Merging Man and Machine

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.
    

• 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.