Musk isn’t the only tech billionaire wagering on the eventual transition of BCI from radical science experiment to flourishing medical business. In December, Synchron announced a $75 million financing round that included funding from the investment firms of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Madman Elon’s new brain chips “may bend your mind in strange and troubling ways”
Ya Think?
“Musk’s neurotech startup, Neuralink, has been working toward implanting its skull-embedded brain chip in a human since [under the pretext of doing good] it was founded in 2016. After years of testing on animal subjects, Musk announced in December that the company planned to initiate human trials within six months (though this wasn’t the first time he’d said these trials were on the horizon)…
Meanwhile,
“Across numerous interview studies, Gilbert has noticed patients report feelings of not recognizing themselves, or what is typically referred to as “estrangement” in the research. “They know that they are themselves, but it’s not like it was prior to the implantation,” he said. Some expressed feelings of having new capacities unrelated to their implants, such as a woman in her late 50s who hurt herself while attempting to lift a pool table she’d thought she could move on her own. While some estrangement could be beneficial — if it results in a healthy sense of self-esteem, for example — negative instances, known as deteriorative estrangement, can be quite vexing. “It has led to extreme cases where there has been attempted suicide,” Gilbert said…”
Catholic Critique 