Elon Musk presents his plan to insert threads into the human brain

Posted on Wednesday, July 17 2019 @ 10:00 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
It's been over two years since Wait But Why published an insightful piece about Neuralink, an Elon Musk startup that aims to enhance the human brain. It's been pretty quiet about this company but that just changed as Elon Musk held a press conference to bang the drums about his plan to use a robot to automatically insert thousands of 4 to 6 micrometers thick "threads" into the human brain, to create a brain-machine interface.
On Tuesday evening, Neuralink, a company in which Mr. Musk has invested $100 million, detailed the baby steps it has taken toward that goal. Neuralink described a “sewing machine-like” robot that can implant ultrathin threads deep into the brain. The company is hoping to begin working with human subjects as soon as the second quarter of next year.
NY Times has more coverage over here and there's also a piece at ARS Technica. In the short-term, the goal is to help people with certain disabilities. Over the longer term, Neuralink's ambitions are much greater. Besides informing science enthousiasts about the company's progress, one of the main goals of yesterday's press conference was to hire more talent to work at the company.



About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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