Neuralink, Elon Musk's brain-computer interface (BCI) startup, is in the midst of its second human trial. The news was announced during an episode of the Lex Fridman podcast, wherein Musk unceremoniously revealed that the second human trial was successful: ' So far, so good.' Musk said the second implant was functioning correctly with about 400 electrodes 'providing signals.'

Neural Ink's Brain-Computer Interface

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are electronic devices that allow humans to communicate with computers using their thoughts. While this might sound like science fiction, BCIs have been around for decades.

The principle behind them is simple: your brain's activity produces an electrical signal that a machine can measure. Just like an FM radio can be tuned to interpret specific FM signals as distinct broadcasts, a computer can interpret different electrical signals as distinct commands.

A BCI is merely the device that measures and transmits the signals. Some are worn externally, and others, like Neuralink's, are surgically implanted.

Neuralink's first patient, Noland Arbaugh, has given numerous testimonials claiming that the device changed his life. Arbaugh was paralyzed in a diving accident and lost the use of his limbs.

Since his experimental implant procedure, he's been able to control computer interfaces such as mouse pointers to play video games, send text messages, and surf the web using only his thoughts.

Superpowers?

Musk also told Fridman that Neuralink would give humans exceptional abilities beyond allowing them to operate simple computer interfaces with their thoughts. 'Let's give people superpowers,' the billionaire quipped.

According to Musk, Neuralink will allow humans to have thermal vision, eagle vision, and even restore blindness. He also said it could cure several diseases and heal some neurological disorders.

Musk also opined that people would find traditional interaction with humans and computers 'agonizingly slow' after using the implant to communicate 'faster than any human can communicate by typing or speaking.'

While the general idea is that faster is better, introductory sociology disagrees. Elephants, for example, purportedly use about 70 different trumpet sounds and around 140 visual and tactile signals, expressions, and gestures. Compared to humans, that's incredibly efficient.

The average person knows about 27,000 lemmas (word derivations) and innumerable non-verbal signals. Elephants are more efficient but need to write literature or scientific papers.

Furthermore, there's more to human communication than just words and images. Research shows that, on average, our brains process body language and expressions faster than written or verbal communication. Ultimately, humans can only communicate at the speed of thought.

However, Musk also suggested during the podcast that humans will somehow be able to meld with AI systems using Neuralink to expand their brains' capabilities in the future. We were unable to find any scientific research to support this idea.

A paper published in 2019 hypothesizes a far-future technology called 'neuralnanorobotics' theorized to be capable of directly monitoring the brain's '86 × 10^9 neurons and ∼2 × 10^14 synapses.' However, the timeline for such technology could be decades or even centuries away.