34 ms·

Neuralink Live Stream [video]

• AlphaWeaver 7y ago
  Here's the direct YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-vbh3t7WVI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-vbh3t7WVI
  • dang 7y ago
    Thanks, we've changed to that from https://neuralink.com/ https://neuralink.com/, which no longer seems to have the video.
• deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
• amanzi 7y ago
  If you're interested in reading more about Neuralink, I highly recommend this article: https://waitbutwhy.com/2017/04/neuralink.html https://waitbutwhy.com/2017/04/neuralink.html It's a long read, but fascinating. The analogy of comparing the brain to a stadium of people cheering made it really easy to understand Neuralink's aims.
  • org3432 7y ago
    Oh god, that web page is in the format of a ranting crazy person. Is there a quicker explanation somewhere?
    • fabianhjr 7y ago
      https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Brain–computer_interface https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Brain–computer_interface
    • Buge 7y ago
      My idea of ranting crazy person's website doesn't have facebook share buttons and a popup asking me to subscribe to a newsletter. For reference, here are my ideas of a crazy person's website: http://timecube.2enp.com/ http://timecube.2enp.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20171002152147/http://templeos.org/ https://web.archive.org/web/20171002152147/http://templeos.o... https://web.archive.org/web/20180404034756/http://nasimabc.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20180404034756/http://nasimabc.c...
      • roywiggins 7y ago
        Those are crazy 1.0. Crazy 2.0 has a newsletter, and Social.
      • m3at 7y ago
        To be fair, waitbutwhy's newsletter isn't spam, it only send about one email per year when new articles are published. As publications are so infrequent, that's a good way not to forget about this blog
    • bitsoda 7y ago
      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain–computer_interface https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain–computer_interface
    • read_if_gay_ 7y ago
      That web page is actually a really good read.
      • puranjay 7y ago
        Maybe. But the first part with the Jellyfish and the frog and all that evolutionary crap turned me off. Too much of it is written in the Explain Like I'm 5 format.
  • cambalache 7y ago
    He is great, but how to put it politely? His enthusiasm for technology and future possibilities blinds him to the reality that many things take longer than what we would wish , and that science requires lot of sluggish, dull work in order to advance.
    • Robotbeat 7y ago
      He mentioned that it’d be slow and there’s a LOT of work to finish in the announcement. He’s (now) aware of the challenges.
      • cambalache 7y ago
        I was referring to the guy who wrote the post, I think you are referring to Ellon . I think he is more grounded being closer to the "action".
    • kodz4 7y ago
      While this is true, one thing that has changed a lot is how connected all the research labs of the world are across the planet and how that rate is increasing. While it creates a lot of chaos, distraction and trust issues to work through, the scope and scale of collaboration is on the rise which means a lot of work is getting parallelized. Think of it as a shift from single core to multicore. Dull stuff is going to happen faster than it used too.
      • T-A 7y ago
        https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/11/26/is-science-slowing-down-2/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/11/26/is-science-slowing-dow...
        • kodz4 7y ago
          It takes time to adjust to hyperconnection. But the benefits will keep showing up and pushing things in the direction of more connection. Look at the number of collaborators on the Black Hole image or gravitational wave detection. You will see things like that increase. And as they increase we learn how to do things better.
  • xpuente 7y ago
    >The analogy of comparing the brain to a stadium of people cheering made it really easy to understand Neuralink's aims. The problem we have is that we have no idea about the language they are speaking.
• MoronInAHurry 7y ago
  If this goes like The Boring Company reveal a couple of months ago, I expect them to show off a 640x480 CRT monitor.
  • killjoywashere 7y ago
    gotta link to that?
    • MoronInAHurry 7y ago
      The hyperloop references seem misguided, but otherwise this about covers it: https://jalopnik.com/elon-musk-says-hyperloop-tunnel-is-now-just-a-normal-1835024474 https://jalopnik.com/elon-musk-says-hyperloop-tunnel-is-now-...
