Could Neuralink lead to technological singularity?

Neuralink, according to Elon Musk, could be the next step in human evolution. The company's Neural Lace technology could help prevent the potential harms of AI for humanity and could even trigger technological uniqueness.

In the following article, we will try to unveil this secret venture and see what technology hopes to achieve. Welcome to the future of humanity!

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What will Neuralink do?

Neuralink is a neurotechnology company that creates a tool to connect the human brain to computers without the need for a physical connection. Society, formed by none other than Elon Musk, hopes to create a new way of interfacing with technology in the not too distant future.

The Neuralink project started in 2016 and has made significant progress in achieving its goal. Once completed, the technology will allow users to have a high bandwidth interface with computers.

The short-term goal of the company is to help treat people with serious brain diseases. They also want to help anyone with serious brain damage caused by a stroke or other debilitating neurological disorder.

In the longer term, Neuralink hopes to use this technology to improve the human in general.

The inspiration behind society was a science fiction concept called NEural Lace. This formed part from the fictional universe of the Scottish author Iain M. Banksseries of novels Culture.

This science fiction series takes place in a futuristic interstellar "utopia". In this universe, all members of society live in a so-called post-rarity civilization where humans, extraterrestrials and advanced AI cohabit in harmony.

How does Neuralink work?

It is hoped that Neuralink will work by implanting tiny electrodes into the patient's brain. This is done in order to connect human brains with computers without the need for any other physical connection.

Each brain-computer interface (BCI) will likely be much more than a simple way to control the streaming service you use. Once fully developed, it could be used to communicate with loved ones, conduct research on the Internet and interact directly with artificial intelligence.

It could even replace your television by broadcasting content directly to your brain.

Of course, this type of feature is not yet achieved, but the potential of this technology is immense. Who knows, we may be able to download some "skills" a bit like Neo in Matrix in the future.

Currently, our understanding of the brain is still quite limited. Although we have collected a lot of information about the elements responsible for memory or engine operation, for example, there is still a lot of mystery.

However, with regard to BCI, we know which parts of the brain are responsible for limb movement, which parts receive body stimuli, and so on. robotic arms.

The only normal nerve in the brain to move a limb is through the BCI to a computer. This, in turn, translates the command and moves a robotic arm accordingly.

This sounds pretty simple, but what's amazing with this technology is that it can also be used to transmit signals to the brain. But this remains purely theoretical at the moment.

This should be possible, but we are far from achieving this goal for most sensory information. However, the ability to transmit signals to the nerves of the cochlea to allow the deaf and hard of hearing to hear again has evolved.

Cochlear implants have been around for a while and have changed the lives of many patients with severe hearing loss.

There are also BCIs, called deep brain stimulation devices, that currently exist. These devices send electrical signals directly into the brain, but they are not yet at the stage of being true nerve signals.

For people with Parkinson's disease, deep brain stimulation is the main form of treatment to relieve symptoms.

Technology is still in its infancy (and it is relatively rudimentary) but we are moving in the right direction. Neuralink, on the other hand, promises to be a very different beast.

The company does have a website, but very limited information beyond current job openings is very thin on the ground. But, if Elon Musk's comments are relevant, we could be very close to reaching them.

According to Elon Musk, without the Neural Lace technology, humans would be unable to keep pace with rapid advances in artificial intelligence.

What is Neural Lace?

The main goal of Neuralink is to develop something called Neural Lace. It will be a brain for computer interface technology that hopefully will allow humans to track the rapid development of AI.

Neural Lace is actually an ultra-thin mesh implanted in the skull and forming a body of electrodes able to monitor the functioning of the human brain. Once achieved, this will help increase human intelligence to keep pace with AI.

According to Elon Musk, brain-machine interfaces (B2Ms) are an important part of the future of our species. Elon is no stranger to expressing openly his concern about the potential impact of artificial intelligence on humanity in the future.

Neuralink strives to reduce disaster risk find a way to increase human intelligence to match that of future artificial intelligence programs, or superintelligences.

If this is done, it will probably trigger something called the technicality of simplicity. It could be just the next step in human evolution.

How much is Neuralink worth?

According to Busines Insider, Elon Musk managed to raise $ 27 million in 2017 for Neuralink. At that time, the company was only about a year old.

"Neuralink has sold $ 27 million equity on a total supply of 100 million dollars, according to a document released by the SEC on Friday. The form lists 12 unidentified investors and indicates that the shares were sold for the first time on August 15, 2017. "- Business Insider.

But it was recently reported that they had been able to raise another issue $ 39 million in investment.

But we do not know who made this investment beyond the president of Musk and Neutralink, Jared Birchall. Musk himself, at the time, even tweeted that "Neuralink is not looking for investors".

For this reason, unlike its other company Tesla, you can not invest with Neuralink in the stock market. It is likely that this company will remain a private and non-public company for some time to come.

The company was established in the summer of 2016 and since then, it keeps his cards against his chest.

The general public outside the very small group of insiders had to rely on Musk's regularly enticing comments about the company. Musk has described the need to create a "neural lace" device capable of supercharging the human brain.

He also said that such a device would help people fight against the existential threats of AI. Such a device would also allow humans to engage in what he calls "consensual telepathy".

Neuralink is Musk's fourth company. He is also CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and OpenAI, a not-for-profit artificial intelligence research company. He also runs a tunnel startup called The Boring Company.