Elon Musk’s vision of the future takes another step forward

Elon(ē) Musk’s vision(ˈviZHən) of the future takes another step forward

A pig now has one of his implants(imˈplant) in its brain

In idle moments, people sometimes dream about the future. Of cars that can drive themselves. Of travelling to other planets(ˈplanət). Of moving objects by the power of thought. Whichever particular dream you have, though, Elon Musk is probably trying to make it real. Self-driving cars and travel to Mars are the provinces(ˈprävəns) of two of his firms, Tesla(ˈteslə) and SpaceX respectively. Moving objects by the power of thought is the province of a third, Neuralink(ˈn(y)o͝orəl). And on August 28th, at a presentation(ˌprezənˈtāSH(ə)n) broadcast over the internet, Mr Musk showed off the firm’s progress. The highlight was the appearance(əˈpirəns) of Gertrude, a pig with a chip(CHip) implanted into her brain.

Reading the brain’s electrical(əˈlektrək(ə)l) signals, a technique called electroencephalography(əˌlektrōənˌsefəˈläɡrəfē) (eeg), started more than 100 years ago and is now routine(ro͞oˈtēn). It generally involves placing electrodes(əˈlektrōd) non-invasively(inˈvāsiv) on the scalp(skalp), though it sometimes requires the invasive insertion(inˈsərSH(ə)n) of wires into the scalp or the brain itself.

Non-invasive eeg provides useful information, and can even be employed to do things like playing simple computer games via software which interprets(inˈtərprət) the signals received and turns them into instructions. It is, though, a crude(kro͞od) approach to monitoring the activity of an organ(ˈôrɡən) that contains 85bn nerve cells and trillions of connections between them. Invasive eeg offers higher resolution readings from those nerve cells, albeit(ôlˈbēit) at greater risk because of the surgery(ˈsərj(ə)rē) involved. The device Gertrude carries, known technically(ˈteknək(ə)lē) as a brain-computer interface (bci), carries invasiveness one stage further still by making the eeg recorder a potentially permanent implant.

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https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2020/09/02/elon-musks-vision-of-the-future-takes-another-step-forward