Neuralink

Neuralink is an ambitious neurotechnology company that’s aiming to upgrade nature’s most complex organ – the human brain. Founded by serial entrepreneur Elon Musk, it hopes to surgically implant tiny devices deep inside the skull, offering the potential to treat brain disorders and other medical problems, and give us the power to interact with and control machines using our minds.

Brain chip

The idea currently falls quite firmly in the realm of sci-fi and is either utopian or dystopian, depending on who you talk to. Musk refers to it as a “Fitbit in your skull, with tiny wires”, but this is no easy install. The company would need to insert 3,072 electrodes connected to 96 thin, flexible threads into your brain. These are between four and six μm (micrometre, which is one thousandth of a millimetre) in diameter, making them far finer than human hair, and they are connected to a brain-to-machine chipset called N1, measuring just 23mm by 8mm. Musk says the implant that transmits neural signals is called the Link.

How it works?

The human brain has 86 billion neurons, which send and receive information through electric signals via synapses. With Neuralink, each individual thread of the device will be connected in the brain, allowing it to monitor the activity of 1,000 brain neurons. Although that sounds like a small sample, amplified signals are recorded and interpreted as digital instructions, and information is sent back to the brain to stimulate electrical spikes. Data in the prototypes has been transmitted via a wired USB-C connection but the goal has been to create a wireless system.

In my opinion it seems great to be able to control computers and other devices with our mind. A few years ago we only saw it in science fiction, so it's fascinating how much we've progressed and can progress.

Right now we've gotten very close to this with voice control devices, but being able to do it with the sheer power of the mind is another level.

Information

Elon Musk explaining this chip