3 ms·
I presume the subject must've been in pretty bad shape in terms of health, to assume the inherent risk of brain surgery at the micron scale. Best wishes to them
by birriel 3y ago
I presume the subject must've been in pretty bad shape in terms of health, to assume the inherent risk of brain surgery at the micron scale. Best wishes to them, and I hope humanity can benefit from knowledge gathered with this breakthrough.
- bahmboo 3y agoThe first requirement for participating in the study: "Have quadriplegia (limited function in all 4 limbs) due to spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and are at least 1-year post-injury (without improvement)"
- wnolens 3y agoI would think as normal a nervous system as possible would be desired. Test the happy path?
- neutralino1 3y agoIdeally yes, but the liabilities are likely too great at this time. So better start with the "hopeless", where no harm can be done, then go up from there.
- Cacti 3y agolol what normal nervous system
- doubloon 3y agoWhy would we presume that without any evidence whatsoever?
- mike_d 3y agoThe only way to get approval to experiment on human subjects is by specifically intending the device to treat a condition, and then only testing on individuals with that condition. You can't just take volunteers off the street and start testing chemotherapy drugs on them for example - this is to avoid exploiting the poor and indigent as human lab rats. They need to thread the needle of a condition so advanced that a brain link device would potentially restore a basic essential of life but also not so advanced that the patient can no longer give consent. You can see the patient criteria they selected here: https://neuralink.com/pdfs/PRIME-Study-Brochure.pdf https://neuralink.com/pdfs/PRIME-Study-Brochure.pdf
- pelorat 3y agoTo be honest, compared to the Utah array implant the risk here is minimal.