What is Musk’s “Neuralink” really, and why might this be his greatest undertaking—one that could steer the future of human evolution?
Do you ever feel like there’s just not enough time in the day to get everything done? So how does Elon Musk manage to run so many companies at once? Does he have clones? Or maybe he’s found a way to augment his intelligence, his mental power, through some technological method that turns a human into a hybrid between a biological being and a machine of the future? As extravagant as that might sound at first, that’s exactly what we’ll be talking about today!
One of the companies led by the world’s richest man is called Neuralink, and out of all his projects—from electric vehicles, plans for a permanent human colony on Mars, to the “absolutism of free speech” on the recently acquired Twitter—this might be the most exciting, even if it hasn’t received as much media attention. In short, Neuralink aims to create implants that would be embedded directly into the human brain, thereby “enhancing” the human.
It sounds like science fiction—but in this case, it’s Musk’s fantasy, and he has a tendency to turn crazy projects into reality, even if he’s notoriously “flexible” with timelines (when he says something will happen “next year,” that can mean… years).
So does Neuralink really plan to create human hybrids by enhancing mental abilities? Is this some bold plan for a technological upgrade toward Nietzsche’s “Übermensch”? Is this the beginning of a reality where wild scenarios from books and movies start coming true? Will Neuralink’s first product be RoboCop or Terminator?
Okay, as soon as we talk about “chips that go into the brain,” we can expect the media to partially present the story as science fiction—especially when it’s backed by the world’s most eccentric billionaire. But Neuralink is actually a much more important project than just Musk’s futurology fetish. The company is working on something that could genuinely change life on Earth, though probably not in the way some first imagined.
What we’re really talking about here is not that new. It’s an advanced medical procedure called BCI, which stands for Brain-Computer Interface. In other words, it’s a direct communication link between a human (or animal) brain and an external device, i.e., a computer.
Though it sounds like something from the future, BCI is actually a procedure that’s been around since the 1990s. And that’s exactly why Neuralink’s work is so important: a technology that has existed for decades has simply remained stuck at the same stage. Musk and Neuralink now aim to take that proven concept and elevate it to a whole new level. Musk did something similar with Tesla—he didn’t invent the electric car, but his company perfectly packaged it into a usable and marketable product. If he can repeat that with Neuralink, it would be quite the revolution.
But what exactly is this “interface” that communicates between the brain and the computer? How does it even work? How complex is it? What’s its purpose? Let’s break it all down.
What is the brain? A fascinating organ—mysterious in some ways, but not in others. The brain is an “electric sponge” that sends commands via nerves to all parts of the body—other organs, muscles, etc. These electrical impulses are like the “programming code of the human body.” The brain constantly sends commands through the spinal cord, branching out to their destinations. But unfortunately, things don’t always work ideally. Sometimes, the connection between the brain and the body is severed, due to injury or a degenerative disease.
And this is where BCI technology comes in. In its basic form, BCI is a “bridge” that aims to reconnect the broken link between the brain and body.
In this sense, BCI can be invasive or non-invasive.
You’ve probably seen non-invasive BCI devices somewhere—those devices that look like weird hats with lots of electrodes. This “cap” is placed on a person’s head to read electrical signals from the brain. Fascinating, yes—but there’s a problem: these BCI devices are not very effective.
Why? Because there’s a skull between the BCI and the brain. It’s like trying to listen to a concert while standing outside the venue—you’ll hear mostly bass, but not the higher frequencies. The experience won’t be ideal. The same goes for these “headset” BCI devices.
If we really want to read brain signals accurately, interpret them, and do something with them, we need a precise reading method. That requires getting closer to the brain—specifically, direct contact. Enter invasive BCI.
The best-known BCI of this type is the Utah Array. It’s a very small computer chip with a wire on one side and a cluster of tiny spikes on the other. Sounds a bit uncomfortable? That’s because these spikes are literally inserted—implanted directly into the brain surface. It might not be necessary to go into great detail about the “installation,” but here’s the basic idea: using precise instruments, a small hole is drilled into the skull, and the chip is implanted. A wire then exits the head and connects to a main computer.
Yes, the procedure and everything around it sounds intense, but the concept is highly effective—especially compared to the non-invasive BCI mentioned earlier. In this case, brain signals are read clearly and can be processed effectively.
But what’s the purpose of all this? If you’re healthy, you certainly don’t need something like this. But for people with the aforementioned medical issues, it can significantly improve their lives. With a BCI implanted in their brain, for example, they can control a computer, move a cursor, operate a virtual keyboard, even type… They can also use and control a robotic arm.
