Mr Musk starts up new medical firm researching human / machine brain linking

Tesla boss Elon Musk has announced he is setting up a firm called "Neralink";

a start-up which aims to develop technology that connects our brains to computers.

BBC News: Elon Musk creates Neuralink brain electrode firm

A report from the Wall Street Journal, later confirmed in a tweet by Mr Musk, said the company was in its very early stages and registered as a “medical research” firm.

The company will develop so-called “neural lace” technology which would implant tiny electrodes into the brain. The technique could be used to improve memory or give humans added artificial intelligence. According to the Journal, leading academics in the field have been signed up to work at the company which is being funded privately by Mr Musk. Specialists in the field envision a time when humans may be able to upload and download thoughts.

It's gonna happen. Did we doubt it would.

I enjoyed the movie "Transcendence". I have no doubts we will end up half organic and half machine.

Personally, I would not let any of that near me. I would rather die than that. I'm old guard and know the sacredness of independent natural thought. Anywhere else is cool, but not my brain and memory. Gamers might love it though, no doubt, and I think that humans will want it. The possibilities are endless really. We would be able to purchase with just the thought of deciding to purchase. By that time will we even want purchase anything, any way? I think all our purchases will even be digital and in the machine world we are making. "The Matrix" begins to look more and more like a possible future, give or take.

My imagination runs riot these days with entertaining notions of our possible future's trajectory. I know that the roll on effect is always "rollin' on" as momentum builds and builds.

I imagine that our brains could operate digital technology by thought alone. They will achieve it. One human thought could control endless actions by a huge army of machines, no keyboard, mouse or even voice required (even Alexa and Cortana are becoming yesterday's caveman news); just wi fi and blue tooth or whatever they evolve into needed and a twinkling satellite in orbit. It even goes beyond that: One thought beamed by satellite all around the world, from nanobots to Space plane drones carrying out the order that was generated by a mere thought in a human brain by power of mental will; telekinesis of a kind by scientific means . What power, Dr Fiendish! Thought could control a probe on Mars (if there is a way to counter delay). Once all the dots are joined up and AI develops universality like PC and MAC then it will be crazily fast evolving and machines will do even the thinking, far beyond human intellect and foresight. The word "computation" speaks for itself. By thought we would be able to order our robots.

Musing away further, it is the translation part that is the all important gizmo. We need to be able to interpret digital code as information for our neurons to receive and understand, and this needs to be interpreted back when we send information via our neurons by our wills and the thought process reflecting our wills' intent. Of course, we might yet discover the Holy Grail of neuron electric signalling patterns that are a universal bio-electrical language of their own, being able to interpret them and write them like code. If they are electrical then they must be behaving conforming to certain laws of electrical conduction in a sense. Remember, they can already tell a cockroach to go left and right (and I am sure much more by now in secret little labs where monkeys are doing all kinds of tricks for the scientists).

Will they make gizmos for our brains to be able to read code and that interpret our neurons and turn it back into code or will they synthesize neuron patterns, copying neuron signalling and relaying of information that they start using for universal digital technology? The less gizmos involved and the less translation involved, the better. CONVERSION is the magic word I am looking for here. Yes, it is the conversion challenge.

Imagine away, if you are so interested.

I recently thought about that former being -now digitalized- from the not so good movie Independence Day 2. I guess, if you´ve mastered all physical laws, if it´s possible during a lifetime, you´re do not want to face a biological death. Not sure either if digital, in the sense we use it, would be a good idea. Not electron based, that´s for sure. Seeing it from that point of view, our wetware is better protected against faults than a microchip -as we know them now- working on the principles of shifting potentials (meaning electron count difference).

You don´t want any bitflips, or a very good "repair program". And then, when # happens with the repair program, that´s your new "deadline" then. Not cell based failure, but bitflips and physical damage. It doesn´t take much for some ICs, touch them with some static left on your body and they opt out. It can be enough if you bring your finger near some chips and the static flips bits, turns on channels or recives input. Nearby IOs are affected, too. Of course, use pullups or pulldown resistors... But that´s not the main point.

We´re just not there yet.

I´m not sure if all gamers really want this:

a reply to: verschickter

That was hilariously funny. Thanks.

Knowing human beings, yeah, just yeah. The Matrix will be one huge world of GTA

This is already being done in relation to artificial limbs.

Brain-controlled prosthetic arm connected to nerves

sciencenordic.com...


Clinically the potential is enormous.

Looks like ill see the call of duty black ops 3 DNI made by the coalescence corporation one day after all. In the video game this technology does exactly what is being discussed here. It allows for control of artificial limbs, telekenetic communication, the ability to download and upload thoughts from both the brain of the individual and others connected by the dni but also interface and do the same with computers and computer to brain etc.

a reply to: verschickter

Yup, we are. Look up national science foundation, mind machine interface. Been there, did it.

a reply to: Rendaria
EEG? What interface did you use?

