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Elon Musk Shows Neuralink Brain Link Working In a Pig (cnet.com) 87

Posted by BeauHD from the damn-that's-cool dept.
With a pig named Gertrude, Elon Musk demonstrated his startup Neuralink's technology to build a digital link between brains and computers. A wireless link from the Neuralink device showed the pig's activity activity as it snuffled around a pen on stage Friday night. CNET reports: The demonstration shows the the technology to be significantly closer to delivering on Musk's radical ambitions than during a 2019 product debut, when Neuralink only showed photos of a rat with a Neuralink connected via a USB-C port. It's still far from reality, but Musk said the US Food and Drug Administration in July granted approval for "breakthrough device" testing. Musk also showed a second-generation device that's more compact and that fits into a small cavity hollowed out of a hole in a skull. "It's like a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires," Musk said of the device. It communicates with brain cells with 1,024 thin electrodes that penetrate within brain cell.
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Elon Musk Shows Neuralink Brain Link Working In a Pig More

Elon Musk Shows Neuralink Brain Link Working In a Pig

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  • Hole in Your Skull (Score:3)

    by Kunedog ( 1033226 ) on Friday August 28, 2020 @07:39PM (#60451448)
    No doubt Fitbit appreciated the shoutout.

  • Just give me my Droud and a life support hookup and leave me there.

  • I know a few men for whom that should definitely work as well.
  • That pig had personality.

  • Elon Musk Shows Neuralink Brain Link Working In a Pig.

    So the next step is to place it in ALL pigs, and soon the entire population becomes automatically chipped, because: bacon. And thus the New World Order is born.

    • Elon Musk Shows Neuralink Brain Link Working In a Pig.

      So the next step is to place it in ALL pigs, and soon the entire population becomes automatically chipped, because: bacon. And thus the New World Order is born.

      It seems Elon Musk is a monocle and a Persian Cat away from becoming a James Bond villain.

      [disclosure: reworked joke by Dennis Miller]

  • ...for the president

    • So Biden can be fixed and is a viable candidate?

      • It's hilarious how threatened you are by Biden. You just can't utter a word without trying to shoehorn him into the conversation.

        • The anti-Trump zealots are the same way.

          • Trump is a real thing. Today. Biden is only a possibility.

            Which do you think is worth discussing?

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by aliquis ( 678370 )

          I'm Swedish.

          Why would I feel threatened by him? But it was clear the person meant Trump and Biden is the other guy. Biden seem to suffer from dementia or whatever, less mentally clear than you'd want any leader especially one for a country as important as the USA so. Hence fixed.

          • I'm Swedish.

            Why would I feel threatened by him?

            I don't know, why do you? And why do you claim you're Swedish? Who cares?

            In case you're looking for signs of dementia, here's a recent quote from Trump on a time frame for a vaccine:

            "We are working on treatments for this, you know it's bad, this virus, terrible, but the team is amazing,
            fantastic and the Vice President, and it's bad, but we will make it through this war, it is a war,
            terrible we are testing tests, and I have ordered the FDA to remove blocks, there are blocks, lots of
            blocks for medicine, treat

  • Dystopian Nightmare (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sgage ( 109086 ) on Friday August 28, 2020 @08:15PM (#60451526)

    Does no one else think this is a dystopian nightmare? Maybe they do, and that's why the sort of nervous jokey comments, because what can you honestly say?

    So, have a hollow ground out in your skull to put this stuff into, and forward into the Glorious Future!

    Who would submit to this?

    • I know, if China or NK or any of a number of other countries were doing this, there would be outrage. I'm sure the CIA is paying close attention. Water boarding, nope, brain implants, YES.

    • Re:Dystopian Nightmare (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Bruce Perens ( 3872 ) <bruce@perens.com> on Friday August 28, 2020 @08:40PM (#60451588) Homepage Journal

      Someone who broke their neck and was suffering from paralysis. You can control a chair or exoskeleton. People who can not hear today have cochlear implants, this is not all that different and might (eventually) work better. Or speak, or see. Other people who are disabled in various ways.

      • Re:Dystopian Nightmare (Score:5, Insightful)

        by sgage ( 109086 ) on Friday August 28, 2020 @08:49PM (#60451606)

        Good points - there are some potentially very useful applications of this technology.

        But opportunities for abuse are rife. Eternal vigilance, and all that.

      • This, a thousand times. Until we find remedies for those conditions, prosthetics controlled or interpreted by brain implants would improve the quality of life of many people.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Unfortunately that won't be happening any time soon. All they have managed to demonstrate is picking up a few electrical pulses from the pig's brain. No interpretation or understanding of what they mean, literally just a graph showing amplitude.

        Interpreting the data is the "easy" part too, actually injecting new signals that the brain can use is going to be much more difficult.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rei ( 128717 )

      As soon as it gains medical approval as an elective outpatient procedure, I'm definitely signing up.

    • The technology is awesome, but of course it can be abused. The real question is who controls it. If I do, fuck yeah sign me up. If it's like Oculus and requires a Facebook account? Fuck off.

    • > Does no one else think this is a dystopian nightmare?

      I'm not getting it and I don't have tattoos or piercings either.

      People are different.

      As a treatment for neurological conditions? Sure. But not everybody feels compelled to outrace AGI.

      I'm with Penrose, so I am not worried about imminent disaster if we teach them to have compassion.

    • That depends on what they can do with it.

      1,000 probes in a billion nueron brain isn't much.

      I will get scared if they can show actual brain memories. Until then I won't worry about it. As it will help those who have lost limbs

    • ... but in the real-world I would want solid security and fault-tolerance.

