Elon Musk is everywhere. He’s below us with his plans for high-speed, underground car transportation; he’s above us in SpaceX rockets; he’s among us with highly sought-after Tesla cars; now he’s trying to get in our heads.
On July 16, Musk introduced his latest company, Neuralink, a medical and tech company committed to creating a brain implant that will help treat brain disorders, preserve and enhance the brain and…you might want to sit down for this one…communicate through Bluetooth with your smartphone and other technologies for telepathic control.
If you watch the beginning of the Neuralink Launch Event’s intro video, you’ll see scientists working in a lab to create a brain chip that looks like something R2D2 just ejected. So far, it seems like a run of the mill techy startup promo videos—vague tech B-roll with computers and wires connecting to other computers and wires. Until we’re confronted with gloved doctors wearing surgical masks, holding those scissors with the curved end whose purpose seems to be 90 percent to scare the public and 10 percent to actually perform surgeries.
That’s when you realize the surgeons are mid-brain surgery. A robotic apparatus picks up a brain chip and plunges behind the cloth barrier that saves us from seeing the supposed brain. If we’re taking cues from the gloriously climaxing music, we should feel inspired by the idea of this innovation.
However, most people feel threatened by mind control…even if it’s accompanied by awe and an awesome soundtrack. In the rest of the video, Musk explains the purpose of his brain infiltration startup and how he’s working towards recruiting the top minds in the med-tech industry to come work for him.
This technology will arrive in the near future
Although the launch event was just an introduction to the idea of a brain chip, the technology is not far away. We already have external technology that reads minds. Tan Le, founder of Emotiv and BigSpeak exclusive keynote speaker, created a noninvasive headset that allows users to control objects with their thoughts. The big difference being you don’t have to undergo brain surgery and when you remove the headset your thoughts are your own.
What this means for your data
A brain implant is forever. Or at least until you want to go through brain surgery again. This permanent fixture becomes a part of you and unfortunately for you, someone else owns it. In this case, it would be Elon Musk, Neuralink and whoever they decide to sell your data to.
Nowadays, data is the most valuable resource in the world. For almost a decade it’s been clear data is the new oil, as the biggest tech companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft shift their focuses to mining data and using it in almost every aspect of the business.
There are still privacy and trust issues with the data we give through social media and online work and shopping. Imagine the kind of data that will be mined from a device that knows your every thought. No more guess-work for companies and no more secrets for you.
There will be trade-offs. Obviously, the perks of mind control are plenty—instant communication with devices, no need to make a shopping list or even go to the store (that kale salad your craving will be at your door any minute now), and possibly even telepathy with other humans.
Not to mention, the leaps and bounds that will further our understanding and prevention of diseases. Would you trade the privacy of your mind for early disease detection and a few more years of life?
There’s a lot to think about with Musk’s announcement of Neuralink. Whatever the future holds, it’s clear this technology brings with it a whole new territory of ownership—the mind.
