Elon Musk’s Neuralink held a “Progress Update” session with the world today. The meeting of interested parties, people all around the world and Musk’s team, was held on YouTube and revealed that people will be able to summon a Tesla with their minds in the future. However, the mission of Musk and his team in holding today’s meeting was actually to entice the world’s best and brightest to join them on their journey into the depths of the human mind. Thus, Musk and his team presented a brief synopsis of developments in the nascent technology’s design, describing it as “a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires,” and three little piggies—Joyce, Dorothy, and the very shy Neurolinked pig named Gertrude.
Unfortunately, Neuralink did not allow the team to immediately summon Gertrude, the one pig that is currently Neuralinked. She did, however, eventually chose to comply. The company’s animal behavior experts noted during their brief segment that the animals are given the opportunity to “volunteer” to cooperate. Today’s live session, as well as eagerly awaiting Gertrude’s compliance, demonstrated the extent of the pig’s free will while linked.
The three little piggies came to market and were joined by a number of tweeted questions. Questions included probes about whether Neuralink will enable people to play games and to finally understand the nature and meaning of consciousness. There was also an inquiry regarding the most difficult challenges currently facing the company’s pursuit of its ultimate goals. Yes, yes, and materials were the answers, respectively. Apparently designing materials that will be thin, conductive, and able to withstand the biologically hostile environment of the human mind is on par with rocket science. A neuralink employee named DJ also addressed security design, noting the lengths that the company is going to to design a secure device, allaying fears about alien hacking that Neuralink might enable.
“Stimulate And Record!” Neuralink Introduces The Catchphrase Of The 21st Century
The device recently gained an FDA breakthrough designation, which will enable the company to continue rapid development in close partnership with federal oversight agencies. Currently, as demonstrated during today’s live session, the device can record brain activity, though the goal will be to introduce more advanced forms of stimulation, such as “telepathic” music. The future might also entail the recording and delivery of memories.
“The future is gunna be weird,” Musk said regarding downloading one’s memories into a new body or into a robot. Musk's discussion of memory transfer also leads one to wonder whether the memory implantation capabilities could have allowed one to summon Nikola Tesla to inhabit their mind had the timing been right. The opportunity remains for Musk and the Neuralink team to develop the technology to engage in psychocloning. In the future, Neuralink might enable us to relive the memories that Musk or others treasure most, perhaps even an entire life; we could relive the lives of Neuralinkers and, in the process, become them.