Welcome Guys.
Today's technology is further most developed than compared to past 10 years. For this drastic change, Elon Musk is one of the reason. He developed and founded companies like Tesla Motors (Electric cars) and SpaceX (Fully reusable rockets). Now Elon also came up with Advanced Brain- Machine Interface called Neuralink which if completely implemented, speed ups our technology 10 times.
Today we are going discuss, what is Neuralink, why it is the ultimate change for our future world. It was started in 2016 and first publicly reported in March 2017 headquarters at San Fransisco. By July 2019, it received $158 Million in funds, (of which $100 Million from Elon).
After its founding, company has hired high profile neurologists all around the universities in the world. In simple words, Neuralink is nothing but a interface between today's digital world and our brain neurons. It is implantable brain-machine interfaces.
Neuralink - Merging Brain & Machine :
Neuralink is a device surgically implanted into our brains promising a device which is connected to the head using electrodes inserted in the brain. This insertion of electrodes into the brains require "sewing machine" like robots.
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| How the data transfer will take place on Neuralink |
The aim of Neuralink is to connect our thoughts to the computer, store our memory and also to acquire internet knowledge directly to the brain through the device.
How does Neuralink work :
Have you seen 7th Sense (Telugu Movie) or The Matrix (English Movie)?, In 7th sense, Aravind Learns Bodhi Dharma's scientific skills just undergoing surgery. Its just transfer of Memory from ancient Bodhi Dharma to Aravind.
Neuralink is not promising you to transfer Bodhi Dharm's Skills, but it will be able to send and receive electrical signals through your brain to control machines.
How Neuralink relates to brain?
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| Electrode next to Neurons and their Impulses. |
Our brain contains 2 systems namely limbic and cortex. The Limbic system deals with Emotions and Memory and the Cortex system deals with our thoughts, consciousness and also languages. We can say Neuralink as a 3rd system for brain which collects our memory and also we can control wireless devices using it.
How the Neurons in our brain works?
The information in our brain to sense organs and from our sense organs to our brain are sent through some thousands of neurons in the form of electric impulses or electrical signals. These signals form electric potential around them. For neuralink, the electrodes inserted in the brain receive these signals or potential differences.
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| Electrodes being inserted in the brain. |
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Comparison of the size of robot needle to that of a penny.
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How it works :
Elon in his Neuralink Presentation said that Brain is connected to a chip (via electrodes) just attached to the skull called N1 Chip. The treads (containing 192 electrodes each) are inserted (sized 4 to 6 μm - 1/10th of our hair) into the brain using a robotic sewing machine. The machine can insert 6 treads per minute.
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A casing that houses the wires & insulation for the module.
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There are 4 N1 chips in total attached to the skull connected with those inserted electrodes. N1 chips are in 4x4mm size. These N1 chips process the data of Electric impulses received by electrodes which are in analog form to digital binary form are send this to pod which is connect as shown above. Finally we can connect pod to our devices such as smart phones and also internet.
Why it is a Game changer?
The company already said that after installation of neuralink into your brain, you can control devices like your smartphone, computers and other basic electronic IoT. As said above, The Matrix or 7th Sense, If Neuralink comes true than Telepathy happens in real life.
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| The company will provide a dedicated app to learn skills. |
In an
interview, Elon Musk said that the device will also be able to help regain someone’s eyesight even if they have lost their optic nerve. He said that this technology will be able to fix anything wrong with the brain.
Musk also added that Neuralink can also be used to restore memory, speech and movement of a paralysed person. Neuralink may be the bridge that connects human beings to the next level of artificial intelligence.
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Neuralink test done on rat.
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As of now, the technology has not been tested on humans. It was tested on a rat and a monkey. Astonishingly, the monkey was able to control a computer with his brain during testing but a monkey brain never wrote a symphony.
I have a doubt, if the chip is linked to internet, then hackers might directly steal our brain data which leads to personal stress. Is there any way to prevent it?
***(All the images are taken from Elon Musk's Neuralink Presentation)***
Any queries, let me know down in the comments :)
