Let’s talk about Mind control!!

LSD. Mescaline. Nazis. Communists. Cults. CIA. Korean War conscripts. Manchurian Candidates.

No, not that! We’re not talking about nefarious forces controlling your mind. We’re talking about the mind doing the controlling. That is, controlling a computer from your mind, without moving or touching or speaking anything.

Telekinesis! For real!

If you’ve read THE GARBAGE MAN, you’ll know that this kind of mind control is one of my fascinations and obsessions. It’s very cool. But made up, right?

Not so fast!

Telekinesis is  here today via something called a Brain-Computer Interface. BCI for short. BCIs determines functional intent — the desire to change, move, control, or interact with something in your environment — directly, and only, from brain activity. Currently, the most promising BCIs are implanted directly in the brain. Electrodes relay commands to an application or a device. The early adopters are paralyzed individuals who have, through BCIs, gained the ability to control a computer cursor and perform any function capable therein: opening and writing emails, texting, social media, playing video games, even producing speech.

In summary, these chips translate brain waves into imagined movements (“clicking a mouse”) and send a command wirelessly to a computer. The computer receives and executes this command (“Click”)

Right now, there are 25 clinical trials of BCI neuroprostheses (cool new vocab word) underway from three main companies: Neuralink, backed by the world’s richest person, Elon Musk; New York–based Synchron; and China’s Neuracle Neuroscience.

The Neuralink solution is one single implantable device and an application to execute commands.

 

Synchron’s approach differs from Neuralink’s. Instead of one implant deep in the brain tissue. Synchron’s product has one on-brain (but not in-brain) impant and one spinal implant. I interpret this idea as accepting more surgeries but significantly less complex surgeries. For example, they note that their implants do not require open brain surgery (that is, going inside the brain), unlike Neuralink’s, but reside both on the brain and in the spinal cord.

I could not find too much information on Neuracle Neuroscience – their website seems to suggest a parts supplier, but they may be in stealth mode.

Neuralink, Synchron and Neuracle Neuroscience have together implanted 35 people with their products. My understanding is that these early adopters have paralysis due to disease (ALS, for example), strokes, or accidents. There is a great article from The Guardian, linked below, on Nolan Arbaugh. Mr. Arbaugh was the first person Neuralink implanted with a chip. Paralyzed in a swimming accident in 2016, he can now take charge of certain tasks thanks to his implant.

In summary, I can definitely imagine how this field will develop in the future. In fact I wrote about it! Read THE GARBAGE MAN to glimpse my (probably bonkers, but maybe not?) vision.

Next time:

Garbage-eating bacteria: bona fide bugs or bogus bacilli?

May your Kindle forever have a full charge and your paper cuts heal in split seconds!

XoXo,

Tessa

Further Reading:

“Elon Musk put a chip in this paralyzed man’s brain. Now he can move things with his mind. Should we be amazed – or terrified?”
The Guardian
READ

“Brain Computer Interface takes first place in MIT’s “Breakthrough Technologies” Competition”
MIT Technology Review
READ

“A stroke survivor speaks again with the help of an experimental brain-computer implant”
AP News
READ

“Brain-to-voice neuroprosthesis restores naturalistic speech”
UC Berkeley
READ