Everyone, or almost everyone, is talking today about Telepathy, the revolutionary hair-thin wireless chip successfully placed in the human brain by Neuralink, a company owned by South African-American billionaire Elon Musk.
Will the brains of earthlings one day be controlled by a computer, it seems that this is the possibility sought by the tycoon’s company with this first implant in a person who, according to Musk himself, is recovering well, although the identity of the patient is unknown.
The company claims that the objective for the moment with this trial is to connect human brains to computers and help in the treatment of complex neurological conditions, whether due to a heart attack or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which cause serious damage to the ability to communicate.
Musk, determined to promote future technologies, has ventured into fields as diverse as space exploration or the control of brain activity, to which Neuralink is dedicated.
«Initial results show promising neural spike detection,» said the entrepreneur in his X account, but questions arise since the details of the study have not yet been published in any scientific journal.
For the man who wants to change the world, who thinks: «we should have already built a permanent base on the Moon and on Mars» or who wants to build his own city to his own taste and size, the small piece would have other non-medical applications.
In addition to «developing a brain interface to restore autonomy to those who today have medical needs», it could also «unlock the human potential of tomorrow».
Last year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized this human study, but there is no shortage of skeptics and critics.
Musk’s controversial brain implant company was denounced by a non-profit organization based in the capital, called the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
The group held Musk accountable before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the agony and death of 12 primates used in the research that developed the implants.
Musk, 52, founder of Tesla, SpaceX, SolarCity and now CEO and owner of the social network X (formerly Twitter), is currently considered the richest person in the world and simultaneously runs six companies.