By: Nick Gambino
I never thought the day would come, but it looks as though Neuralink implanted a small electronic device in a human brain for the first time. That’s right, it was implanted. In. A. Human. Brain.
“The first human received an implant from Neuralink yesterday and is recovering well,” Neuralink owner, Elon Musk, said in an X post. “Initial results show promising neuron spike detection.”
The first human test subject has not been identified, but Musk did state that the little thing put in their brain is called Telepathy. We also know that Neuralink was looking for volunteers who are quadriplegic because they have ALS or injuries to their spinal cord. This kind of brain implant could allow those with quadriplegia to more easily interact with a fast tech world.
The goal is to have this little embedded device enable you to connect to your phone and other electronics wirelessly by way of your brain. I’m not sure it’ll be like the movies where you just think a thought and it reacts, but it might be the closest we’ll get to Professor X type stuff.
The promotional video which illustrates the Neuralink tech does state that you will be able to use your thoughts, a claim that Musk doubled down on. They intend to accomplish this by interpreting your neural activity so it can anticipate what you want. If they succeed, it might be faster than moving your body and fingers to interact with your phone or tablet.
Now, the implanted device is designed to not be visible on the outside. This is not going to be a sci-fi Ender’s Game situation where we’ll see metallic circles protruding out of someone’s body. The Neuralink device is about the circumference of a quarter, though with more depth, and features 64 threads spread out from its body to connect to the host’s brain.
I’m sure we’ll get an update in the next couple weeks as the first test subject begins to use their newly implanted Telepathy.