• fabianhjr 7y ago
  Take into account Elon's time dilation, the livestream presentation hasn't started yet. Edit: IRL Presentation hasn't started either ( https://twitter.com/RebeccaDRobbins/status/1151330867232432128 https://twitter.com/RebeccaDRobbins/status/11513308672324321... )
  • pezo1919 7y ago
    How much time does it usually take? I've never seen an Elon Live
    • mholt 7y ago
      At a smaller private event I attended (he was one of three panel participants talking about AI and Tesla), the start was only about 10 minutes late. But it wasn't live streamed. Give it another half hour... :)
  • robkop 7y ago
    There's a starhopper static fire test going on right now so they might be waiting until that is finished?
    • fabianhjr 7y ago
      I am quite sure Neuralink and SpaceX can schedule their stuff beforehand and the Neuralink presentation has a live audience.
  • krick 7y ago
    What's that supposed to mean? Is Musk notorious for being late or smth?
    • deleted 7y ago
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      • deleted 7y ago
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• Thaxll 7y ago
  Any quick explanation of what they do before the stream starts?
  • fabianhjr 7y ago
    BCI intersected with Nanotechnology from the last time they released some info, circa 2017. (A BCI on a pill? Can't know for sure what they are up to)
  • melvinmt 7y ago
    Elon Musk talks a bit about it in the infamous Joe Rogan podcast: https://youtu.be/ycPr5-27vSI?t=1124 https://youtu.be/ycPr5-27vSI?t=1124
• snake117 7y ago
  Neuralink has a very impressive founding team and I have been periodically checking their homepage for any updates. I am excited to see what they have been working on for all this time.
• throw20102010 7y ago
  A key aspect for me will be whether Neuralink can enable brain control interfaces that don't require sending signals to muscles. A key example that falls short is CRTL-labs' armband. I've seen a few demos that allow you to "control a keyboard with your brain" while wearing the armband. The only problem is that this setup requires you to move your hands as if you were actually typing on a keyboard. If my hands have to move I might as well use a real keyboard. I realize that there are some people that could use CTRL-labs' armband, such as amputees, but it's not compelling to me. If Neuralink can let me control a computer by visualizing words or something similar instead of physically moving my hand then I'll call it a win.
  • m463 7y ago
    I thought the ctrl-labs stuff went beyond that. One of their demos had a phone game that you could control without moving your hand at all. They also talked about virtual arms, and there was one guy controlling nine cursors simultaneously.
    • throw20102010 7y ago
      The CTRL-kit, which is the "real" product they have, uses electromyography, which needs muscle activation to work, so something must twitch at a minimum to send a signal. A good interface may enable controlling multiple things at once, but they would all require muscle activity. They may have other things in R&D. At least they are closer to having a real product than Neuralink and they started their presentation on time at Re:MARS.
      • m463 7y ago
        Neural interfaces One of my biggest “Wow!” moments of 2018 took place in the offices of neural interface company CTRL-labs. Their demo involves someone playing the old Asteroids computer game without touching a keyboard, using machine learning to interpret the nerve signals that are sent to the hands. But it isn’t quite what you think. Moving things in the digital realm without moving your hands seems startling enough (though it’s worth remembering that it was once considered remarkable to be able to read silently without moving your lips). But that’s just the first stage. Essentially, users of this technology “grow” another virtual hand, which they can move independently of their physical hands. One of the researchers bowled me over when he said he was “working on controlling nine cursors at once.” Gradually, then suddenly, our children will interface with machines in deeper and deeper ways. Humanity is already going cyborg (see trend 1); expect it to accelerate. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that AI will replace humans when it can be used even more powerfully to augment them. from https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/gradually-then-suddenly https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/gradually-then-suddenly
• narrator 7y ago
  As the plain black lettering, "livestream will begin shortly", prosaically displayed across the laptop screen, the laptop's fan whirred away drudging through another hot summer month. The world was about to change, but few expected it. Meanwhile, on the other end of the line, things were unexpectedly delayed.... <cue spooky music>
  • 0xDEFC0DE 7y ago
    They demo'd the neuralink interface before the livestream started. Unfortunately a rogue AI took control of everyone.
  • sm4rk0 7y ago
    Your comment really fits your nick (or vice versa).
• angel_j 7y ago
  I predict a surgical procedure.
