It was’t long ago when Elon Musk said that we live in a ‘computer simulation’… but now he’s making that feasible!
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk wants to merge man and machine with a new start-up planning to develop the futuristic ‘brain implant’ technology.
The Tesla and SpaceX founder has just launched Neuralink, with the eventual aim of connecting human brains directly with computers.
Neuralink wants to develop so-called “neural lace” technology to implant tiny brain electrodes that may one day upload and download thoughts, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
He tweeted that more details about Neuralink would be published soon in Wait But Why, admitting it would be “difficult to dedicate the time” to the project, but added that the “existential risk is too high not to.”
The company will initially focus on “medical research”, with the aim of developing electrode technology to treat chronic medical conditions.
He plans on funding the company mostly by himself, a person briefed on the plans told the Journal, and with Neuralink hiring leading academics in the field ahead of its official launch.
Musk has previously called the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) humanity’s “biggest existential threat”, but believes nanobot brain implants is a viable solution to machines rising up against humans.
“I think if we can effectively merge with AI by improving the neural link between the cortex and your digital extension of yourself, which already exists but just has a bandwidth issue, then effectively, you become an AI-human symbiote,” he told the Y-Combinator start-up incubator last year.
“And if that then is widespread, and anyone who wants it can have it, then we solve the control problem as well.
“We don’t have to worry about some evil dictator AI because we are the AI collectively. That seems like the best outcome I can think of.”
Futurists like Google executive Ray Kurzweil predict humans and AI will merge in an event known as ‘the singularity’ by 2045.
He believes super human cyborgs with nanobot implants in their brains will be funnier, sexier and smarter than humans today.
Researchers from HRL Laboratories, based in California, say feeding knowledge directly into your brain, just like in sci-fi classic The Matrix, could soon take as much effort as falling asleep.
Originally published on The Telegraph
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