There are inventions that are impressive and at the same time frightening.
Tesla pioneer Elon Musk presents a project in which humans and computers merge.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk * presents his latest acquisition via video conference.
The American pioneer presents a prototype of his relatively young company
Neuralink
.
The innovative
chip
has a technology that can be connected to organic nerve cells.
It would mean the next step in the
merging
of
man
and
machine
or
computer
.
San Francisco - Hardly anyone is driving
technological progress
in society in the 21st century as much as
Elon Musk.
The US billionaire made Tesla a global player and a pioneer in the automotive sector, and the 49-year-old breathed new life into American space travel with his space company SpaceX.
The entrepreneur with the distinctive pioneering spirit presented another mega project to the public on Friday in California - together with a grunting pig named "Gertrude".
With the help of this species of animal, Elon Musk has made remarkable progress with his startup
Neuralink
- it's about the connection between computers and brains.
Elon Musk wants to connect people and machines with startup Neuralink
The Tesla founder * used a
video conference to present
three pigs that had Neuralink chips implanted.
Nerve impulses from Gertrude's trunk were transmitted to a computer via a wireless Bluetooth connection.
With the
YouTube demonstration,
the electric car and space pioneer Musk wants to win new employees for the relatively young company.
Neuralink is currently looking for engineers, surgeons, chemists and also robot specialists.
The startup, founded in 2016, wants to grow from the current 100 to 10,000 employees.
As the
Handelsblatt
explains, Elon Musk alone has raised 100 million of the capital volume of 158 million US dollars.
Musk had already presented a prototype of the chip (core product from Neuralink) in 2019.
Now the high-tech industrial company presented improvements to the coin-sized chip with ultra-fine wires that are
connected to nerve cells
and can read and send neurological signals.
Neuralink by Elon Musk: Chip is supposed to share memories and thoughts of people
And the innovative journey doesn't seem to be over yet: According to Musk, the company has just received regulatory approval for further testing.
When does he want to plant his chip in people?
Not clear.
But last year there was already talk of 2020. The chip will initially be used to treat
neurological diseases
or
restore mobility
in the case of back injuries *
.
In the long term, however, Musk envisions that his device
can be
implanted into the skull of
anyone who wants it with a simple operation
.
Then people could
share thoughts
with each other
without having to utter them - "telepathy," as Musk put it - and even more: "You will save your memories and possibly download them to another body or a robot," he said.
"The future will be strange."
+
Elon Musk speaks at a conference in San Francisco and presents a new prototype from his company Neuralink.
© Susan Walsh / AP / dpa
Neuralink: Elon Musk warns mankind of the dangers posed by artificial intelligence
Elon Musk is not considered to be someone who
ignores
the negative aspects of
digitization
: The well-known entrepreneur, who recently became one of the absolutely richest people in the world, also sees a
great danger
in
technological development
: Similar to the series "Black Mirror" mankind could be
dominated by artificial intelligence
and become their "house cat", he claimed.
The Neuralink technology, however, should enable a "symbiosis" with artificial intelligence.
However, researchers are skeptical about Musk's statements.
Brain-computer interfaces have
been built many times and it is difficult to say how successful the
Neuralink project
will be, said Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Warwick, Christopher James.
The technology for reading neurological signals has improved, but sending commands and processing a lot of different information at the same time is very complex.
(PF with AFP) * Merkur.de is an offer from the Ippen Digital Network
"The future is going to be weird. In the future you will be able to save and reply memories. You could basically store your memories as a backup and restore the memories. You could potentially download them into a new body or into a robot body . "
https://t.co/qsZTWvoZaL
- CNET (@CNET) August 29, 2020
List of rubric lists: © Susan Walsh / AP / dpa