• 0vermorrow 7y ago
  While we wait for the delayed stream to start, it's worth taking a peek at their job board which has some interesting bits of information in the job descriptions: https://jobs.lever.co/neuralink https://jobs.lever.co/neuralink For example: > "As an Optical Engineer at Neuralink you will develop custom optics and imaging systems used directly in our surgical robot, and associated consumables manufacturing systems." [0] EDIT: I guess the article from The Verge linked in the other comments sheds even more light on that particular bit: > "[...] the company has developed ”a neurosurgical robot capable of inserting six threads (192 electrodes) per minute [automatically],” according to the white paper. " [1] Similarly described in the Bloomberg article which was just released [2] [0] - https://jobs.lever.co/neuralink/c98c011c-0f49-497e-a504-59a561848002 https://jobs.lever.co/neuralink/c98c011c-0f49-497e-a504-59a5... [1] - https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/16/20697123/elon-musk-neuralink-brain-reading-thread-robot https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/16/20697123/elon-musk-neural... [2] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-17/elon-musk-s-neuralink-says-it-s-ready-to-begin-brain-surgery https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-17/elon-musk...
• fabianhjr 7y ago
  The thing that most excites me about a breaktrough in BCI technology is its possible applications for Brain-to-Brain interfaces a la Asimov (I / We / Gaia) or Ramez Naam (Nexus 5; Very similar to what Neuralink talked about circa 2017)
  • defterGoose 7y ago
    I've been reading "Carbide Tipped Pens" which is a collection of 17 Hard sci-fi short stories. One of them has a very similar idea. Can't remember which one but I'll post the author if I remember later.
• kregasaurusrex 7y ago
  SpaceX's StarHopper engine looks like it caught fire, which is livestreaming at the same time[0]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACYW4RDCS90 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACYW4RDCS90
  • geuis 7y ago
    Didn’t catch fire. Just had a delayed exothermic reaction
• pmohun 7y ago
  Here's an article from Verge that seems to be from a journalist attending the event: https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/16/20697123/elon-musk-neuralink-brain-reading-thread-robot https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/16/20697123/elon-musk-neural...
• dchichkov 7y ago
  Impressive. 3072 channels is likely sufficient to pass very reach embeddings. At a level of a long sentence or a small image.
• enoreyes 7y ago
  Looks like Bloomberg just posted their pre-written article on accident: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-17/elon-musk-s-neuralink-says-it-s-ready-to-begin-brain-surgery https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-17/elon-musk...
  • JumpCrisscross 7y ago
    > A wire attached to a USB-C port in its head transmitted its thoughts to a nearby computer Any speculation around why USB-C was used? Or why this was a detail Neuralink wanted to message on?
    • confluence 7y ago
      Show that it is easily programmable and hackable by end users, like an Arduino.
      • asadlionpk 7y ago
        Arduino can process USB now? I remember back then atmega chips could not handle a usb driver due to clock speed.
        • thesmok 7y ago
          Arduino Uno has had native USB support since 2010. It's not USB3, of course.
    • throw20102010 7y ago
      Full speed USB-C allows for high-bandwidth and easy to plug in. It's a pretty good connector if you don't need severe weather resistance. Using off the shelf hardware saves time for the scientists to develop more meaningful parts of the system. Using off the shelf hardware makes it seem a little less hacky than if they were running a bunch of jumper wires off a DB-25 connector from an old printer.
    • jjeaff 7y ago
• deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
• _bxg1 7y ago
  Hard pass from me.
• pfista 7y ago
  Elon just said the primary purpose of the announcement tonight was to attract top talent.
  • deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
• jimpudar 7y ago
  Symbiosis between man and AI sounds both exciting and incredibly frightening. Imagine on one hand the potential for improving our own intelligence, but on the other hand widening the gap between the rich who can afford this kind of augmentation and the poor who can't. This is going to be a hell of a ride.
  • steve76 7y ago
    So why can't they just use a virtual brain map, that hat thing, based on what Snowden leak? Either that or let some kid tap into my brain. Yeah, sure, that will work out just ... ... ... fine. You know we're going to pirate and bootleg the hell out of it. You want me to take an ice pick where? Jesus Christ people are going to be doing this in porn soon. :)
  • isoprophlex 7y ago
    Also... Think of the potential for ad delivery!
    • est31 7y ago
      Ads where you can't close your eyes or foveate away... wonderful.
    • astronautjones 7y ago
      maybe the ads will be for schizophrenia medication to treat the resulting schizophrenia
    • m463 7y ago
      stimulate_purchase_region_of_brain(customer_id);
    • swalsh 7y ago
      They touched on that in the presentation. Specifically, they absolutely believe ads through the device crosses an ethical line.