We are already at The Matrix.

It's just revealing itself to us.

a reply to: verschickter

I built the thing from scratch.

a reply to: Rendaria

And it was wow over 10 years ago.

a reply to: verschickter

Obviously. But a lot of people make things more complicated than what they really are. So even though it was presented in Washington DC, I stopped working on it. I didn't think I was a very good speaker at the time. So it was very hard for me to convey the concept and even though it is a working device, it's not one that implants things into people's skulls and such. I still have the device. Although now, the interface used is outdated as well as compatibility with operating systems. Lol. Back when DOS was my god.

a reply to: Rendaria

I call bull# on this. There is basically no information in your post. It just doesn´t add up. I say pictures or it didn´t happen.

a reply to: verschickter

Call it what you like. Adme 96, published my mind-machine interface paper. I spoke to many of the national science foundation members. I received funding for building the thing. I happen to have been pretty proud of myself for building this. My initial intent was to help those with the same disease Steven Hawking has. I figure why would a great mind like that be stifled by human limitations. I expect doubt and ridicule such as it is. People should doubt what they don't understand. This is part of learning.
I have a picture for you. Just trying to upload it is fun and a process. Thought it would be easier.

a reply to: Rendaria
I understand that you are proud of your work, no offense meant. Why do you need those FETs? It looks like a 10channel MOS-FET card of some sort.

I had delayed authoring a thread on this due to laziness. Thanks for carrying the torch.

Here is a pretty interesting article that gives some rather in depth views of Musk, his strategy, and Neuralink:

Neuralink And The Brains Magical Future

Consider eating a chocolate cake. While eating, we feed data to our cognitive apparatus. These data provide the enjoyment of the cake. The enjoyment isn’t in the cake, per se, but in our neural experience of it. Decoupling our sensory desire (the experience of cake) from the underlying survival purpose (nutrition) will soon be within our reach.

We know that stimulating the right centers in the brain can induce sleep or alertness, hunger or satiation, ease or stimulation, as quick as the flip of a switch. Or, if you’re running code, on a schedule. (Siri: Put me to sleep until 7:30, high priority interruptions only. And let’s get hungry for lunch around noon. Turn down the sugar cravings, though.)

Pharmaceuticals enter the brain and then spread out randomly, hitting whatever receptor they work on all across your brain. Neural interfaces, by contrast, can stimulate just one area at a time, can be tuned in real-time, and can carry information out about what’s happening.

Depression, anxiety, OCD, and other disorders may be easy to eradicate once we can take better control of what goes on in our brain

You could also dim or shut off parts of a sense, like pain perhaps. Pain is the body’s way of telling us we need to address something, but in the future, we’ll elect to get that information in much less unpleasant formats.

(brief aside here, as this seems to have recently been mapped and likely will soon be under full control of human desire, which could be bad news for torture recipients: How A Single Gene Can Be A Volume Knob For Pain)

Level 1: I want to know a fact. I call on the cloud for that info—like googling something with my brain—and the answer, in text, appears in my mind’s eye. Basically what I do now except it all happens in my head.

Level 2: I want to know a fact. I call on the cloud for that info, and then a second later I just know it. No reading was involved—it was more like the way I’d recall something from memory.

Level 3: I just know the fact I want to know the second I want it. I don’t even know if it came from the cloud or if it was stored in my brain. I can essentially treat the whole cloud like my brain. I don’t know all the info—my brain could never fit it all—but any time I want to know something it downloads into my consciousness so seamlessly and quickly that it’s as if it were there all along.

Level 4: Beyond just knowing facts, I can deeply understand anything I want to, in a complex way. We discussed the example of Moby Dick. Could I download Moby Dick from the cloud into my memory and then suddenly have it be the same as if I had read the whole book? Where I’d have thoughts and opinions and I could cite passages and have discussions about the themes?

If you like long, informative reads....this is a good Saturday morning, 2 cups of coffee article. Maybe 3 or 4.

Just think.
you will be able to Link brains TO each other!
now That would be a Great virtual reality.
sex would be a thing of the past!!

VR head sets will Never be great!
wiring directly to the optic nerve would be the in thing.

to truly control it, it would be best to implant it under 5 years old.
that way the brain would grow to work with it.
us Old ones will just be slow!

a reply to: verschickter

Well as you can imagine this was created over 10 years ago. I used some of the typical and available tech. My whole point was not over inventing. I was hoping to be able create the needed links through software rather than making such a huge device that it would cost more to make it than sell it. So it would be portable small convenient and affordable. Mind you tech is much better now, and creating something with a 3d printer and integrating some fft, ai, os, etc is much easier. I do want this to be a reality, for the general public. But money is always an issue. Anyways I do hope the company that is trying to develop further gets further and successfully makes it available.

a reply to: Rendaria

so what are the mosfets supposed to do in your mind brain machine?