Why Elon Musk’s Neuralink is the Inevitable Terrifying Next Step in Human Evolution

Are you willing to have one implanted in your brain?

Kovacs (pronounced Kovatsh), is a special forces soldier who had his memories and consciousness stored on a chip called a stack that could be removed from his own body and implanted in another, where it would attach to the neural system and give Kovacs total control over that body.

As long as the stack stays intact Kovacs would survive the destruction of his body. Once the stack gets implanted in a new body he will come back to life.

Kovacs is the protagonist in Netflix’s Altered Carbon show. In the series, not only him had a stack, but every human of value had one.

The wealthiest in the world had the choice to become effectively immortal by uploading their memories into a server, and having those memories stored for emergency needs.

The memories were copied to several other stacks installed on clones that were stored in hibernation.

In the event of destruction of the original stack and body, a clone wakes up from hibernation and continues to live on.

While I was watching Elon Musk talking about the device his team at Neuralink company had developed, I could only wonder if the creators of Altered Carbon were able to see into the future while they were writing the episodes.

Humans had three great leaps of technological advancements in history. And Musk just announced the fourth.

The first was when humans learned to use fire thousands of years ago, ushering the end of the stone age.

The second was the invention of the steam engine in 1712 by Thomas Newcomen and the birth of the industrial age.

And when personal computers were made commercial in 1977, the digital age started, and technological advances picked up pace.

Since then no more ground-shattering inventions were introduced… until now.

What can the device do?

As of the date of the conference, 28th August 2020, the device could perform only two functions as was demonstrated on three pigs serving as test subjects.

The device can sense or “read” electrical signals from the brain and transform them into measurable data. And it can stimulate certain parts of the brain by injecting electrical signals in what is called “writing”.

It has a battery life of 24 hours and can be charged wirelessly as you sleep.

It can also be removed safely if the user no longer wants it, and the person can resume normal life without it.

Future Potentials of the Neuralink Device

Towards the end of the hour and a half video, the Neuralink team members shared their hopes and expectations for the future of the device, and they were as follows:

Curing Blindness and Super Vision

As the device can stimulate certain parts of the brain through the “writing” process, people with weak eyesight or partial blindness could experience improvement of sight through stimulation of the occipital lobe.

Furthermore, people who have lost their eyes can install cameras to replace their eyes and have the images of the cameras transmitted into their brain directly.

Building on that, Musk suggested that it could be possible to install sophisticated cameras that can give people super far-sight and infrared and ultraviolet vision.

The Neuralink device can control the camera so that the users can choose which vision mode they want to use.

Curing Paralysis

As the device can sense and accurately predict brain signals going to the limbs, the device can be used to transmit those signals into a receiver.

The receiver will be installed on the spine to deliver those signals to the nervous system and from it into the limbs.

Telepathy

Nonlinguistic, Consensual, and Conceptual Telepathy, as Musk describe it, should be possible through the device.

You could transfer your raw thoughts directly into another person’s brain if you have permission to do so.

Just like you would transfer a file to your friend’s smart phone through Bluetooth.

Neural Arts

Expanding on the idea of telepathy, you could potentially transfer something you imagined from your own brain to another person or to a group of people.

That could mean envisioning a whole new concept of Neural Arts, where the artist would imagine things and project them into the brains of his fans.

Memory upload and Download

The device will be able to send your memories into a server to be saved there. You will be able to access them and even relive them if you choose to.

Musk also said that those memories could be downloaded into a robot, or another body.

I guess now you can understand my Altered Carbon reference.

Achieving Symbiosis with A.I.

Musk believes that Artificial Intelligence is going to overtake human intelligence in the near future and can jeopardies our existence.

Through Neuralink, he hopes to give humans a fighting chance. Being able to access the vast data available online through the device will create an opportunity for us to match AI and maybe even surpass it.

Final Thoughts

I honestly believe that humans’ evolution will no longer depend solely on biological needs.

Now, with the introduction of the Neuralink device, humans are going to evolve into part biological, part electronic beings.

Science fiction characters like Cyborg from DC, or Darth Vader and General Grievous from Star Wars could be a reality sooner than we think.

The terrifying thing is there is no going back. Other countries and companies are going to push their research on the subject of linking human brain with technology, and not all of them will have curing blindness as an objective.

Weaponizing the Neuralink device, or other similar devices will happen eventually.

Imagine an army of superhuman soldiers with night vision, robotic bodies and built-in jetpacks who can control tanks and missile launchers with their brains. That's the dream of every tyrant on this planet.

Despite all the dangers, I find myself genuinely intrigued by the possibilities of this device. I think I will not rest until I have tried it and connected my brain to the internet at least once.

What about you, would you install an electronic chip in your brain?