Columnists Can control computer mouse - just by thinking

Elon Musk  

Shall create superhumans - after the death of the apes  

Nicklas Hermansson  

Published 14.02   

Elon Musk wants to make us superhuman. Photo: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP  

Soon we can become real superhumans.  

But do we want it? 

Elon Musk's most fabled company has operated on a chip in its brain a human who is already allegedly able to touch a computer mouse just by think. 

In April 2021, Neuralink releases a video of a nine-year-old American playing television- the game "Pong". Nothing strange about that. We love to look at others who scopes. But this video is not like others. It spreads like wildfire, because Pager is a monkey. And he doesn't use his hands to play. He controls the cursor only by thinking, because he has a chip implanted in him the brain. In order to stay in front of the screen, he is fed a smoothie through a pipe.  

Pager was not alone. Neuralink had more monkeys. But now they are dead. Investigations show that they died under torture-like forms, but Elon Musk denies that it was the chip's fault and claims that the monkeys did not suffer from his experiment. We may never know what is true. Elon Musk may be obsessed with being the main character of the internet, but when it comes to his biotech startup, he prefers to work behind closed doors. Which becomes especially problematic when he has received the thumbs up from the authorities to operate chips in people as well.  

In May 2023 Neuralink got its application approved, in January Elon Musk tweeted that the first human experiment had begun and on Monday trumpeted he out that the subject can now control a computer mouse with the thought. About it true, we don't know, but we shouldn't be surprised. As long as I have lived we have done everything in our power to develop a "hands-free, pain-free" society. As early as 1963,brain researcher William Gray Walter connected a student's brain with the projector during class, so that the student could control the presentation through the power of thought.

Experiments with chips in animals and humans have been going on for decades and today there are several companies that can offer wireless brain chips. But Neuralink is said to have taken the technology to a new level. Their chip is more advanced, smaller and more secure (but not secure enough for Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to want to test the first version).

When Elon Musk has decided on something, it usually goes quickly. And this one time, he has decided to help humanity keep up with the artificial intelligence that has washed over us for the past year and now developing at record speed. Initially, the purpose of the brain chip has been to help people with disabilities to communicate, for example. But in an extremely short time, a power struggle has arisen between humans and robots over who will be the master of the road in the future. That's why Musk has far greater ambitions with his brain chips: he wants to help us become superhumans. Not just being able to write emails and play video games by thinking.

Exactly how remains to be seen, but if Musk's vision becomes a reality, we are facing a future where the lines between man and machine are blurred. Let me paint a world with cyborgs: what happens when we can communicate with other people directly through thought transference? And how does one work society where you can download knowledge directly to your brain in the same way as we download programs to our computers? Today I want to be able to talk Japanese. Tomorrow I have a master's degree in law. The learning would accelerated dramatically, which would most likely have led to both more and major breakthroughs within society's holy triangle: science, technology and philosophy.  

Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars in 2054 because he believes that the end of the war between humans and robots is highly uncertain. His space company Space X will take him there physically, but the solutions to the technical and biological ones the challenges he hopes Neuralink will be responsible for.

However, creating  superhumans is not completely risk-free. You can get brain damage and get hacked. Which can lead to extortion, identity theft and that your thoughts are manipulated. Another small detail that may be worth reflecting on is how the brain chip had affected the divides in society. To be able to afford a fine education is one thing. Being able to optimize one's intelligence in a second is one Other.