Hi, Cho!

Hi Manuel   😀😀                                                                           

So I’ve done some reading on the Neuralink and I think I understand better what you are getting at

About the possible applications                                                 

Yes, it is meant as targeted medical device for spinal cord injuries first and foremost, the rest …

… is still futuristic  🤨                                                                    

But still, it would be possible in principle, right?

What would?                                                                                   

Besides movement, restore senses and stuff like that

Well, maybe, depending on whether we can pinpoint the relevant brain area’s and the systems scale

Maybe?   😰

Remember that the neuralink itself isn’t a finished product yet, and no human trials have taken place

Right. But the science is sound 🖖

We understand the brain better and better, but there still is a lot to discover. I can’t exclude the possibility, but …

Again with the “but”! 🥺🥺

Hey, it’s my job to think critically about this stuff and whether it makes sense

Mostly, I don’t think the technology is there yet, and I don’t know if it will ever be

So uploading and downloading your consciousness …?

… is still science-fiction. Even a working neuralink would not have those capabilities

OK, that’s useful info. I’m nearly done with my story. There’s one more thing I want to check

Sure, see you later…  ☺️☺️☺️                                                              

Hi Cho, have you seen Elon Musk’s announcement?

Any comments on the neuralink?

Hi Manuel, yes I did, I found it quite amusing                           

Amusing? Amazing! He called it “A fitbit in your brain”! Don’t you think it is a major breakthrough?

Well, in some respects. It is smaller and receives more signals, but a lot of his claims are overblown.

What do you mean? It can read a thousand neurons, that’s ten times better than what we have now!

Sure, but to help a paraplegic patient, we likely need to read amillion, so it needs to be at least thousand times better.

Ah, I see. But still, isn’t that amazing, that we can read and write brain signals wirelessly now?

Sure, it is very practical to be able to do so live and wirelessly, instead of with cables or antenna sticking out of your skull …

I feel like you’re going to say “but …” now … 🥺

Indeed! We still need a lot of work to interpret the data, to understand what it means

And I’m not so sure about the “writing” part…                                         

Musk said we could save and replay memories one day!

Maybe in a hundred years, not with this device, and not with our current understanding of the brain

Why not? What’s the problem?  😨

We don’t know how brain activity causes mental processes.
We might be able to correlate neurons firing with limbs moving, but memories are far more complex

It would need even more channels, like, billions?

Not just that, but we don’t know which ones.                                     

It is not likely that something as complex as a memory would be localized in on small area of the brain…

OK, thanks for the info. I’ll have to do some digging on my own and will come back to you!!

Sure, anytime!  ☺️☺️☺️