Controlling a computer with your brain seems futuristic and fascinating, but it’s not that hard to understand. Once we can read the brain’s electrical signals, we can decode them through a sophisticated program and send a command to the computer. For example, someone who’s lost the ability to move their arms due to an injury could use a BCI to “send a command” to open an email, lower the music volume, or leave a comment on a post like this! With sufficiently powerful computers, we can interpret these signals just like our body does.
But traditional invasive BCI is not practical—as you can tell from the procedure. A person would have to live with a wire coming out of their head, connected to a computer. Even at home, this is barely feasible—let alone outside.
And this is exactly where Musk and Neuralink come in! They want to refine, modernize, and upgrade the basic idea—turning something that’s existed as experimental medicine for decades into something mainstream, widely available, and far more advanced.
The time has come for a new generation of BCI. Existing BCIs that are implanted into the brain, precisely because they go “into the brain” with spikes, will eventually be rejected by the body, which recognizes them as foreign objects.
Interestingly, Musk and Neuralink are not the only ones developing next-gen BCIs. A company called Synchron has actually overtaken Neuralink and became the first to begin human trials this year. That’s probably a good thing for Neuralink—competition will push them to move even faster.
Synchron’s method is quite interesting and notably less invasive than “drilling into the skull.” It involves a stent—a narrow tube typically used to widen arteries and prevent heart attacks—but in this case, the stent is guided through a neck vein all the way to the brain! A wire then leads to a small device implanted in the chest. Sound familiar? It’s almost identical to how a pacemaker is implanted—except instead of communicating with the heart, it communicates with the brain.
The device then communicates directly from the chest using Bluetooth technology with a computer or even a smartphone. A major advancement here is that nothing “sticks out” of a person with an implanted BCI — in fact, there are no visible signs that a BCI device has been implanted.
This represents a remarkable breakthrough because such a BCI device could soon be implanted in any hospital without requiring any special procedure. The entire operation would last only a few hours. There is no need to drill into the skull or perform risky “tinkering” with the human brain, which can lead to injury.
However, Synchron’s method does have one significant drawback. The stent is inserted into a blood vessel that runs through the brain, which means it cannot read signals as effectively as the more invasive Utah array, which uses tiny spikes that go directly into the brain. And this is where Neuralink comes in.
Neuralink’s goal is to offer the best of both worlds — combining the principles behind the Utah array and Synchron’s stent. How? By again drilling into the skull, but through a much more complex and sophisticated process. Robots perform the operation and place the electrode directly on the specific neuron to be read — hence the company name Neuralink, or “link to the neuron.”
Okay, the electrode is placed in the brain in a better way, presumably so that the brain won’t reject it. But does that still mean there’s a wire sticking out of the head, connected to a computer? No — that’s the beauty of Neuralink’s solution. They already have a tiny computer ready, which will be implanted directly into the patient’s skull, underneath the skin, at the drilling site. Once the hair grows back, it won’t be visible at all!
So Neuralink truly aims to reach a higher level, building upon successful breakthroughs that have already been achieved — a system where a person has both an electrode in their brain and a computer inside their head that processes the information and sends it via Bluetooth technology wherever it needs to go!
This approach will be far more effective than Synchron’s, as the amount of data collected will be maximized, and the bandwidth will be at its peak. The concept has already been successfully tested on pigs and monkeys. In fact, one monkey was even able to play the classic game Pong on a computer using only its brain!
Unfortunately, a number of the monkeys used in testing died, which drew sharp criticism from certain groups. According to Reuters, a federal investigation is being planned in the U.S. against Neuralink due to the deaths of test animals. The fact is that new technologies are still often tested on animals — which is undoubtedly cruel — but that’s a discussion for another time.
If Neuralink does succeed in its vision, it could be a major revolution. People who have lost the function of their arms — or never had it to begin with — could use computers and smartphones with their minds. Musk and Neuralink also mention other applications, such as enabling speech for mute individuals (via a computer-generated voice), and possibly even restoring vision to the blind…
The potential uses are enormous. But this is also another big step toward a new world where the line between human and machine is blurred. Neuralink, at least in its current form, is still not something out of a sci-fi movie (or is it?!), but it’s not hard to imagine a version 2.0 — or further iteration — that truly expands the capacity of the human brain, upgrading it like RAM in a computer, perhaps only for those who can afford it? That’s a whole new topic for debate — and a glimpse into a future we are definitely moving toward. Neuralink, or something like it, will likely be the next phase in the human evolution journey, aided by technology and driven by humans themselves. We’re living on that threshold. And while most of us watch this technological progress with curiosity, for people whose lives could truly be transformed for the better by these devices, there is real hope that the future will arrive as soon as possible!
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