  • satori99 7y ago
    I'm wondering if someone else could have control of the implant. Involuntary implants for behavior control of violent criminals, or just hackers taking control of regular implants, or worse still ... advertisers It is not hard to come up with plenty of dystopian scenarios involving this sort of technology.
• themodelplumber 7y ago
  I tried listening in and there were a lot of really intuitively strung-together tangents, each of which could be considered its own separate knowledge domain. I guess I'd say it was very ADHD-friendly, practically an ADHD machine, in that way. I had to give up on the video for now because I kept losing the thread while wondering about this tangent or that one. Will look for a summary later. (I do like that the corresponding gift of Musk's, the connective, big-picture thinking, is being made to work for its money though)
• jayzee 7y ago
  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/26/how-to-control-a-machine-with-your-brain https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/26/how-to-control...
• stonerri 7y ago
  A biorxiv paper on the neural sewing technology: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2019/03/14/578542.full.pdf https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2019/03/14/578... - I believe the authors are now at Neuralink.
  • andygates 7y ago
    The stitching is interesting - there are lots of near-term implantables with clinical benefits that this could benefit. I'm less convinced by the overall concept of "I know kung fu", but easy deep brain stimulation or cascade monitoring is probably enough to make a tidy buck.
• cVwEq 7y ago
  For all the criticisms of Musk, and recent wackiness, it's moments like these that I thank our lucky stars that there are people like him on this earth. It just seems like these days there are so few people thinking about the long-term future of the human race. I love it that his solution to the "AI terminator" problem is making a brain-computer interface so that we can have a fighting chance when AI takes off. I love it that he wants to help us kick our addiction to non-renewable fossil fuels. I love it that he wants to make us a two planet race so that we don't have all our humanity eggs in one planetary basket. Thank you Elon.
  • RomanBob 7y ago
    >problem is making a brain-computer interface so that we can have a fighting chance when AI takes off. our fighting chance is EMP.
    • onemoresoop 7y ago
      what is EMP?
      • hollerith 7y ago
        An electromagnetic pulse, created when a nuclear bomb explodes, that some say will destroy all electronic devices within hundreds of miles that haven't been specifically designed to be EMP resistant.
      • scottlegrand2 7y ago
        Apparently Paul Allen's Experience Music Project has been a secret weapon against malevolent AIs all along! Or if you're no fun, it's an electromagnetic pulse.
    • natosaichek 7y ago
      That's like saying a lions chance against humans is the big teeth. It's dangerous in a particular context, sure, but misses the fundamental assymmetry that took humans from scared or lions to existential threat to lions.
• turnerc 7y ago
  Their projection dates seem a little far fetched, to have a clinical trial by 2020 without yet having started an FDA process
  • whymauri 7y ago
    Far fetched is an under-statement. It's not possible unless they're planning to do human trials of some non-invasive technology related to the larger product.
    • otoburb 7y ago
      This is not a drug, but medical device technology. Therefore, I believe this would qualify for the FDA's pre-market Breakthrough Device Program[1] clearance which, if I'm reading the guidelines correctly, says they can have an expedited decision within 45-60 days from submission[2]. This is under the umbrella of the FDA's Medical Device Safety Action Plan[3] overhaul. [1] https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/how-study-and-market-your-device/breakthrough-devices-program https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/how-study-and-market-you... [2] https://www.fda.gov/media/108135/download https://www.fda.gov/media/108135/download [3] https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/cdrh-reports/medical-device-safety-action-plan-protecting-patients-promoting-public-health https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/cdrh-reports/medical-device-sa...
• voldacar 7y ago
  The Neuralink president said that the first human trials are aimed for 2020, but before that he said that they use their thread arrays to record neural data every day, and he described the experience of learning how to manipulate the iphone app as "trippy". So has this thing been implanted in even a single human? Or are his words just conjecture? If not, what brains are they reading neural data from, animals?
  • lettergram 7y ago
    It's very likely it's in humans now, and watching the live stream it looks like they are working on a brain. This technique has been used on rats for at least a decade now, and I believe it's already been tested on humans prior to this.
    • olliej 7y ago
      They specifically say they build on the concepts from the Utah arrays, but that their tech is much better (presumably "trippy" references were from lower res external monitors or feedback from the brain array?)
