Would You Let Elon Musk Implant a Device in Your Brain?
The entrepreneur’s Neuralink startup will be life-changing for some, but it’s hard to see how it will transform society.
Now with FDA approval.
Photographer: JIM WATSON/AFPElon Musk’s Neuralink received approval last week from the US Food and Drug Administration to conduct human clinical trials, which one former FDA official called “really a big deal.” I do not disagree, but I am skeptical that this technology will “change everything.” Not every profound technological advance has broad social and economic implications.
With Neuralink’s device, a robot surgically inserts a device into the brain that can then decode some brain activity and connect the brain signals to computers and other machines. A person paralyzed from the neck down, for example, could use the interface to manipulate her physical environment, as well as to write and communicate.