Earlier this week, Elon Musk, the billionaire behind SpaceX and Tesla, presented his gameplan for hooking up brains to computers.
In a presentation at the California Academy of Sciences, which was also livestreamed, Musk and the team behind Neuralink, presented the devices they’ve been working on for the last two years. They also laid out an ambitious plan to implant a chip into a human brain by the end of 2020. One of the big potential promises of the technology would the creation of robotic limbs that would function like their organic counterparts.
We recap the event. Plus, we get a neuroscientist’s take on the current research in the field, the plausibility of Neuralink’s goals and the potential and pitfalls of this planned technology.
Guests:
Elizabeth Lopatto, deputy editor at The Verge; she was at Neuralink’s presentation Tuesday night at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco
Konrad Kording, professor of bioengineering and neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania