What is Neuralink and What it is? | Elon Musk's Neuralink chip

Elon Musk Neuralink

You may have heard that Elon Musk wants humans to keep pace with advances in the field of Artificial Intelligence by embedding small computers in Human's minds.

It sounds like crazy. But what CEO Tesla and the founder of SpaceX are actually doing is more convincing and important.

This construction technique allows humans to use more brain functions. And he's doing it through his Neuralink company dedicated to the advancement between brain and machine.

Futurists like Ray Kurzweil have been talking about this for decades.

He calls it "Singularity". This is the process by which humans and machines will finally merge. By 2045 they will have "human-level intelligence" in computers, and will have the technology that makes fusion inevitable.

Musk's invention may be the first critical step.

In Ray Kurzweil's 1990 book "The Age of Intelligent Machines," he predicted the internet would become the defining consumer technology of our generation. Considering that CompuServe and Prodigy had over 1 million users at the time, this seemed crazy.

For good measure, Kurzweil predicted the collapse of cell phones, fax machines and even the Soviet Union. Later books said that you should expect supercomputers in cloud and also said nanorobots capable of performing the most delicate medical procedures.

All of this has come true.

Musk says his technology will be ready for implants within a year. The immediate target market is those who are paralyzed.

Our sensory and motor functions are controlled by a series of electrochemical spikes in the brain. When neurons ignite our synapses, they send complex commands to the eyes, ears, and organs.

Musk and his team want to build a brain-machine interface that interprets and controls all those commands.

The basic Skills/Technology already exist. In 1997, Drs. Richard Norman, Professor of Biotechnology at University of Utah, developed Utah Array. A tiny piece of silicon that is only 1/4 inch long has 256 electrodes that can be attached to the central nervous system to listen to nerve activity.

How does Neuralink Work?

Have you ever seen the Hollywood action film 'The Matrix'? Remember Neo (played by Keanu Reaves) learning martial arts only by loading a computer program into his brain?

Neuralink cannot teach martial arts, but can control machines by sending and receiving electrical signals through the brain.

Now the company said that it can control basic devices such as smartphones, computers, and you can also use it to type your thoughts.

To understand how Neuralink works, you need to understand that the brain uses neurons to transmit information to different parts of the body.

These neurons in the brain connect to each other to form a large network and communicate using chemical signals called neurotransmitters. This reaction creates an electric field and you can record these reactions by placing an electrode nearby.

Patients equipped with this device were only able to communicate with their minds via computer.

Since then, brain implants have been developed.

BrainGate, a system developed by Browngate, allows patients who have previously lost all motor function to play pong on a computer and move their robotic arm through implants.

Researchers at Neuralink have started developing ultra-thin electrodes called threads. Threads measuring only 10 to 40 microns in width and are thinner than human hair. They are small enough to penetrate brain tissue without perforating blood vessels, and can be packed more tightly on silicone.

Researchers say that the finished chip will have 1,000 threads. A single application can contain up to 10 chips.

Imagine what you could do with 10,000 if a patient using a Utah array could communicate on a computer using only 256 electrodes.

Neuralink is also developing medical robots that can perform the transplant process properly. Tools such as sewing machines need to be minimally invasive, as they require only small holes given the small size of threads and chips.

Musk said that in the future, the procedure will not be more invasive than LASIK eye surgery.

The other hardware is a Bluetooth receiver that connects to the implant behind the patient's ear. The wearable wireless device accepts the battery, receives a software upgrade wirelessly, and connects to the smartphone for training.

Musk has interesting essential requirements for equipment. Neuralink must:

• Perfect Wireless 
• With decades of feasibility 
• It uses real bandwidth 
• It is suitable for home use

This suggests that their long-term goals may be beyond helping people with disabilities.

Musk said recently that he saw the development of cybernetics as a defense. He opines that artificial intelligence machines that learn at an exponential rate pose a serious threat to humans. Eventually, they will be challenged with difficult moral choices associated with human life.

Not "Terminator", but not far.

This is an idea that Kurzweil directly opposed, but was shared by other leading thinkers such as Microsoft founder Bill Gates and the late astrophysicist Stephen Hawking.

Hawking stated his concern in an online forum. He spoke of an intelligent machine developed to run a hydroelectric project. Given their core competencies, can those machines choose to flood the land for the improvement of the project despite the presence of a large ant colony?

Hawking concluded that the machines do not fill the ground because they hate ants. They choose flooding because they are within their core competencies.