What’s the story?
Two Neuralink news stories came out recently. In March, a group of scientists associated with Neuralink posted a draft article on the bioRxiv online repository, describing a novel method for non-invasively inserting electrodes into rat brains. And in May, Bloomberg reported that the company has raised $39 million of a $51 million funding round.
Neuralink is Elon Musk’s secretive neuroscience enterprise, working on creating neurotechnology that would allow the brain to interact directly with external devices. A technology known as brain-machine interfaces (BMI) or brain-computer interfaces (BCI).
Thus far, the company has made very little information public about the company. The company also made no comments about the recent bioRxiv article. However, Elon Musk did tweet suggesting there might be an announcement forthcoming.
Neurotech is hot
The Neuralink news comes around the same time as the release of a Nature paper describing how AI can be used to read brain signals to recreate speech. Also this month a new documentary, I Am Human, about neurotechnology premiered at the Tribeca film festival.
Last week, Abbott announced that it will be exploring the use of neuromodulation for the treatment of treating chronic pain and Parkinson’s, in partnership with the NIH and forming part of the BRAIN initiative.
Even whilst writing this post, DARPA announced that they have awarded funds to six research groups working on BMIs as part of its Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology (N3) program.
CBInsights, insightful as always, has compiled a list of neurotech start-ups to keep an eye on. Products like the Halo Sport have featured on several recent podcasts, including Quartz’s Should This Exist and HVMN.
And if you follow Mashable on Twitter, you’ll these days get a steady flow of clips showing advances in the field of neuroprosthetics.
In short, neurotech is on fire.
Neuroscience – A childhood sweetheart
I’ve been fascinated with neuroscience and psychology ever since reading the extraordinary books of Oliver Sacks as a kid. Awakenings, starring Robert de Niro and Robin Williams, was one of my favorite films. And I remember marveling at Rita Carter’s wonderful book, Mapping The Mind.
It led me to study psychology, before graduating with a degree pharmacology and ultimately doing a doctorate in neuroscience. There, I would spend my days recording from the brains of mice who were resistant to drugs of abuse, unraveling what made them different from normal mice (who get hooked on all the same drugs humans do!).
Along the way however, I somehow ended up slowly falling out of love. As can happen with any love affair I guess. Too much time too deep in the weeds. Too many frustrated days in a lab trying to get experiments to work. Not seeing enough of an actual impact of the work done. It all adds up.
So 15 years ago I left the lab, entered the world of finance, and barely looked back. Until about a year ago…
Thank you, Tim Urban
I’d enjoyed several of Tim Urban’s posts on his Wait But Why blog, and love his TED Talk on procrastination. (Unfortunately, he seems to have gone quiet recently, but hopefully only temporarily.)
It however wasn’t until reading his long form series on Elon Musk, that I truly came to appreciate what a great storyteller he is. And his follow on, feature length post about Neuralink single-handedly pulled me back into the world of neuroscience. Something for which I’m incredibly grateful.
Anybody with an interest in neuroscience, the brain, psychology, biology, history, evolution, technology, the future, or anything really, should read it. Period.
Brain computer interfaces and their possibilities
The full title of the Wait But Why post is ‘Neuralink and the Brain’s Magical Future’. And the second half of the post really becomes rather magical indeed. I was going to try and summarize its content all in this one post. That however really wouldn’t do it justice. (Tbh, I’m impressed you made it this far down!)
Instead, in a subsequent post I will dive more deeply into the magical future of the brain as envisioned by Elon Musk, Ramez Naam and others, and described by Tim Urban. I really hope you’ll join me for it, also as the Neuralink news suggests that this future might be nearer than we might think.