One interface neural direta is Elon Musk’s great promise to help people with disabilities. In view of this, his company, Neuralink, is preparing to carry out the first tests on humans.
However, for The Daily Beast, Laura Cabrera, a neuroethicist at Pennsylvania State University, wonders if it will be possible to remove the implants without damaging the brain. “If it goes wrong, we don’t have the technology to ‘explant’ them.” In addition to questions like: what is the life of the chip? Will Neuralink offer updates to participants at a later date?
As for Karola Keritmair, assistant professor of medical history and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, future spinoffs commercials are problematic. “I worry about an uncomfortable marriage between a for-profit company and these medical interventions that we hope are there to help people. Neuralink says it is developing its implant to help people with disabilities, but the market is quite small, which could lead to problems with profitability.”
The direct neural interface device may be of interest to the public to control devices with the brain, such as, for example, drive a Tesla car with thought. However, there is the problem of using people with real needs for someone else’s commercial gain, according to L. Syd Johnson of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at Suny Upstate Medical University.
He also has doubts about the company’s goals “if Elon Musk’s Neuralink claims they will be able to use their device for therapeutic purposes to help people with disabilities, they are making unrealistic promises because they are far from having the capability. “
In addition, scientists are also concerned about what will happen to the data in the event of a Neuralink acquisition. Or what would happen if the device was hacked? They would certainly have devastating consequences for the individual.
Scientists who raise these questions are not necessarily against the technology, but they are cautious about the potential abuses the project could be. It cannot be denied that the implant has the potential to change the lives of paralyzed people, and Elon Musk’s company isn’t the only one working on neural interfaces.
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