The Neuralink Master Thread

[Altes]

“The guy is a master of selling things that may never work,” Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, pioneering neurologist and Principal Investigator of the Nicolelis Lab at Duke University, recently told Inverse, “They will never make people download their emotions or their deep cognitive functions, and they’ll never make people learn French by uploading French grammar to a brain-machine interface. You will never reproduce it. For a science fiction movie, that's fine, but for Elon Musk to come out and say exactly the same thing is bogus — totally bogus.”

“[Musk] sells things that have been invented before and he tries to say that he’s done some amazing thing,” he continued, arguing that much of what Neuralink has touted as advancements is actually old hat for the academic research community.

What Neuralink and other BCIs can and can't do

Elon Musk's BCI startup wants to make people more than human by putting computers in their heads but a number of neurology researchers aren’t quite so bullish on these fantastical promises.

www.engadget.com

 

[UkNorthampton]

“The guy is a master of selling things that may never work,” Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, pioneering neurologist and Principal Investigator of the Nicolelis Lab at Duke University, recently told Inverse, “They will never make people download their emotions or their deep cognitive functions, and they’ll never make people learn French by uploading French grammar to a brain-machine interface. You will never reproduce it. For a science fiction movie, that's fine, but for Elon Musk to come out and say exactly the same thing is bogus — totally bogus.”

“[Musk] sells things that have been invented before and he tries to say that he’s done some amazing thing,” he continued, arguing that much of what Neuralink has touted as advancements is actually old hat for the academic research community.

What Neuralink and other BCIs can and can't do

Elon Musk's BCI startup wants to make people more than human by putting computers in their heads but a number of neurology researchers aren’t quite so bullish on these fantastical promises.

www.engadget.com

He seems to be betting against Elon. Won't age well

 

[wdolson]

“The guy is a master of selling things that may never work,” Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, pioneering neurologist and Principal Investigator of the Nicolelis Lab at Duke University, recently told Inverse, “They will never make people download their emotions or their deep cognitive functions, and they’ll never make people learn French by uploading French grammar to a brain-machine interface. You will never reproduce it. For a science fiction movie, that's fine, but for Elon Musk to come out and say exactly the same thing is bogus — totally bogus.”

“[Musk] sells things that have been invented before and he tries to say that he’s done some amazing thing,” he continued, arguing that much of what Neuralink has touted as advancements is actually old hat for the academic research community.

What Neuralink and other BCIs can and can't do

Elon Musk's BCI startup wants to make people more than human by putting computers in their heads but a number of neurology researchers aren’t quite so bullish on these fantastical promises.

www.engadget.com

My neurolink therapist knows the guys who are doing the work at Neurolink personally. They have been working on it for a long time, but what Elon's involvement has done is open doors to engineering something for the real world.

People confuse science and technology. They are interchangeable to most people, but they are two different things. Science proves that something is possible or uncovers new things. Technology/engineering turns those ideas into a product that can be used in the world. Elon's strength is not in original discoveries, but in finding discoveries that have already been made, but nobody has managed to turn them into a useful product and doing just that.

Steve Jobs was much the same way. Before he got involved there were personal computers, but he directed the development of more useful computers. Many companies had tried and failed with tablet computers before the iPad, but the iPad was the first one that was commercially successful. The iPhone was a diversion from the iPad development process. They started developing the iPad, shelved it to refocus on a smaller version with a cellular connection, then went back to the iPad when the iPhone took off.

I can't think of any major invention where the person or people who made the original discovery made a product out of it. The great inventors of history are people who took things that had already been discovered and made them into products. The closest to someone who made a discovery and invented products is Nikola Tesla, but the products he brought to the world were engineering improvements on existing concepts and his discoveries were not made into products by him. In some cases some of his discoveries have still not been turned into a product.

 

[Tiger]

The body seems to always find an equilibrium weight:

What if we could adjust the equilibrium weight from an app? Like an adjustable goal function, via Neuralink?

 

[DarkandStormy]

I have initiated this thread to be the initial catch-all for discussions involving Mr Musk's new venture, Neuralink. In short order, we hope, we'll have a permanent sub-site for Neuralink.

At the outset, we'll most strongly suggest (from Lord Vetinari's Dictionary: see "DO") that before chiming in, all participants read Tim Urban's "Waitbutwhy" blog post regarding same: Neuralink and the Brain's Magical Future - Wait But Why

My first impression from that exercise is that when considering Neuralink, I had to make a comparison with Tesla Inc. and with SpaceX.

