Remember when Elon Musk said humankind would have to somehow merge with machines if we want to stay relevant in the face of the inevitable war between us and our robot overlords? He wasn’t kidding, and he’s formed a new company dedicated to figuring out how to do just that.
Somewhere in between electric cars, solar roofs, and space colonization, Musk has launched yet another company: Neuralink Corp. will pursue a technology he calls “neural lace,” reports The Wall Street Journal, citing insider sources.
That tech involves embedding little electrodes in a human brain that could eventually upload and download thoughts, which is not at all creepy and we can’t see how such a process could possibly lead to any kind of mass-scale human slaughter.
At first, however, the new company has plans to develop cranial computers in order to do things like treating epilepsy or major depression, the insiders say.
While Musk didn’t respond to the WSJ’s request for comment, a person who says he’s “a member of the founding team” confirmed the company’s existence and the fact that Musk is involved.
In February, Musk said we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence.
“It’s mostly about the bandwidth, the speed of the connection between your brain and the digital version of yourself, particularly output,” he added, explaining that while computers can communicate “a trillion bits per second,” we flesh bags can only go at about 10 bits per second by typing.
“Some high bandwidth interface to the brain will be something that helps achieve a symbiosis between human and machine intelligence and maybe solves the control problem and the usefulness problem,” he said at the time.
Musk has yet to make any official announcement regarding Neuralink, but the WSJ notes that the company was registered as a “medical research” company in California last July.
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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