An investigation by Wired reveals the grisly complications of Neuralink brain implants in monkeys, including brain swelling and paralysis.
An investigation by Wired reveals the grisly complications of Neuralink brain implants in monkeys, including brain swelling and paralysis.
Neuralink is doing important research and their product has the potential to really help disabled people. Musk shouldn’t gloss over what happened to the test animals, he should say the truth which is, doing neuro surgery on anything and preventing complications is extremely difficult. My dad could benefit from this type of product and it’s offensive to hear people accuse Neuralink of taking advantage of disabled people like they are unable to make rational choices. There already are orgs and companies putting similar wired brain implants into human subjects. It is the job of regulators to ensure they are ready to take that step, regardless of what Musk says or does. We should put our Musk hate aside and be happy the science is being advanced and could do some good for people that really need it.
I think it’s less Musk hate/taking advantage of disabled people and more the abuse and misconduct when it came to these animals, and putting the fear into people that would ever be interested in this procedure that Neuralink would be extremely negligent when it came to installing and maintaining these devices.
Musk has said that these animals were extremely unwell/close to death when they were initially inducted into the study, but multiple anonymous employees have come forward stating that this isn’t true, and Neuralink had extensive evaluation and training to ready them for the process.
Regardless of the state of their health or amount of training, multiple test subjects had bleeding of the brain, infections, and damaged caused by them picking/pulling at the devices installed onto them as a result of the negligence of the ones who conducted these experiments. Is it not common sense to assume an animal who has no idea of what is happening to them to understand that they need to leave the device alone? There should have been measures taken to prevent them from prodding at these devices so as not to cause damage to them and subsequent injury and infection. These animals are living, breathing, conscious beings that have thoughts and fears, and being a part of this experiment would be an absolute nightmare for any living being capable of thought.
As for installing these devices on people who suffer from paralysis, if the people involved in the trials are not challenged mentally and can make the fully conscious decision to give Neuralink their consent, then nobody can argue with that regardless of the possible dangers of doing so. The science and technology of brain computer interfaces is not something to be ignored. It can be extremely valuable and could quite literally change the world, but it has to be done correctly and with extreme caution.