops getting support and updates after a year, and you now have a useless device in your brain
"Your trial subscription to module: 'breathing' will end in 30 days. If you'd like to continue your subscription please accept the new terms and conditions and link your payment method using the following link."
Just wait until everyone's required to get one of these as a condition of employment for most jobs. By the time enough people get pissed off enough about it to try to do something, it'll be too late.
Drug free workplace act? That's old news how about a free will-free workplace.
Oh ffs no near timeline is going to require literal brain surgery for a condition of employment. Why the hell would they want you to be able to look at porn while you work?
Ah, natural selection. I don't wish death upon any of these people, but I certainly won't be surprised when they start dropping like flies (or the countless monkeys in the trials).
Eh, someday we're going to have safe, powerful cybernetic implants and it'll be because some people were willing to be test subjects. I'm not willing to be a test subject myself but I'm glad that other people are.
We already have what classifies as "cybernetic implants": pacemakers, brain implants to combat parkinson's disease, etc.
We need medical technology to advance. What we don't need is a bird brain (no offense to birds) touting a technology that will bring a solution for a problem that does not exist.
Synchron has already implanted the device in four patients in Australia who have been able to use the brain implant to send messages on WhatsApp and shop online.
I can see 2024 headlines: "Neuralink test subjects try to crash into pedestrians or blow up before reaching space. Workers implanted the wrong chips due to time pressure from the CEO"
Even then, or even especially then I would be careful not to sacrifice what is still left. Imagine being paralysed and brainbroken. Still technically alive, but now with mental damages, too.
And in the end, you never know what their actual agenda is...
I would not trust anything that isn't FOSS hardware in this space. Stuff like your phone is one thong, but something that directly connects to your brain? Like, your actual being? Yeah, no, I'd rather keep it as independent and autonomous as possible from the grips of capitalism.
The moment this becomes widespread you know there are going to be people figuring out how to jailbreak the chips. I'm down for the idea of cybernetics but no way would I get any kind of implant even capable of a wireless connection.