Merging Man and Machine

Business Standard     12th September 2020     Save    

Context: Tech. Entrepreneur Elon Musk and start-up Neuralink are trying to build a "Fitbit in your skull"— an ambitious device to connect the human brain to a computer. 

The functioning of our brain:

  • Composed of neurons, which talk to each other via network points called synapses-- they communicate through chemical signals called neurotransmitters.
  • All our experiences are just neurons firing electrical signals, or action potentials, which are momentarily converted into chemical ones through the release of neurotransmitters;
  • Multiply this process by 100 billion and that's our brain in a nutshell.

Features of Neuralink

  • Use of flexible threads: Every Neuralink chip measures roughly 4x4 mm and connects to the brain through electrode threads.
  • This technology would use neurosurgical robots to insert electrode threads within the brain.
  • These small chips would be connected to a tiny wireless battery-powered gadget behind the ear.
    • Safer than currently used materials: the system may include "as many as 3,072 electrodes per array distributed in 96 threads". The threads are 4 to 6 microns in width — much thinner than a human hair.
  • Safe use of lasers: to get through the skull, rather than drilling holes.
  • High number of electrodes: improve the efficiency of control in robotic limbs. 

Advantages of Neuralink:

  • Medical Significance: It may allow those suffering from paralysis or conditions like Parkinson's disease to control their body movements and manipulate machines.
    • It can create scalable high-bandwidth Brain-Machine Interfaces (BMIs).
  • Uploading information to the brain: Neuralink wouldn't only read data from the brain but also upload information to it.
    • It would then be connected to a smartphone via Bluetooth or WiFi.
Arguments against the technology: 
  • Inadequacy of machine learning: Even if Neuralink could sample enough of the 100 billion cells in the brain, it would be difficult to generate all our thoughts to calibrate a useful mind-reading device.
    • Neuralink may be good example of technology outstripping our current ability to know how to use it.