Elon Musk launches Neuralink, a company to link our brains with machines

[Shawn Knight]

SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk said during a speaking engagement last month that if humans don’t do something radical to advance our relationship with machines, we’re destined to become irrelevant.

On Monday, we learned just how serious the entrepreneur is about technological augmentation.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Musk has launched a new company called Neuralink that is pursuing what he calls neural lace technology.

As explained in February, humans today can communicate at a rate of about 10 bits per second by typing on mobile devices. Computers, on the other hand, can talk amongst themselves at around a trillion bits per second. Key to keeping pace with advanced machines will be creating a high-speed link – neural laces – between them and our brains.

Sources tell the publication that Musk has taken an active role in setting up Neuralink and may even hold a significant leadership role.

Max Hodak, who claims to be a co-founder in the company, confirmed its existence and Musk’s participation with the Journal. It’s still very early days, he noted, adding that plans remain in flux for now.

Long Neuralink piece coming out on @waitbutwhy in about a week. Difficult to dedicate the time, but existential risk is too high not to.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 28, 2017

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https://www.techspot.com/news/68683-elon-musk-launches-neuralink-company-link-our-brains.html

 

[mcborge]

The early benefits for this kind of technology would obviously be for better more controllable prosthetics. I just hope it doesn't end up going all Johnny mnemonic.

 

[Reehahs]

The later benefits for this kind of technology would obviously be for better more controllable machines I.e. cyborgs.

 

[yRaz]

Oh joy, I can't wait for peoples brains to start getting hacked. Just imagine the security breaches this could cause all while running a program in the victims brains they aren't even aware of. Just wait until the ransomware starts popping up. "Give us all your money or you die".

 

[dorsai]

If this is real and they are actually trying to implement neural lace it raises a huge number of questions. Could the government or police force you to provide access to you implant ? Could it be protected in a meaningful way from being hacked (quantum computer based) ? Could it be used to supplement learning ? Would the rich get better chips and therefore be "smarter" ? If the lace chip is permanent in the same way a medical implant is then who owns it ? Could it be repo'd if you failed to make a payment ? Lot of issues but one thing is for sure...it would be a huge step towards the singularity becoming fact.

 

[mcborge]

The later benefits for this kind of technology would obviously be for better more controllable machines I.e. cyborgs.

Ghost in the shell...

 

[Igrecman]

The millions lost with this company should help him avoid paying too much taxes on his income, like Trump did. They are billionaires for a reason.

 

[yRaz]

The millions lost with this company should help him avoid paying too much taxes on his income, like Trump did. They are billionaires for a reason.

Aside from musk having a billion dollar idea and selling it where as trump was given money that he then used to profit off of bankrupting other people's businesses

 

[Skjorn]

The later benefits for this kind of technology would obviously be for better more controllable machines I.e. cyborgs.

Ghost in the shell...

I was thinking Cyberpunk, that is what I am excited for.

 

[MoeJoe]

Bye Millennials.

 

[wiyosaya]

Did I read in the article that Musk is going to be the first to try this?

 

[Steed]

Oh joy, I can't wait for peoples brains to start getting hacked. Just imagine the security breaches this could cause all while running a program in the victims brains they aren't even aware of. Just wait until the ransomware starts popping up. "Give us all your money or you die".

But I prefer to be Adam Jensen ... then I can do the hacking rather

 

[mcborge]

Neuralink... The first brand name for a wetware interface.

 

[Humza]

Would we have a patch Tuesday as well?

 

[noel24]

"I'm Elon Musk. Resistance is futile."

 

[Milkyjoe]

Imagine your brain is connect to the internet so everytime you ask yourself somethng it automatically googles it, but its all seemless so you just thing and you know everything, I not sure I would like that you could have some crazy dreams.

 

[cartera]

How is he CEO of so many companies which don't actually make money. Mind boggling.

 

[RedGuard]

Is he actually making a profit with all these companies? How long can this race be sustained?

 

[mcborge]

I'll just leave this here...

 

[Uncle Al]

I'm thinking for applications for paraplegic and quadriplegics this could be a pretty good step forward, especially with the level of sophistication we are seeing in artificial limbs and similar devices And if I can THINK about lowering the toilet seat after each use, it will keep me out of hot water with the old lady!!!!!

 

[Bruno M. Villar]

And then, on a bright future, we will watch a movie with a guy, wearing bikers clothes tagged with a crazy woman and a kiddo, crossing the wasteland in search of neuralink HQ. Once there, their mission will be to destroy Elon's Dildo, containing whole data capable to build a new race of americans addicted to have sex with machines.

 

[Raoul Duke]

Sorry Elon, but the brain is not 'plug and play'

 

[wiyosaya]

Imagine your brain is connect to the internet so everytime you ask yourself somethng it automatically googles it, but its all seemless so you just thing and you know everything, I not sure I would like that you could have some crazy dreams.

And, Neo, will you choose the blue pill or the red pill...

 

[Phr3d]

Sorry Elon, but the brain is not 'plug and play'

at present..

what tickles me is the keyboard analogy -- uhmm, sorry but as the brain is binary, I can't quite forsee it attaining a trillion bits/sec, so the computers will Still win.. just Now they have an avenue to test their AI before applying the final solution.
Agreed on 'bye, millenials' (I realize it was a joke).. "interesting times" are here..