Digital telepathy. No More Words..
Let’s try and imagine a world where digital telepathy has overtaken spoken language as the primary method of communication among humans. Pretty trippy, right? Thanks to Neuralink that is going to make this imagination into reality probably in next 10 years..
Neuralink Corporation is a neuro-technology company developing implantable brain–machine interfaces (BMIs). Neuralink uses C++ and Python as the main programming languages. To monitor the neural activity, the team at Neuralink implanted the Link in the hand and arm areas in the motor cortex area. Neurons in the motor cortex are involved in planning, initiating and controlling voluntary movements.
The technology is most closely related to a Fitbit or smartwatch, just a very small and simple computer, and that Fitbit is sewed into your brain by a robot surgeon that connects about 1000 tiny wires into the outer layer of Gray matter. The biggest downside is you will literally need a hole in your head, but no one will be able to tell and the device is designed to be the same thickness as your skull, so it will sit flush with the bone. Then they just fold your skin flat back over and you’re good to go. You’re now a Cyborg and eventually the hole in your skull will grow back.
Once it’s in there, the neural link can read the neural impulses in your brain. Every action you take begins with a neuron firing in your head. Having a computer wired into your brain opens up a whole world of possibilities, like controlling any technology using just your thoughts alone. No need for a keyboard, mouse or touchscreen, just mind power. They’ve already shown a proof of concept of this idea by implanting two devices into the skull of a monkey and teaching him how to play the video game pong with only his mind. So for monkey can do it, so can you.
But the aspect that we really want to drill down into today. Is how we can radically change the way that people communicate, how we might be able to replace the speech and maybe even writing with a literal neural link between humans. Neuralink didn’t invent the brain computer interface that’s been around for a surprisingly long. Scientists have been sticking probes into brains for over 50 years now, but Neuralink has been the first to really imagine and has had the idea of replacing language for a while now. The basic concept is pretty sound that talking is just a very inefficient way of communicating information. Our brain spends a lot of effort compressing a complex concept into words, and there’s a lot of loss of information that occurs during that compression. So imagine if you could send that concept straight from your brain into an app which would then broadcast it directly into the brain of another neural link. User would be able to communicate very quickly with far more precision. Using the device wouldn’t need to talk in order to get your ideas across. I could take whatever knowledge is encoded in my brain and instantly transfer it into your brain. This kind of digital communication would become so ubiquitous that we eventually reach a time where language just practice only for sentimental reasons, like the same way some people still practice blacksmithing. It’s not a necessary service anymore. We could all do just fine without it, but its fun to keep old traditions alive.
It’s a little strange at first to think about language and speaking as an inefficient method of communication. Because it’s kind of all we’ve got right now, but it’s undeniable that a lot of human intention can get lost in translation. The brain converted into words with efficiency, and that leads to a lot of misunderstandings. We’re not talking about leprosy in the sense of broadcasting your words into someone else’s mind, this is more like conceptual collective, a whole multidimensional idea uploaded from your mind and downloaded into the mind of others.
It doesn’t have to be perfect. It certainly won’t be at first, but it just has to be an improvement on communicating visual and conceptual information. You know how it’s basically impossible to tell a story without editorializing or exaggerating some aspects of it.
It can be fun to tell crazy stories, but the true essence of the memory can get lost, and sometimes that’s important. Imagine if we could just share a memory directly. It would be as revolutionary as the invention of photography. Instead of having to try and describe something that only you have seen, you can just show a picture and everyone else can see for themselves.
Think about a system for publicly accessible memories. It would only apply for people who have lived through significant events. No one needs to download a memory of your fishing trip, but imagine how much empathy we could build as a society if we could see the world literally through other people’s eyes. It’s so easy to just write off other people’s experiences and say I don’t believe you, or that’s never happened to me. Communal memories would be an empathy bomb that might blow up the way we treat each other in society. There is a downside to every Speaking of empathy. Imagine their link as a way to transmit emotions in their purest, most primal form. One of the crazy things about humans is that we all deal with our emotions. In very unique ways, some people wear their hearts on their sleeves, but most people will try and mask their true feelings, either consciously or unconsciously. Like we very often see someone present as angry or aggressive when they’re really feeling frightened or insecure, or too often people will appear really funny and happy when they’re actually feeling really sad. As a society, we kind of suck at expressing our primal emotions. We feel the necessity to put on this facade like we’re playing characters instead of being our true selves. It’s a radical change, but just think about how it might elevate society. OK, that’s the super optimistic take on the whole breakdown of language and rise of conceptual telepathy idea. In reality, things might not work out quite as smoothly. For one, we’re talking about transmitting the basic code that makes up. Thoughts and memories in their brain, but we have no idea what the code looks like or how it’s written. We know it’s all some combination of neurons which could in theory be translated to computer code, but things like computer code are standardized. They were invented by people to work in the same on every computer. You’re either on Windows or Mac. Or maybe Linux and a piece of software will run at the exact same on my Mac book as it will on yours because they are standardized. If every computer had its own unique operating system, then it would be nearly impossible to write software that would work perfectly for everyone, and the odds that human brains are standardized in their design by nature is. Probably very slim. Imagine one set of neurons firing in my brain, transferred into your brain might not do the same thing. Your brain might read that series of code completely differently. That would throw a big wrench into this whole thing. It’s probably still something that can be solved. There are not many things that are truly impossible, but it really adds a thick layer. Of complication. Another form of incompatibility might come from differences in experience, as people, all of our perceptions are influenced by our experiences, and we’re not sure that might affect the transfer of a concept between two people. If our understanding of an idea is framed by our experience and we could run into an incompatibility. With others who don’t share those same experiences, maybe that context then needs to be a part of the transfer as well. In order to receive and understand the concept straight from someone’s brain. You would also have to understand everything that makes him, what he is. His lived experience might be just as crucial. Apart of understanding that idea as the technical data. That’s where things start to get a bit too crazy. What we do know is that the first people keep getting these implants won’t be doing it for fun. The first clinical trials will be done for medical reasons. Neuralink is hoping that the first version of their implant will be able to help people who suffer from Paralysis to interface with devices like computers and smartphones. It’s a small first step that would greatly improve the quality of life for the people who need it. The mass market rollout comes later because of the automated process for installing these devices.
It is super exciting that in near future we should get ready for digital health devices where a skull Fitbit will aim to treat a variety of diseases and disorders, from asthma and diabetes to depression and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders.