Unfortunately I have been living under a rock recently.
Can someone please ELI5 it for me ?
From my limited knowledge of the matter:
- Elon Musk wants Neuralink (his product/company) to become an actual product that people can buy someday
- Testing has been done on monkeys and Elon wants human trials approved ASAP (might have already?)
- Researchers from Neuralink have since come out against human testing apparently due to the horrible inhumane conditions that the monkey trials had on their test subjects.
Everyone feel free to correct me on anything or elaborate. I just thought that a not so good answer is better than none.
The question for me which remains, is whether the monkeys at neuralink are undergoing a particularly bad treatment or if this is a symptom of generalized animal testing. Basically, is it any better at any other location where animal testing is done? Of course, in no way does this justify or defend any of the bad behavior, but I’m cautious because there sometimes seem to be unjustified focus on some places which get all the criticism while others keep doing what they do, free of any oversight, which is quite hypocritical.
No, no. It’s not about the lab conditions. Altho that may be a thing too. What they mean is that the product itself was causing brain damage to the monkeys and stuff like that. That makes human trials very dangerous
Iirc they didn’t actually make any progress in the field of neuroscience and all the neuroscientist quit long ago because Musk rushed everything.
From my understanding, human trials seem to already be approved by the FDA
ELI5: one of musks evil villain plans is to connect our brains to the internet in some kind of meaningful way (probably advertisements in your daydreams). He tested this on monkeys. There seems to be some disputes as to how horrifically these tests went. Musk is accused of underexaggerating these horrors. This underexaggerating seems to have landed his device in the next circle of FDA approved trials: humans.
It has been approved?!
It was approved specifically for people with paralysis, rather than all the other wild clickbait-intended claims Musk makes
The hope is that all this extra scrutiny around their testing record so far will make it so that the human trials are by the book and well documented. At the very least, that evidence isn’t destroyed this time
I think the word might be ‘understating’, since the ‘under’ and ‘exaggerate’ cancel out?
Wikipedia is also great for catching up on things one is behind on.
For example the section under heading “Animals testing and deaths” in the Neuralink article reads:
Neuralink tests their devices by surgically implanting them in the brains of live monkeys, pigs and other animals.[43] Neuralink’s methods have been criticized by groups such as PETA.[44] From 2017 to 2020, Neuralink’s experiments on monkeys were conducted in partnership with UC Davis. At the end of their partnership, UC Davis transferred seven monkeys to Neuralink. In 2022, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) alleged that Neuralink and UC Davis had mistreated several monkeys, subjecting them to psychological distress, extreme suffering, and chronic infections due to surgeries.[45] Experiments conducted by Neuralink and UC Davis have involved at least 23 monkeys, and the PCRM believes that 15 of those monkeys died or were euthanized as a result of the experiments. Furthermore, the PCRM alleged that UC Davis withheld photographic and video evidence of the mistreatment.[46]
In February 2022, Neuralink said that macaque monkeys died and were euthanized after experimentation, denying that any animal abuse had occurred.[47][48] Musk previously stated that Neuralink implants might be introduced by injecting them through the jugular vein, and not by opening the cranium (which Neuralink currently requires).[49] In December 2022, it was reported that Neuralink was under federal investigation by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) regarding animal welfare violations. Additionally, a report by Reuters cited claims from several Neuralink employees that testing was being rushed due to Musk’s demands for fast results, which was leading to needless suffering and deaths among the animals.[50][51] A September 2023 expose by Wired provided additional details on the primate deaths based on public records and confidential interviews with a former Neuralink employee and a current researcher at the California National Primate Research Center.[52][53]
Technology works, has for many years.
Even I’ve gotten the OCZ NIA to work and control my character’s movement in a video game
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_Impulse_ActuatorThe issue is a medical one.
Where I could spend a few hours(training) to get the NIA to work, it all goes out the window the moment you move it or take it off.
So the solution is to permanently implant the electrodes into the brain. (Even on the scalp will move over time, so that’s not an option)
But the issue with implants is infection and scar tissue formation.
They haven’t been able to solve the infection and scar tissue problem all these years, and Musk isnt’ doing any better with it. Even with nano wires.
Even Valve has been working on Brain-Computer interface for years.
IMO, they should give up on the permanent fixation, and look for some kind of reference point, and do a antenna re-alignment that can be calibrated every time you put it on.
I think that’s an important point here: there are legitimate medical uses and this technology can really help people with paralysis and other neurological issues.
The problem comes down to the company. Neuralink isn’t doing something super groundbreaking, and there are many other companies working on this. Companies with different methodology, ethical standards and practices.
Unlike some other tech, medical research isn’t something you rush through to get the results you want. It can be a really cool science, but going for the ‘cool’ delivery mechanism or procedure isn’t helpful.
If they can’t handle doing it correctly, they won’t get it done. Someone else will
The important thing to remember here is that there is always a risk-reward trade-off. No matter what you do, you’re always making a choice, and doing nothing is also bad for you.
It’s one thing to open up the skull to give a locked in individual a much greater quality of life.
It’s a completely different thing to treat toenail fungus with a drug that has a sufficiently high probability of killing your liver (and killing you or requiring a transplant).
Musk wants to use the Neuralink on humans to test it.