  • slouch 7y ago
    Elon: "the monkey has been able to control a computer with its brain" after a question about testing on animals and the ethics involved
    • Robotbeat 7y ago
      ...and if this all really works, the ethics of uplifting animals. If monkeys and cows, etc, can become intelligent via digital augmentation, it will seem pretty grotesque to eat meat. I’m not a vegetarian, but that thought has me reconsidering. Even if we’re a century or two away from that, it will be nice to not be remembered as monstrously eating other potentially-intelligent beings.
• dantheman 7y ago
  This is fantastic!
• scottlegrand2 7y ago
  I'd be more interested in the immediate application of improving cochlear implant technology with these threads. But then I'm deaf in one ear so I'm biased.
• datpuz 7y ago
  I don't feel like my ability to interface with the computer is a major bottleneck for me. If I'm writing code, for example, my typing speed is really not a factor. Even typing this very short comment, I paused several times to think of how to phrase things.
  • GuiA 7y ago
    Obviously this is a very personal thing, but that is not the case for me. I often can “see” entire chunks of code in my head, and typing out those 20 lines ends up feeling slow and frustrating. Of course that’s not systematically the case - in many instances, I am thinking as I am writing the code. But for many straightforward control functions, tests, constructors/destructors, etc. the keyboard absolutely feels like a bottleneck. (There is the orthogonal debate that perhaps a better language would allow me to express more concisely these things that feel straightforward)
    • cambalache 7y ago
      For me too. Something like auto-completion for the brain. Not in the "let me complete this command/file name for you" But in the "let me write immediately and correctly the 20 lines of code for the exact procedure you think you need and you just thought in a second". I know it sounds like it is impossible now, but who knows? Maybe it will start with some macros for the brain.
      • youareostriches 7y ago
        That might not always be possible. Sometimes I don’t know the full definition of the function upfront; I have to discover/invent it one line at a time and can’t do that without pausing and thinking about the line I just wrote.
    • edna314 7y ago
      I know exactly what kind of frustration you mean. I think this frustration often comes about, because writing code up is a first quality control and it might seem unnecessary for straight forward stuff to be quality controlled. While spending less work on trivial stuff seems reasonable, if I do introduce a bug in trivial code it will be harder to track it down, because I will always first check whether or not all the tricky parts work. On top of that you indirectly incentivize yourself for thinking something is trivial, because it would mean less work and somehow my brain is very good at tricking me into doing less work in situations where obviously more work is required. So, even if it was possible to paste code from the brain I would recommend reading it again carefully and then the speed advantages are gone. The only situation where you wouldn’t need it are really repetitive tasks, but in these situations you can have macros/snippets.
• um_ya 7y ago
  They should use holography light instead of probes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awADEuv5vWY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awADEuv5vWY
• ArchD 7y ago
  For a paralyzed person trying to use Neuralink to control an external device, how does the neural signal decoding distinguish between just thinking of a movement and the actual volition of that movement? You would not want to actuate the external device just because the user is thinking of the movement (e.g. from reading a book, watching a video, or planning for the future).
  • natosaichek 7y ago
    As long as that activity is part of the training corpus for the neural interpreter it shouldn't be a problem. Just make sure you put in controls during training links any other machine learning system.
• DevKoala 7y ago
  I am excited thinking of all the type of experiences NeuraLink will enable. I am confident it will still take another decade, but the video games of the future will be wild.
• billconan 7y ago
  Totalitarianism countries will use this to take surveillance and censorship to a new level. Now, people can't speak freely. In the future, people will not be able to think freely ...
  • RomanBob 7y ago
    People can't think clearly now. They are clouded always with bias and the limitation of the neurobiology. Powerful tools can be used for both good and bad.
  • Tepix 7y ago
    This will also enable torture and interrogation on a whole new level.
• buboard 7y ago
  Their implant sounds impressive . I m not sure about their answer about plasticity though. IIRC , previous implants like the braingate had issue with the tuning of neurons shifting over time, requiring patients to retrain the model.
