Elon Musk’s Neuralink company, the supplier of the experimental N1 brain-computer interface (BCI), announced on Tuesday that it has finally opened registration for its first human trial study, called the Precision Robotic Implanted Brain-Computer Interface. The announcement comes almost a year after the company’s last “show and tell” event and four months after Musk said it would.
What are Elon Musk and Neuralink up to?
The company said about the study, “It aims to evaluate the safety of our implant (N1) and surgical robot (R1) and to evaluate the initial functionality of our BCI, which allows paralyzed people to control external devices with their thoughts.” So, what does this study aim at and which people can apply as subjects?
This technology, which Elon Musk points out will be useful as a tool for transhumanistic activities such as learning Kung Fu from an SD card, is primarily looking for “people with quadriplegia (a type of paralysis) due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).” Musk also thinks it is possible to transfer your consciousness to an application and control smart technologies in your home from your mind, for example.
In fact, this last one is the real goal of both the company and the technology. BCIs act as a bridge between the human mind and machines, converting the analog electrical signals of our brain into digital signals that machines can understand.
Nueralink’s N1 system, unlike rival company Synchron’s Stentrode, utilizes hair-thin probes composed of the high-accuracy Utah Array, installed through robotic keyhole surgery (performed by Nerualink’s sewing machine-like R1 robot surgeon). This array will be placed in the patient’s motor cortex, where it will record the electrical impulses produced by the area.
“The primary goal of our BCI is to give people the ability to control a computer cursor or keyboard using only their thoughts,” the statement reads. Neuralink has been working on the N1 system since 2017 and is one of the first companies in the industry to begin developing a publicly available commercial BCI. However, Neuralink’s work was hampered last year after the company was accused of causing unnecessary suffering and death of dozens of animal test subjects.
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