Neuralinks - nava apāyaḥ, nava ajata

 The latest obsession of Elon musk is Neuralinks, he is the best brand ambassador to happen to something as niche as Neuralinks, it's already on everyones mind.

The breakthrough brain chip designed and developed by company promoted by Elon musk which state it's mission as 

"Create a generalized brain interface to restore autonomy to those with unmet medical needs today and unlock human potential tomorrow."

While the first implant has been made for the clinical trials and the patient has been interviewed last week, this emerging technology has been dubbed to support greater good through brain- computer interfaces, which has the potential to change the lives for better, this will bring the technology from lab into the peoples home.

The Implant is fully implantable, cosmetically invisible, and designed to let the patient to control a computer or mobile device anywhere on the go. The needles are thinner than the hair, the The N1 Implant is hermetically sealed in a biocompatible enclosure that withstands physiological conditions several times harsher than those in the human body.

To speak about the components of the implant as mentioned on the Neuralink website about the Battery, is powered by a small battery charged wirelessly from the outside via a compact, inductive charger that enables easy use from anywhere

The Chips and Electronics, are advanced, custom, low-power chips and electronics process neural signals, transmitting them wirelessly to the Neuralink Application, which decodes the data stream into actions and intents.

The Threads in the implant records neural activity through 1024 electrodes distributed across 64 threads. These highly-flexible, ultra-thin threads are key to minimise damage during implantation and beyond.

The surgery is done through the Surgical Robot, the threads are so fine that they can't be inserted by the human hand. The surgical robot has been designed to reliably and efficiently insert these threads exactly where they need to be. It promises to be a Seamless BCI  (Brain computer interface) Experience that enables fast and reliable computer control and prioritise ease of use.

The above is not an advertorial of the Neuralinks chips but is to share the details of the chips, its implants and the components which are going within the body of the patients. While the intent is to support the patients in the need.

This poses a question on the governance framework of these and what are the guardrails, required for these experiments and when these scale.

There are these issues, which we to be addressed.

• The side effects of the components
• The proprietary rights of the brain
• The usage of the data which is getting stored
• The misuse of these implants to influence decision
• The biases which may be built

The book Thinking Fast and Slow by Late Daniel Kahneman makes more sense with the above emerging technologies of brain computer interfaces, the book is about the two systems in our brain that are constantly fighting over control of your behavior and actions, and explains how this leads to errors in memory, judgment and decisions, and what can be done do about it. These implants now add the third dimension to the above and the questions around the same.

The governance around the same needs to address these through.

1. Legal framework 
1. Consent from the patient
2. Usage of the data
3. Legality of decisions taken through Neuralinks
2. Medical Disclosures
1. Detailed disclosure on side effects
2. Exit clause 
3. Social Consequences
1.  Build guardrails to eliminate biases
2.  Make it equitable

There are also unintended consequences of Neuralinks which need to be addressed.

1. Lack of transparency
2. Vulnerability of hacking 
3. Adverse effects
4. Unequal access
5. Impact on employment and human relations, interactions

It's important that we address these before the use cases are scaled and there are ungoverned impacts of these.

“The experiencing self does not have a voice. The remembering self is sometimes wrong, but it is the one that keeps score and governs what we learn from living, and it is the one that makes decisions. What we learn from the past is to maximize the qualities of our future memories, not necessarily of our future experience. This is the tyranny of the remembering self.” ― Daniel Kahneman

Citations:

https://giuseppemartinengo.org/34-best-quotes-from-thinking-fast-and-slow-by-daniel-kahneman/

https://neuralink.com/