  • defterGoose 7y ago
    Yeah, that's a super interesting area of the whole bundle of tech they talked about. Obviously, years of in-situ research are the only way to prove anything out, but the brain is so complicated it definitely seems like there could be higher order effects between the input/output sides where the brain is rerouting and working around the fairly "static" model that the chip/backend is using. In other words, is there any reason to think that neurons will start flipping their axons around when they detect potentially alien inputs? The cells themselves are obviously capable of this whereas the electrodes are static physical objects.
  • kranner 7y ago
    Doesn't seem they would've had time to test long-term use with their threads.
• c1b 7y ago
  Musk just (unexpectedly?) announced that the team has been able to make a monkey control a computer with its mind... Wow, I would love to see this in action...
  • buboard 7y ago
    this wouldnt be a first, people have done that before with Utah arrays, including with human patients.
• m0zg 7y ago
  Iain Banks would be pleased, were he still alive. To the uninitiated: Musk is quite obviously a fan of The Culture sci-fi series by Iain Banks. This right here device is called "neural lace" in the series. The series is quite possibly the finest example of the genre that I've ever read, and it's way ahead of its time.
  • lloydde 7y ago
    I remember watching one or maybe two interviews of Mr Musk at one of the iteration of the Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg conferences, I think it was All Things Digital. To the delight of the audience, Mr Musk described two or three technologies right out of Iain Banks’ books including using the term neural lace. At the time I had recently read the books, so I immediately recognized the one book, but it escapes me now. I don’t think Mr Musk acknowledged the connection, but there or another interview he talked about deep conversations with his brother on sci fi topics.
    • m0zg 7y ago
      The names of SpaceX barges are inspired by the series as well. One of the central protagonists in the series are enormous sentient spaceships that far outstrip humans in intelligence (and firepower, naturally). They have long names like "Of Course I Still Love You".
  • samfriedman 7y ago
    And it has a great quote on the neural lace, from an AI whose hobby is mucking about in humans' heads: "A more exquisite and economical method of torturing creatures such as yourself has yet to be invented."
• sjg007 7y ago
  Ok. so "sewing machine" is a robot to place sensors without hitting blood vessels. These sensors have some wires that are attached to an induction loop of some kind for recording. Seems feasible. Density is variable and probably dependent on brain region (speculative). I imagine the next step is deep learning to classify neural/sensor patterns into specific actions.
  • fudged71 7y ago
    Yes exactly. They showed an iphone screenshot of the training process. They also need to make the device wireless (the current device is not).
• camjohnson26 7y ago
  Live impressions by a neuroscientist on Twitter: https://twitter.com/analogist_net/status/1151351005562359809 https://twitter.com/analogist_net/status/1151351005562359809
  • buboard 7y ago
    or rather, live criticism. Here is a better, non-snarky review: https://twitter.com/AndrewHires/status/1151362187312582658 https://twitter.com/AndrewHires/status/1151362187312582658
    • Ajedi32 7y ago
      Very cynical indeed, but his overall conclusion seems to be positive: https://twitter.com/analogist_net/status/1151396253692907522 https://twitter.com/analogist_net/status/1151396253692907522
• nikkwong 7y ago
  To me it's just unfathomable to imagine what the future of humanity looks like if everyone has superhuman intelligence available at their fingertips. I imagine we will no longer be differentiable based on our articulacy or own personal genius, which would effectively undermine the decade long mastery that many people took to hone their crafts. I also wonder if people would become more homogeneous as our own superintelligence shows us the faults in our own eccentricities. The future of work, and creative work, which I find most interesting, is kind of scary to speculate about. But, guess we'll just have to see where the science takes us :)
  • dr01d 7y ago
    Humans driving cars is probably unfathomable to chimpanzees.
    • nikkwong 7y ago
      Yeah. In such a sense we could just imagine this potentially being one of the largest paradigm shifts we've ever experienced as a species. I guess my bias is that I feel like my own personal mind-map or world lens is my own personal competitive advantage against the rest of the world and that's what I use to differentiate and make money. Taking that advantage away seems like a life-deranging experience as it defines who I am. But that's how incumbents always feel when they get disrupted. I suppose victors always have defined themselves by their ability to adapt to change.
      • dr01d 7y ago
        I don't think it is taking an advantage away. New inventions mean new opportunities and doors opening not closing.
  • PeterStuer 7y ago
    Even in the early 90's people would imagine the vast intellectual expansion that the Internet would bring once electronic access to libraries would become ubiquitous. I'm afraid we'll descend even more into a Huxleyan 'Ow my balls' intellectual sinkhole, but I hope you are right.
