Today, we’re not just talking about any tech—oh no, we’re diving into Elon Musk’s Neuralink. And boy, does this one hit a little close to home for all the anime fans out there, especially those who know the story of Ed and Al from Fullmetal Alchemist.
So, sit tight because we’re about to explore how sci-fi is turning into sci-fact, and whether that’s something to celebrate—or fear. Let’s get into it.
(Read my other blog post about Logitech’s “Forever Mouse” concept)
Neuralink’s Human Trials 2024
So, Elon Musk and his merry band of innovators have taken the leap—twice now, actually—into implanting their brain-machine interface, Neuralink, into humans. Yep, they’ve gone and done it again.
The first implant, well, it didn’t go exactly as planned.
As Musk himself explained, ‘The wires on the first implant retracted, resulting in fewer electrodes that could measure brain signals.’
Basically, the first go-around was more like Ed and Al’s first alchemy experiment—a lot of ambition, but the results were less than perfect.
But hey, if at first you don’t succeed, try again, right? And that’s exactly what they did.
Elon Musk’s interview with Lex Fridman
During a chat with Lex Fridman, Musk gave us the lowdown on their second attempt.
This time, things are looking up. ‘I don’t want to jinx it,‘ Musk said, ‘but it seems to have gone extremely well with the second implant. There’s a lot of signal, a lot of electrodes.’
They’ve got 400 electrodes firing off signals, which, in layman’s terms, means they’re getting a clearer picture of what’s happening inside the human brain.
And if all goes well, they could have up to 10 more implants by the end of this year.
Now, I’m no alchemist, but something about experimenting on human brains feels a little too much like trying to bring Mom back from the dead, if you catch my drift.
There’s a lot of optimism here, and hey, we’re all for pushing boundaries, but what happens when those boundaries push back?
Neuralink and Fullmetal Alchemist Comparison:
Let’s talk about Ed and Al from Fullmetal Alchemist for a second.
These guys wanted to achieve something extraordinary—something that seemed like a brilliant idea at the time. But what they didn’t fully grasp was the cost.
Musk is aiming for a future where we can upload our memories, communicate with AI, and maybe even restore lost senses like vision.
He mentioned, ‘Our second product is called Blindsight, which is to enable people who are completely blind, who’ve lost both eyes or optic nerve, to be able to see by directly triggering the neurons in the visual cortex.’
Incredible, right? But as we saw with Ed and Al, there’s always a trade-off.
The tech might work—heck, it might even revolutionize what it means to be human—but at what cost?
Are we ready to sacrifice parts of our humanity in exchange for a little more convenience or power?
It’s the classic alchemical equation: equivalent exchange.
The first brave soul to test drive Neuralink’s brain-computer interface was Noland Arbaugh from Yuma, Arizona—a guy who’s been paralyzed from the neck down since a diving accident back in 2016.
Thanks to this high-tech implant, Noland can now move a cursor across a computer screen with his thoughts alone, even playing games like a true digital warrior.
But here’s where the plot thickens.
About a month after getting the implant, 85% of those flexible threads—designed to record neural activity—decided to pack their bags and retract from his brain. This left the device’s functionality severely hampered.
Noland put it perfectly when he said, “It would’ve been a cruel twist of fate if I had gotten to see the view from the top of this mountain and then have it all come crashing down after a month.”
Neuralink’s engineers, clearly not the type to back down from a challenge, responded by overhauling the recording algorithm.
Instead of focusing on individual neuron activity, the new approach averages out signals from nearby neurons. Sure, this means the signals are lower in resolution, but hey, sometimes you’ve got to sacrifice a bit of detail for the sake of actually getting the thing to work.
Matthew MacDougall, Neuralink’s head of neurosurgery, jumped on a livestream on X (formerly known as Twitter) to spill some tea about what went wrong.
Apparently, the first surgery had created an air pocket that likely dislodged the electrodes. So, for round two, the surgical team tweaked the procedure—sculpting the hole in the skull differently to sit the hub lower and thread those tricky electrodes deeper into the brain.
Dr. Sameer Sheth chimed in, saying, “It’s not common to make so many changes between patients, but I think it’s good that you learn from the first one, and then you really make the second one better.”
Still, not everyone’s convinced.
Vikash Gilja from Paradromics, another player in the BCI game, pointed out a lingering issue: “The brain isn’t just chilling in one spot relative to the skull—it moves when you breathe, when you twitch, you name it.”
This constant movement might mess with those delicate electrode threads that are supposed to stay snug in the brain. Plus, there’s a big question mark around the long-term durability of Neuralink’s materials.
Other implants use metals with proven track records, but Neuralink’s new approach? That’s a gamble we’ll have to wait years—not months—to understand.
But Musk isn’t just thinking about the here and now. He’s dreaming big—like Fullmetal Alchemist big.
‘Neuralink’s ultimate goal,’ Musk says, ‘is a brain-computer interface that allows humans to enter symbiosis with artificial intelligence.’
Yep, you heard that right. He’s talking about a future where we’re not just using computers; we’re merging with them.
Now, Musk isn’t just stopping at restoration. He’s talking about augmenting humans, not just fixing what’s broken.
Think superhuman abilities, like communication speeds that make today’s texting look like ancient hieroglyphs.
Musk said: ‘Even with only roughly, I don’t know, 10, 15% of the electrodes working with Noland, our first patient, we were able to achieve a bit per second. That’s twice the world record.’
He went on to speculate that in the next five years, we could be looking at communication speeds of up to a megabit per second—faster than any human could possibly communicate by typing or speaking.
But let’s not forget, Ed and Al thought they had everything figured out—until they didn’t.
Sameer Sheth, a neurosurgeon at Baylor College of Medicine, wisely warns, treating conditions like psychosis, seizures, and memory loss is a much greater challenge than enabling people to move computer cursors with their minds.
Human augmentation demands careful discussion—just ask Ed and Al.
So, here we are, standing at the edge of a new frontier.
Neuralink is pushing the boundaries of what we thought was possible, just like Ed and Al did with alchemy.
The question is, are we repeating history, or are we genuinely stepping into a brighter future?
Musk seems to think we’re on the verge of something transformative: ‘If you can communicate clearly at 10, or 100, or 1,000 times faster than normal,’ he mused, ‘imagine what that would mean for human interaction.’
But as we’ve learned from our favorite alchemists, not all transformations lead to the outcomes we expect—or want. Could we end up regretting this leap into the unknown?
Thanks for tuning in, everyone!
And hey, let me know in the comments: would you sign up for a Neuralink implant, or are you staying far, far away?
Until next time, stay curious, stay cautious, and keep questioning. See you in the next one!
Sources:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02368-8
https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/5/24213512/neuralink-implanted-in-second-patient
https://lexfridman.com/elon-musk-and-neuralink-team-transcript#chapter30_neuralink_surgery