What if we were enhanced, symbiotically, by AI? With the unveiling of the Neuralink implant in Gertrude, the pig, showing neural spikes whenever her snout touched something, Elon Musk has shown that we can succinctly measure neurological brain activity in real-time – then perhaps do something with this information.
Of course, this is nothing new. Scientists and technologists in labs and companies have been tinkering around with this type of kit for a long time – since the 1960s. The only difference now is the hype machine that surrounds Musk – who can often bring moonshot technologies into commercial existence more rapidly than others. The Neuralink paper itself, by Musk and Neuralink, can be found at An Integrated Brain-Machine Interface Platform With Thousands of Channels.
What is Neuralink?
The idea behind Neuralink is to develop a commercial brain-computer interface. Neuroscience is an exciting field to get into at the moment, as technology advancements are now bringing us closer to a coalescence, of the human brain and a computer.
The difference between Neuralink and its predecessors is the embedded chip (with surgical embedding done by a Neuralink-designed robot) that is built to scale. While Gertrude is a happy piggy, human testing has not yet started, although it was slated for 2020.
Applications of Neuralink
Insight into the human mind
Unfortunately, as humans, our ability to gauge our own minds isn’t perfect. By measuring neurological output with Neuralink, we can determine things such as emotions, fatigue levels, attention, etc. that can be difficult to self-assess correctly.
Neuro-normative assessment and management
By gauging what’s ‘normal’ we can assess where individuals have neurological diseases, disorders, or degeneration. Given the right stimulus, we can assist in the management of neurological conditions, too. For instance, the paper, From Novel Technology to Novel Applications: Comment on “An Integrated Brain-Machine Interface Platform With Thousands of Channels” by Elon Musk and Neuralink suggests that epileptic seizures from a particular type of epilepsy can be suppressed.
Movement for neurally inhibited individuals
With the right exoskeleton in place, people with neural inhibitions up to and including tetraplegia will be able to control this with their brain for movement – grasping objects, moving around, etc.
Through to more widespread applications
At the right safety performance and price point, neuro-normative individuals will be compelled to purchase their own Neuralink kit. Why? So they can assess themselves for greater performance, so they can perform complex motor activities with the help of a computer, and even so they can move around in digital worlds just by thinking it.
The implications of Neuralink for the entertainment industry
While we are nowhere close to a commercially available product, or software to drive it, since testing on humans hasn’t even begun, it’s interesting to think about how products like Neuralink will affect the entertainment industry, across celeb interactions, productivity, and online gaming such as gambling. It can easily take a decade for the world’s biggest brands to start allowing users to access entertainment via Neuralink.
The main application of this type of technology in the world of entertainment is the ability to control things digitally (which can also translate into physically with robotics) with our minds.
Gaming
Gaming is the obvious entertainment field where we can see a widespread application of Neuralink-type products. Strapping on your VR headset, you’ll be able to step into gameworlds and traverse them, interacting with objects, characters, and the world about you – all by simply using your mind. We can do away with controllers and complex physical rigs or designed environments (like Sandbox VR), and simply play, wherever we are – on a plane, in the lunchroom at work, or lying down in bed.
Your brain = your smartphone?
Imagine being able to control your smartphone with your brain instead of tap, tap, tapping. Now imagine being able to log in on any screen and doing the same. You could sort through your media collections, quickly editing them for better organisation and usefulness, compose messages quickly, draw complex diagrams quickly without a whiteboard, collaborate with others near-instantly, and interact with social media in a whole different way.
Celebrity interactions on a whole different wavelength
Want to get up close and personal with your favorite celebs? This may be possible through the combination of VR, Neuralink, and something like Open API’s GPT-3. We may be able to have interactive experiences in our own homes with digital representations of actual celebs, who would respond exactly how that person would respond in real life – or program them to be nicer. Creepy? Maybe. But completely within the realm of the possible.
There are many future applications of this type of product, and we’re likely to see them coming into existence over the next decade or so. The augmented human mind will be capable of doing things beyond our wildest dreams. Can’t wait to see what happens – watch this space!
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