Since our elementary school, we all have learnt about the five senses. However, with the recent discovery of Elon Musk’s Neuralink, you get a glimpse of the sixth sense that will be responsible for quite a different future for mankind. The company finally unveiled a controversial brain chip interface on July 17, 2019, in a YouTube live stream.
With this progressive update, the startup company Neuralink introduces a brain-machine interface technology to the world whose main objective is to address neurological injuries and diseases, and however, it directly links human brains to the internet. This device is supposedly allowing people to control computers as well as other devices with their minds, but it’s still not tested in human patients.
Before delving more into this interesting topic of the role of Neuralink in revolutionizing the future of healthcare, let’s us go through a quick overview of what is Neuralink and its purpose.
What is Neuralink all about?
Neuralink is a device that was being primarily used to help persons suffering from paralysis and other disabilities with simple tasks like clicking on the mouse of a computer and using an iPhone and so on. So far, the prototypes of this device have been tested on rodents, apparently a monkey.
During Neuralink’s debut, Elon Musk described it in an interesting manner as threads, usually thinner than human hair, that are going to be mechanically inserted into the brain via skull holes with the help of a laser that yet not exists. According to the Neuralink’s owner, there is a lesser possibility of the threads causing any internal damage; however, it will be able to transmit far more information than any other implants that allow the people with physical defects to interact with computers.
In an announcement, Musk also clarifies that with Neuralink the host brain will “achieve a symbiosis with artificial intelligence.” If the technology successfully delivers its promise, then radically it will transform the lies of humans with paralysis and other disabilities. The implementation of computer chips in human brains has brought a lot of changes to the future of IoT in healthcare.
Neuralink will take a while to deliver its promise of linking the brain with computers
This neuroscience technology company, founded in 2016, was primarily focused on forming systems with the help of super-thin threads that carry electrodes. When these threads are implanted into a brain, it will build a high-capacity channel that will help the computer in communicating with the brain.
This system is supposed to be much heftier than other prevailing brain-machine interfaces being researched. One of the major problems that will arise while inserting these incredibly thin wires is to pass them through the skull and into the brain. As Neuralink wants to makes the installation of these wires quite easy, the company is also developing a small robot that will help in connecting the humans to electrodes through the medium of surgery.
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Purpose of Introducing Neuralink Technology in the Healthcare Industry:
This technology was first intended to test on people who are suffering from tetraplegia or quadriplegia. These people usually lost the motor functionality of walking or lifting things. If Neuralink’s brain-machine interface technology works well, then it could allow people to enhance as well as preserve their brains, however, it would also help them in creating a well-aligned future. As stated by Musk, this technology can even be more dangerous and powerful than nuclear weapons.
Well, after knowing so much about this brain-machine interface, you must exactly want to know what this technology exactly entails. These embedded ‘threads’ developed by Neuralink comes with the ability to boost cognitive capabilities. There are chances that it could possibly be a remedy for those persons who face issues in movement, sight, or speech due to the hindrance of any illness or injury by forming a metaphorical bridge between a prosthetic limb and the brain. This technology serves more a sort of telepathy with the capability to bypass any such limitations currently being imposed by our bodies.
Therefore, it can be stated that this Neuralink device will come as a savior to those paraplegic people with spinal strokes an injuries; also to those who are suffering from different sorts of brain memory disorders, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and who are unable to perform usual motor and sensory functionalities. If this technology proves successful, there is a possibility of getting back the eyesight as well as hearing capability that are usually caused due to neural damage.
In addition to these medical benefits, if you look from the commercial point of view, then also there are a lot of improvements that it would supposedly come along with. This technology promotes literal communication with persons as well as with machines without moving the limbs or opening mouth. Though this might take a long time to happen, Elon Musk has predicted a kind of app store in the future that will include various programs that will make use of this technology.
Final Thoughts
Neuralink and the technology that they are currently working on could bring a revolutionary change in the history of human evolution. The main purpose of Neuralink is to combine both man and machine and create something more powerful and rigid than either of them alone. Primarily, the application of technology focuses on helping people in restoring their lost functions. This could be done by allowing people to control computers with the help of their brains.
Future predictions have been made that the application can grow extensively and there is a possibility that it might encircle areas that have been earlier reserved for telepathy and all. In spite of the fact that technology sounds promising, it has its limitations. For instance, the technology proves successful when tested on animals like monkeys and rats, but the result might not seem to be synonymous with humans as their neurological systems are more complex. Also, the brains of humans consist of a salty fluid which might cause damage to the threads or it might also lead to consequences that are exceptionally dangerous.
