Neuralink Could Change The World

Elon Musk's Neuralink has been successfully implanted into a human and is working! A paralyzed man explains in this clip how he is moving the cursor on his computer. Jack has some other ideas for how this tech could be used...

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
One of the many things Elon Musk has got his
fingers into is the whole Neural Link project, trying to
figure out how to put something in your brain where
you can control computers. They've moved from monkeys to humans
now and here's the first human to have the neural
link thingy explaining how it works.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Why are you able to actually move the cursor. We
started out with a few trying out a few different
things what we call kind of differentiating like imagine movement
versus attempted movement. So a lot of what we started
out with was attempting to move. So I would attempt
to move, say my right hand, left, right, forward, back,

(00:40):
and from there, I think it just became intuitive for
me to start imagining the cursor moving. Basically, it was
like using the force on the cursor and I could
get it to move wherever I want to. Just stare
somewhere in the screen and it would move where I
wanted it to.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
I know people in the in the in the world
of this sort of thing to be vague, who are
shocked that Elon got the clearance to do this on
human beings. I'm sure glad he did, because I think
if there's anybody out there who wants to volunteer, let them.
The government should not get in the way of that.
But this guy, he volunteered and they got the neuralink

(01:21):
in his head, and he's talking about moving the cursor
on a computer screen like you're using the force. I'll
take his word for the fact that it works. I
just every time I think of this, I feel like
I'd be sitting there thinking, don't go left, that's going left.
I don't want to go left, go just going right,
don't go left, don't go left. I mean, just that's funny.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
It never across my mind, kind of.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Like me, don't think about a white elephant thing or whatever.
Just once he got it here, yeah, it would get
into your head and he's like, ah, still typed word.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Oh my gosh, sarch.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Port, are you searching port? I didn't want to search porn.
You're supposed to be working.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
Well to uh. To bring this back to a different approach,
I would say this could lead to miraculous improvements in
the quality of life for all sorts of people.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Oh yeah, heck yeah. And then does it go to
the level I assume it would where perfectly healthy people
get that in their heads so that you can run
your turn on your TV by sitting on the couch
or something more. You know, why the hell would I
want that to drive your car on the Internet of things.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
So the Internet of Things sucks. It's like your garage
door as a sensor and it opens the garage door
when you get within half a block. Yeah, because oh
my thumb, it hurts so bad to press that button.
Thank god, finally there's a sensor. No, none of that
stuff is important.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Well, my my Tesla is one one big giant computer software.
You run the whole thing with your brain. You're not
using your feet, your hands or nothing, drumming everything in
your brain or your computer sitting there at work or
everything you do. You just to.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
Safe wear and tear on your feet or what? What's
wrong with your feet? Is it somehow a trial for
you to use your feet?

Speaker 1 (03:14):
I don't know. I guess I just assumed that this
is what people want to be able to.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
So you get this immobile for the rest of your life.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
I don't get out, so you can type on your
computer while you're eating a sandwich.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
Oh, it's a beautiful dream you have there, a beautiful dream.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Things are getting wear No, they can't wear no.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
More having to put down your sandwich to type on
your computer.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Okay, well, maybe I'm having more trouble coming with practical
applications than I should. Video games, video games. There you go.
I could absolutely see that for video games or doctors.
You're performing surgery with both hands, and you're doing stuff
on the computer screen, moving the mouse around and clicking
on this. And then I think I may have actually
struck upon two examples. Yeah, well, i'll see where this

(04:02):
is going.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Although the whole sandwich typing thing was pretty compelling, Oh
my god, Armstrong and Getty