Neuralink: Merging Man and the Machine

Neuralink Logo

Merging Man and the Machine

Neuralik is another Elon Musk own American neurotechnology company. It was started back in 2016 and headquarters are in San Francisco, USA.

We all use computers right?! How we use them? We use input devices right, mouse keyboard or if it is a touch-based device we use our finger. 

This is the traditional way of humans interacting with computers. Not only interacting we even create software and design computers using traditional interacting ways.

Some times you have a great idea in your mind but you can't execute it. You might be busy with something else, or you just forgot the idea because of a distraction, or in a more serious note you might be disabled. You might not even be able to communicate with a computer. 

you might be disabled. You might not even be able to communicate with a computer 

Basically, we use traditional input methods to communicate with a computer or even a machine. What if we can communicate with a device and execute the required action; just by a thought? Imagine all the possibilities that would bring up. 

What if we can communicate with a device and execute the required action; just by a thought? 

Or in another perspective, we humans create robots to imitate us to make our day to day tasks easy or to do tasks that even impossible for humans. We create hardware and we write software to make use of that hardware. The software should be improved because they have to imitate what humans do in a more compelling way. Humans, scientists, or engineers in this case have to teach basic mechanics or techniques to match using the software. Software is the medium that humans transfer their into the action of machines right?

Neuralink is on a grind of merging man and the machine.

Let's talk about science here. So your brain is composed of neurons. Neurons connect together to form a network that can talk to each other through synapses. They are the connection point between neurons. And those points communicate using chemicals known as neurotransmitters.  

All of your senses, everything that you experience in life all is just an electrical signal that fired from neurons. Also, known as action potentials. When some function happens, like even a thought or a body reaction; these action potentials get triggered and information follows through the synapses to reach another neuron and multiply this process of interneuron communication by a few hundred billion and vola!! this is the technical process of our brain in a nutshell.

How Neuralink works?

Electrodes are the way that Neuralink and other medical practices study our brain activity and by placing those electrodes close to neurons, action potentials that created inside our brains can be detected. Then these data transferred to a machine that records the data. 

Neuralink is planning to use this electrode-based action potential detection to its own advantage. 

Our brain has mainly two systems, the limbic system, and the cortex. These two are in a relationship with each other. 

The limbic system is responsible for our basic emotions, survival instincts. 

Cortex is responsible for problem-solving, critical thinking and this is the place our consciousness exists. 

Neuralink is aiming to create a third layer between these main two systems and it will be the third wheel and it will increase our capabilities by multiple orders of magnitude. 

our capabilities will improve in multiple orders of magnitude

They are planning to increase the number of neurons a single person uses regularly. This will open new ways to access our brain more regularly even the parts that no longer active. Which will extremely helpful for medical patients. 

How will Neuralink be implemented in our brain?

Neuralink's goal is to make this implementation procedure as simple as possible. Like people getting LASIK to improve the vision.

Why we need this?

In most cases, it is a bandwidth issue. Many people hear this or read this but not all of them understand what this means. It is a speed problem; an energy problem. It is how fast you get information into or out of your brain. 

As discussed earlier if we have to do something we have to be the input, we need energy, if we need to write something we have to write it down or type it into a computer. Let's say if you want to learn something; it could take days, weeks even months, or even years to fully understand certain things. 

This is a bandwidth issue, what if we can increase our bandwidth so we can accomplish comparatively more in less time with less energy or effort. 

Neuralink will cut off the middleman, it will give inputs to our brain or take outputs from our brain directly and will channel It directly to a machine. It is like going from writing a note with a pen to type in with a keyboard to use Siri with our voice to make notes and from the brain to the machine directly. 

To archive this brain to machine direct communication, there should be a direct brain to machine interface. Also known as BMI. It will change everything. 

Brain-Machine Interface

Or BMI contains two things a brain and a machine. Now the machine could be anything, a computer, a mobile phone a bionic arm, or anything that provides the brain sensory inputs from outside world or an external source. This machine grabbed inputs are returned back to our brain and the brain should be able to process them. But there should be something artificial to return this data too. And that is the Neuralink chip.

This Neuralink chip dimensions are 4x4 mm and contain 1000 electrodes per each. 

Neuralink Chip (Image Source)

It is feasible to fill up to 10 of these into a single human head in different areas. That will affect different parts of our brain. 

Problems with Neuralink!

This is not a simple process to implement chips into someone else's head. It needs some complicated processes and even needs FDA approval. 

Currently, the best FDA approved use of these Neuralink is done using Parkinson's patients. And they only use 10 electrodes. 

Neuralink Battery (Image Source)

What are the practical uses?

According to the latest developments in the project, by just installing 256 electrodes, human patients were able to move computer cursors, robotic prosthetic arms.

This will break the language barriers we have. Since we don't have to talk to each other physically. 

We can transfer someone else's knowledge to our brain's hippocampus. Where our memories store. 

Telepathy will no longer unrealistic.

According to Elon Musk:

a monkey has been able to control a computer with his brain.

you can listen to music even without using headphones

And the full potential with 40x times of the tested electrodes is hard to imagine. 

Pricing?

According to Elon Musk, 

pricing will be around several thousand bucks only for the device