C_NCENTRATE 972: Brain computers, lifesaving digital twins, cultured bees, gen-zzzz, space bubbles, sound lasers +++
Focused on the emerging side of things; technologies, territories, tools, strategies and ideas. Written by TBD Group (intelligence products, advisory, and events).
INVISIBLE ADVANTAGE
Musk is a lot of things, but he’s got some wins under his belt with Tesla, Starlink and Neuralink; the company that wants to fuse brains with chips. This week there was a big demonstration that got a lot on tongues wagging…
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While Microsoft erased OpenAI’s biggest competitor this week (find out more on ‘What Did OpenAI Do This Week?’), famed Space Karen, Elon Musk was touting his latest success with Neuralink, the company that aims to make invisible (fully implantable) brain-computer interfaces that lets a person control a computer or mobile device anywhere they go.
Streaming live on X, Neuralink showed its first brain implant patient, a 29-year-old man paralysed from the shoulders down, playing online chess using the Neuralink device and controlling apps like Spotify just with thoughts from his brain. Extremely impressive. You can’t deny the joy in the patients voice or what this means for the less abled. While the patient admits the device is not perfect, the effect it has had on the quality of life just in testing is remarkable.
A more critical analysis reveals a complex picture. While, without doubt, there is a positive impact (restoration of function, independence increase, life improvement), and it’s impressive, there are drawbacks. Limited scope, basic cursor control, complex movements and natural interactions remain a ways off. Ethical considerations are the biggest issue. From hacking worries to who owns the data your brain produces, there are big questions ahead. Aside from the ethics, the issue of cost is massive. Technology like this could very easily exacerbate social inequalities. Expect a Netflix series on ‘mind terrorists’ next year.
While Neuralink's chess-playing patient is a scientific feat, it's just the opening move. A critical approach is necessary to navigate the ethical and societal complexities that lie ahead in the transhumanism debate.
Perhaps Alexia Bonatsos, American venture capitalist and former co-editor of TechCrunch puts it bets; “Tech can seem like a Pandora's Box at times. But when it gives a quadriplegic the power of movement back, you remember that hope was also in the box.”
SO WHAT?
__ DO __ Know this is amazing tech and incredibly complex. this will be refined to help millions and then billions. // __ DON’T __ Think this is the beginning of the tech augmented vs. non-augmented humans you see in sci-fi like Ghost in the Machine, know it is. People always want to extend themselves, capabilities, powers. Psychologically it’s about survival and advantaging the self, in the economic, capitalist realities we’ll all be living in, the more you are, the better you are in the eyes of mates, employers and the government.
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Do bees have culture?
Gen-Z is sick of remakes and that’s a problem. /7 mins
Meatable can now transform cultivated cells into sausages in a record four days. /3 mins
How to minimise loneliness of remote workers. /7 mins
E-waste growing at five times the rate of recycling, UN report finds. /4 mins
How your digital twin might just save your life. /34 mins
Affecting +39m, Scientists can now cut out HIV from cells. /5 mins
Sound lasers are narrower than other ‘phonon lasers’ and that’s a big deal. /4 mins
Space bubbles might just save Earth from itself. /5 mins
Self-driving cars are going to the next frontier - motorways. /5 mins
Are biopsies out? UK researchers diagnose bowel cancer without them. /3 mins
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