• ilaksh 7y ago
  This was such an interesting and inspiring presentation. After watching it, I actually think that CD Projekt should change the title of their video game -- bump the year a decade or two. Maybe Cyberpunk 2050?
• Papirola 7y ago
  reminds me of the movie Brainstorm (1983) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085271/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085271/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
• malicioususer11 7y ago
  pretty cool press conferance, but i dont think its going to take off until Elon develoos Genital Link. :3
• CptFribble 7y ago
  Any word on whether they've solved the glial response problem? Brain implants almost always end up useless long-term because they are attacked and surrounded as foreign objects by the brain's defense system. I admittedly skimmed the neural sewing paper, but from what I saw there wasn't anything new in there about preventing this.
  • abrichr 7y ago
    They mention this in the video, they are solving it by making the implants extremely small and having similar material properties to the brain.
  • alexgmcm 7y ago
    Yeah it seems Nicolelis lab already did incredibly advanced work in rats and apes. But moving to humans with a weaker immune system and a much higher risk of rejection was always extremely difficult/not possible. It'll be interesting to see how they solve this.
• wumms 7y ago
  "Check PSU Cable" :) 01:32:19 https://youtu.be/r-vbh3t7WVI?t=5539 https://youtu.be/r-vbh3t7WVI?t=5539
• JabavuAdams 7y ago
  From the video -- do they have the capability to fab custom silicon on a small scale? What kinds of setups / suppliers are there / order of magnitude price?
• PetitPrince 7y ago
  Considering that both cochear and retinal implants are currently in the 10s of electrodes, that would be really cool if those tiny electrodes can be adapted to that usage. That could lead in a significant bump in auditory/vidual fidelity for the patient (currently they hear something that sounds to us like out of a vocoder, and see something that looks probably like a quarter of a gameboy display). Of course the end goal would be to directly stimulate the sensory cortexes, but we had decent trains before having decent planes.
• c8g 7y ago
  so, it is like one step closer to movie Upgrade (2018) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upgrade_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upgrade_(film)
• zakki 7y ago
  Skip to 1:30:00
• LukeB42 7y ago
  Who thinks Elon Musk is going to walk around with one of these in a world full of hackers who aren't buying it?
• ricardobeat 7y ago
  They’ve published a whitepaper including pictures of the implanted electrodes on a rat’s brain: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6204648-Neuralink-White-Paper.html https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6204648-Neuralink-Wh... Summary: 3k+ electrodes in the test device, each thread is 1/10 of a human hair, they connect directly to custom chips that are bundled in a 4x4mm package. The test one has a USB-C port but in humans it would be implanted under the skin - a single 2mm incision with minimal bleeding - and communicate wirelessly. Looks like their main technology is the surgery robot and the custom chips. This is truly out of science fiction and will be an incredible revolution if it works.
  • wrinkl3 7y ago
    > Looks like their main technology is the surgery robot and the custom chips They're also building up a software stack to analyze the sensor output, complete with a user-facing smartphone app.
• grewil2 7y ago
  My collegue once managed to fry a computer through the USB-port. I wonder what would happen if you accidently fed too much power to this brain USB-port.
• aws_ls 7y ago
  Can't wait for the day, when we can create a dump file of our experience - equivalent of mp4, which has not just the sound and moving image but also other things like smell, temperature and other bodily sensations. Its almost like one of those Black Mirror episodes, in which you experience stuff, while just sitting on your sofa. Pleasure industry should be one of the early adopters of this.
  • SuperPaintMan 7y ago
    Let's not forget about snuff films!
    • aws_ls 7y ago
      Just looked up snuff films. Thanks.
      • emilfihlman 7y ago
        I hate it.
  • bem94 7y ago
    > Its almost like one of those Black Mirror episodes I'd always thought of Black Mirror as a warning or reminder to consider the wider consequences of technology. Not as a motivator to develop it faster. The thought of this kind of technology (no matter how far away it really is from being deployed) terrifies me. I certainly do not trust someone like Elon Musk to develop it responsibly and pause to consider what it will do to all of humanity. That's what is at stake here, the definition of humanity, for better and worse.
