Should You Let Them Put a Chip in Your Brain?

"We’re designing the first neural chip implant that will let you control a computer or mobile device anywhere you go." -Neuralink

We've all probably watched movies like Matrix, Terminator and __I Robot where there's always a crazy smart guy who creates a smart computer and then eventually can't control it anymore. Then the robot sees humans and decides the best way to solve the problems humans pose would be to kill every human on earth (like that will ever work).

But luckily there comes some ordinary guy whose life is suckish at the beginning of the movie but then suddenly the ordinary guy 'amazingly' gets to know that computers want to kill humans and he has the responsibility to save the world (sometimes he gets powers) and so with some trepidation he goes after the robots with a suckish plan.

But he almost fails because of the suckish plan or whatever and the robots win but then the hero discovers his inner strength and then can save the world and he gets to kiss the hot girl (lucky dude) he would never have been able to kiss if he was still the ordinary guy. The movie ends with the guy becoming more sure of himself and well his life changes (and all this happens within 2hrs, cool huh).

Well, these days the stuff we only thought happened in movies are happening in real life from self-driving cars, robot dogs to Siri, Google Assistant and generally AI, and well let's be honest we're all scared that our devices are going to come after us someday the same way they do in the movies (I mean after terminator who wouldn't). But I'm hoping that after reading all this, you'll know your technology will not kill you and I'll be doing that with something called BMIs......

But First

WHAT IS A BMI?

BMI is an acronym that stands for Brain-Machine Interface also Known as Brain-Computer Interface(BCI). According to Wikipedia, Brain-Machine Interface(BMI) "Is a direct communication pathway between an enhanced or wired brain and an external device". In simple words, BMIs are simply a machine's ability to talk to and understand commands from the human brain due to a connection between the two of them. In other words, it is simply the ability to talk to your computer using your brain......

Now we are going to talk about a very popular BMI company Neuralink, what they do, how they do what they do and why. But first

What is Neuralink?

Neuralink is an American BMI company- that means they create Brain-Machine Interface systems. The company was made popular because of its association with Elon Musk (Yup the billionaire, Elon Musk). According to the company's Website, Neuralink is a team of exceptionally talented people who are creating the future of brain Interfaces...

HOW THE BRAIN WORKS

The brain is made up of nerve cells called neurons which are responsible for processing thought. There are many types of neurons but all neurons generally have 3 parts: Dendrites, Soma and Axon. The dendrite is responsible for receiving electrical signals.

The Soma is responsible for computing / Processing electrical signals. The Axon is responsible for passing out computed electrical signals to the next Dendrite in the chain. The brain communicates information through the use of electrical signals.

The brain is made up of 86 billion neurons, and when processing a particular event (Action Potential) it uses a chain of neurons to process events.

For instance, when you see a car coming towards you your eyes immediately send electrical signals to your brain through the optical nerve, and then the brain forms a chain of neurons to make sense of the incoming signal and so the first neuron in the chain collects the signal through its Dendrites and sends it to the Soma to process the signal.

After the Soma finishes with its task it sends the signal to the Axon which then sends it to the Dendrite of the next neurone in the chain, the connection between Axons and Dendrites when passing on information is called a Synapse.

So the entire process continues until the brain finds a Sapiotemporal Synaptic Input(that's scientific Lingo for the brain continues processing until it finds an optimal response to the signal sent to it) and then it sends signals to the necessary effectors eg, you're legs and then the brain sends a signal to your legs to run away from the oncoming car.

Why Does Neuralink Want to Put A Chip in my Head?

Now you must understand that for Neuralink's BMI to work they don't actually need to put the chip into your head.

But it would make the BMI technology more effective, putting a chip outside the head is like watching a football game outside the stadium.

You'd hear the noises from those inside the stadium and know when something good happens but you wouldn't be able to know exactly how a player scored or missed. So putting a chip into the human head is really for no other reason apart from the clarity it gives.

Because for the chip to be able to efficiently decode the electrical signals being used by the brain to communicate and then send to the computer it has to be able to receive the exact waves being generated by the brain and this cannot be achieved efficiently when the chip is placed outside the brain.

How Neuralink Puts the Chip Into our Brain

The electrode threads in the Neuralink chip (AKA N1 chip) are extremely small (roughly 23 millimeters in diameter).

So it is almost impossible for it to be surgically placed into the brain by human hands. The guys at Neuralink (remember they are brilliant) built an automated precision robot (picture is above) that surgically places the chip into the human brain.

Now you might be wondering how many chips you need to have in your brain, a single neural link chip can cover up to 1000 brain cells and we have billions of brain cells so you do the math.

How the Chip in Your Head Allows You to communicate with your Computer

The Neuralink chip is placed into the parts of the brain that monitor movement.

The chip contains tiny fibre threads called neural threads and each small thread contains many electrodes.

The electrodes are responsible for receiving electrical signals from the brain and then sending them to the chip. The chip then turns the electrical signals it receives into the binary that the computer can understand.

For instance, if you have a neuralink chip implanted into you and you want to move your computer mouse cursor all you have to do is think about moving your arm and then your brain sends electrical signals to your hands and in the process. The fibre threads in the N1 chip receive those signals using the electrodes and the chip then turns those electrical signals into binary and then sends the binary to your computer using a wireless connection and your computer mouse cursor.

The same thing happens when you want to charge your chip, the charger is compact inductive (That just means it can wirelessly detect your chip while it's in your head! ) and so it wirelessly connects to your chip and charges in from the outside (cool huh).

How does Having a Chip in our Brains Help Humanity?

The N1 chip will help humanity in a lot of ways. Picture for a moment that crippled man on the street, that deaf person or that blind guy who can't join WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter or play video games simply because they can't operate a computer. Well to put it simply Neuralink gives them that opportunity. It also helps healthy human beings by making it possible for us to access our technology more easily.

How Safe is the Technology?

From the beginning of time, man has misused technology from guns, ships to planes, and cars but that hasn't stopped us from using technology has it some people use guns to defend themselves. While some use guns to rob others, others use them to defend the innocent. Some people use airplanes to travel but others use them to commit terrorism; some people use smartphones to connect with friends and family and some people use them to plan criminal activities. The main point is: technology isn’t inherently evil, it is the people who use them to do bad things that are evil.

And let me ask you: what is the difference between Neuralink today and the smartphone to your great grandfather? Technology has always improved and people have always abused it but it is the people and not the technology that is evil, and it is our responsibility as humans to fight against those who want to limit technology. Don't we owe it to future generations to do this? After all: who are we to stand in the way of the future?