As follows:

Aaaww, aren't they cuuute!

Five years ago today (EDIT - tomorrow, depending on your time zone), this thread started. Let's check on what was claimed:

We are aiming to bring something to market that helps with certain severe brain injuries (stroke, cancer lesion, congenital) in about four years.

So far, it seems like they only have dead and abused monkeys.

 

[Buckminster]

Musk approaches brain chip startup Synchron about deal amid Neuralink delays -sources

 

[Buckminster]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1561608534629965826

 

[mspohr]

Improve your memory

Zapping the brain with electricity shown to boost older people’s short- and long-term memory

Sending weak electrical current into the brain for 20 minutes a day for four days reversed aging-related declines in working and long-term memory, scientists report in a new study.

www.statnews.com

 

[MasterchiefTS]

Hi guys,

in your opinion: Is it possible to work in Tesla or Neuralink like a software engineer or robot engineer without a degree? Only Bootcamp formation.

 

[MasterchiefTS]

It's interesting work about memory. However, my opinion will be more interesting than dopamine receptors for addiction.

It would be cool to understand and implement a chip for improving and eliminating the need for receptors to be fed continuously and with increasingly strong discharges. Dependencies work like this.

 

[Tam]

Hi guys,

in your opinion: Is it possible to work in Tesla or Neuralink like a software engineer or robot engineer without a degree? Only Bootcamp formation.

If you have skills to make sure the system never mows down Dan O'Dowd's mannequins
then I don't think degrees matter.

 

[Buckminster]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1584157532209090560

 

[Buckminster]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1595663581642895360

 

[mongo]

Nov 30th at 6 pm Pacific

 

[JRP3]

I watched up to the wireless monkey charging point, anything interesting happen after that?

 

[TSLA Pilot]

Y'all did it now, calling out Reuters on the FUD this morning:

View attachment 881846

You do know that it took years of FOIA requests to pull these out of Neurolink, right? I think there was a lawsuit required.

The images and stories/record are apparently horrific and Elon should have known better than to abuse so many sentient animals for this project, and it’s likely another reason that Tesla sentiment is now NEGATIVE, as is a lot of my TSLA investment.

See: Watts Up: EV News of the Week for December 2, 2022

And:

https://www.kbb.com/car-news/teslas-approval-rating-goes-negative-survey-finds/

(Actually, ALL of my TSLA purchases over the past two YEARS are negative….)

We are Tesla shareholders-WE own the company. The Board, and Elon, work for US.

Elon has far too many pet projects and his antics are not well received—especially those that piss off a large number of potential buyers of Tesla’s products.

And some part of that is why all of our share buys over the past TWO YEARS are upside down.

 

[spacerfc]

You do know that it took years of FOIA requests to pull these out of Neurolink, right? I think there was a lawsuit required.

The images and stories/record are apparently horrific and Elon should have known better than to abuse so many sentient animals for this project, and it’s likely another reason that Tesla sentiment is now NEGATIVE, as is a lot of my TSLA investment.

See: Watts Up: EV News of the Week for December 2, 2022

And:

https://www.kbb.com/car-news/teslas-approval-rating-goes-negative-survey-finds/

(Actually, ALL of my TSLA purchases over the past two YEARS are negative….)

We are Tesla shareholders-WE own the company. The Board, and Elon, work for US.

Elon has far too many pet projects and his antics are not well received—especially those that piss off a large number of potential buyers of Tesla’s products.

And some part of that is why all of our share buys over the past TWO YEARS are upside down.

What sentient animals? Vast majority of the animal deaths mentioned in the Reuters article are sheeps and pigs, we literally eat them.

 

[SmokyPeat]

What sentient animals? Vast majority of the animal deaths mentioned in the Reuters article are sheeps and pigs, we literally eat them.

Rats are sentient animals. They aren't very tasty though.

 

[FSDtester#1]

Rats are sentient animals. They aren't very tasty though.

How do you know this? ... wait, please don't answer. Thx

 

[aubreymcfato]

What sentient animals? Vast majority of the animal deaths mentioned in the Reuters article are sheeps and pigs, we literally eat them.

Sheeps and pigs are sentient, tbf. Yes, people eat them nonetheless¹.

¹ (and this is exactly the problem for the vegans)