      I would totally get body enhancements if that were possible. Nanobot/nanite anit-aging, strengthened muscles, night-vision, etc. would be very neat. Count me in. However, I would only take brain enhancements as an add-on. Internal radio, neural interface for command entry and perhaps some top-notch brain hormone & transmitter regulator for persistent optimal brainpower. ... Imagine upping your IQ by 20 points, perpetually. So cool

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by piojo ( 995934 )

        perhaps some top-notch brain hormone & transmitter regulator for persistent optimal brainpower. ... Imagine upping your IQ by 20 points, perpetually.

        You can probably get about half of that just by manually regulating curiosity. The drive to engage with the subject you're learning is so much more significant than being a bit smarter. Incidentally, I don't believe regulating boredom would give the same boost. We can already regulate boredom with mental practices (with difficulty), and my perception was that doing so improved my engagement with knowledge-work, but to a lesser degree than curiosity improved my engagement with other knowledge-work. Unfortuna

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fazig ( 2909523 )
      I'd like to introduce you to the Science Fiction genre of Cyberpunk.

      Questions like these are central plot elements of the Cyber part in those stories. The Punk part usually includes mega corporations that run things from behind the curtains while governments are ineffectual and weak compared to the corporations.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by dpiven ( 518007 )

      Coming next year to theaters and streaming video: Michael Crichton's "The Terminal Labradoodle". Now THERE's your dystopian nightmare.

    • Go play some Deus Ex. Tell me what you think.

    • For what it's worth, Elon himself compared it to Black Mirror.
  • Didn't Brick Top warn of us of never trusting a man with a pig farm? :D

  • ... is thinking of a number. Can you guess what it is?

    1488! That's right!

  • Pretty cool design, but doesn't seem to be able to go below the cortex. The predictions made about limb position were very likely done with data from the primary motor cortex or premotor area, both very superficial and easy to access.

    A lot of promise with this to be sure, but all of the disorders he listed as potentially being targets for this (with the exception of some seizures, strokes, paralysis and tissue atrophy/loss) are whole-brain disorders (i.e. focal stimulation will only do so much), or requ

  • The problem is not getting electrodes in there and measuring something. The problem is getting electrodes in there that do not have to be removed again very soon after, but that keep working and do not cause problems. That problem is unsolved at this time. Unless and until it is solved, short-term viable stunts are all that can be done.

    • They claimed 2 months in the pig. Not ready for prime time, but not a bad start.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Actually, 2 months is completely pathetic. As this has been researched for decades, fast advances (or any advances) are not assured at all.

        • I agree that nothing's guaranteed. However, even if they don't wind up developing their brain-computer interface worthy of a sci fi novel, there might be advances. I think that they're trying for more flexible electrodes... could have benefits. The robot might find it's way into surgery eventually. Probably a lot better than inserting them by hand. If they can increase the number of electrodes safely inserted, that might have medical benefits as well.

          They don't have to knock it out of the park for this

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by gweihir ( 88907 )

            My point is that he neatly glosses over the real problem. Electrodes that keep for 2 months could have been done 30 years ago. Sure, on the signal-processing side there are some advances, mostly due to more computing power being available, but this is not going to be a product anytime soon. Yet it is presented as it had a real chance to go to market soon, and that is just a lie.

            The thing about Musk is that he has a very big mouth. Probably defective in some way and trying desperately to compensate.

    • yes, neuropozine is clearly the next step

      • The point of compliant "thread" electrodes is that they don't cause the inflammation that recruits the immune system that causes the scar tissue to build up in the first place.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by gweihir ( 88907 )

          The point of compliant "thread" electrodes is that they don't cause the inflammation that recruits the immune system that causes the scar tissue to build up in the first place.

          And what they have is 2 months. That could have done 30 years ago.

  • Wondering ... if somehow this neuralink enables inter species communication, the Italian pigs might be able to speak Pig Latin ....

  • How much brain damage does it cause to install it, and how long does it last before it breaks down?

    • It's designed to cause damage that rounds down to 'none' and last a lifetime, once the encapsulation technique is perfected. As of now, the encapsulation isn't fully ready. Also, they pull them out after a few months so they can see how the implants are holding up.

  • Imagine a foreign power hacking the brain of a top leader and making them impetuous, rude, arrogant, conspiratorial, and worship dictatorships.

  • ...The video of neuralink accurately predicting joint and limb positioning of a walking pig based on neuron activity shows how it could potentially interface with bionic limbs -- coordinated servomotors could move a robotic arm to the same position the brain thinks it should be in, allowing amputees to control an artificial arm or hand just as accurately and effortlessly as a real arm.

    Likewise, it could control a bionic exoskeleton (or even just a number of locally implanted 'signal repeaters' or nerve st
  • I found the presentation [youtube.com] very intriguing. At about minute 44 they are discussing fixing paraplegia caused by a damaged spinal cord by taking signals from the brain and forwarding them to a second implant to a place in the spine below where the injury happened. If this works (and it seems very plausible to me), couldn't they just take the wires to bridge the damaged area directly? The plasticity of the brain should allow making a connection again, even if the nerves are connected differently than they were b
  • Specs say all day battery life. Does this mean people have to sleep with a charge pad on their head?

  • Is Elon Musk going to be a real-life Hugh Darrow?

  • Now we have to get to the point where we can be sure to know what they think about things, so we can breed them to want to be eaten by us. Let's hope it won't take until the end of the universe to get there...
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Did they confirm that they correctly translated the meaning of the signals received from the pig's brain?

    Reminds me of those so-called cat- and dog- translator devices, that tell you what your pet is saying.

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