Are We Ready for Direct Brain Links to Machines and Each Other?

A Real-World Application of Posthuman Bioethics

Abstract

Neuralink, a company founded by Elon Musk three years ago, is the most notable of several companies developing a new type of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI): a direct, two-way, digital system that is robust, compact, and wireless. BCI is already being used therapeutically to reduce seizures in severe epileptics, resolve tremors in Parkinson’s patients, and to stabilize mood disorders in psychiatric patients. But the devices used to do this are bulky and hardwired, causing difficulty of use for patients and requiring invasive surgeries and large incisions to implant them. So, researchers have been trying to make these devices more compact, easier to implant, and wireless.