    • kodz4 7y ago
      These stories have played out before. Maybe the best example is Oppenheimer vs Edward Teller. There will always be an Edward Teller. Yet we still haven't blown ourselves up. If you ask why and how you will find hope.
• londons_explore 7y ago
  Why aren't these implants based from designs of CMOS camera sensors? Take a CMOS sensor, and put a metal spike on top of every pixel (easy with current processes). Now you have 10 million measurements that you can take at 240fps...
  • Robotbeat 7y ago
    Because you need to be inside the brain, not just on the surface. And the electrodes need to be flexible, not stiff spikes. So with those constraints, their current approach makes sense. They’ll get to millions of electrodes in the future.
    • londons_explore 7y ago
      Spikes that are under 1um thick end up being very flexible.
  • fudged71 7y ago
    Because the metal spikes would puncture blood vessels in the brain. Part of the surgical robotics is focused on individually inserting spikes while avoiding blood vessels. Watch the presentation.
    • londons_explore 7y ago
      These metal spikes would probably be only 20 um long and 1um wide, so not long enough to puncture blood vessels.
• eggy 7y ago
  I remember demoing a game back in the 90s where you placed a headband on and controlled a stone on screen to cause it to rise and then maintaining its altitude. I’m sure it was very simple, however the germ was planted about mind/machine interfaces in me a while ago. I had read Neuromancer previously and this seemed the zeitgeist along with the 90s being the ‘Decade of the Brain’. I had read Patricia Churchland’s book The Computational Brain, and the take off of neural networks and wet interfaces was all the buzz.
  • Benjammer 7y ago
    There were a bunch of "alpha brain waves" toys for a minute there a while back. A friend of mine had the Star Wars Jedi one where you put a device on your head and then it detects "alpha waves" and controls a small fan in a clear plastic tube that "levitates" a ball. We figured out eventually that you could pin the thing to the max by reading a book while wearing the device, you didn't actually have to focus directly on the ball.
    • eggy 7y ago
      Yes, it was an alpha brain wave toy. I found the visual feedback to me being able to affect my body state strangely exciting. I can see how the Transhumanist movement is fueled by experiences and technologies such as these.
• jshaqaw 7y ago
  All of these cyberpunk futures people have in the comments about writing code via their brain interface is fun speculation. I know a young boy who is almost totally paralyzed head to foot. If in 5years this gives him significantly greater mobility and ability to communicate it will be a true blessing.
  • Robotbeat 7y ago
    This is the real sort of early application, and it’s also the least frightening. I hope we see massive improvements in computer security in the next few decades because otherwise “jacking in” to any kind of computer with Internet access is a terrifying thought.
• molly-millions 7y ago
  I can safely say I will never do this to myself. There's no advantage at all. Technology just isn't compelling enough. Even if I could close my eyes, tense my brow, and with a wiggle of my nose, launch an army of autonomous drones to hoist a nuclear tipped cruise missile from a launch tube, and point it at some world leader, what a puny plan. And the reality is, that's not the way this will go for me. This isn't going to be the kind of thing that gets us ahead. If anything, this is the T-Mobile Sidekick of cybernetics. And even when the new iPhone of cybernetic neural interfaces emerge, it's still going to fucking suck. We're 10,000 light years from the kind of thing I'd find compelling. Hard pass.
  • fudged71 7y ago
    Light years is a measure of distance not time
• midnightdiesel 7y ago
  I'm glad this tech is starting to move along, but, boy, is this stuff at a crude and barbaric level. I can't imagine putting this crap in my head.
• deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
• JesseMReeves 7y ago
  There has been research in using massive amounts of neural recordings to infer the underlying sensory cognitive neural network this year: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/553255v2 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/553255v2 https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/neco_a_01211 https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/neco_a_0121... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165027019301761 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016502701... If that neural lace materializes there will be a lot of new material for that particular mental playground.
• sebringj 7y ago
  The potential of this...You could wire up a group of dancers and everyone would mimic the lead dancer perfectly. China would absolutely love to engineer a feeling of nationalism that would be always switched on and monitored. People could have telepathic sex. You could pay for NBA All Brain Access and feel what it's like to dunk as LeBron, live. Your speech could be auto-corrected as well as your outlook in life through your AI personality filter. You could switch between cartoon theme and real-life theme as you go about your day. Healthy food could taste amazing...