This is not creepy at all. Elon Musk announced that the first human implant of Neuralink was successful and that “initial results show promising neuron spike detection”. This neurotechnology “chip” is an implantable brain–computer connection. We love Elon for his First Amendment crusade. We think his heart is in the right place, but there are those of us who will just have to say “Hale no” to having a chip implanted in our brain.

The list of Elon Musk’s companies is prodigious. It’s not necessarily the number of companies. It is their far-sighted creativity. He has Space-X, X (Twitter), XAI, Neuralink Corporation, the Boring Company, and Tesla. Even if you hate him (some do), you have to admire his creative thinking. Last night, the New York Post reported:

Elon Musk announced that his human tech startup Neuralink has inserted a chip implant into the brain of its first human test subject.

The billionaire said the person had the chip surgically implanted into their brain on Sunday and “is recovering well”

“Initial results show promising neuron spike detection,” Musk wrote on X, the social media he owns.

The US Food and Drug Administration last year greenlit human trials of the company’s brain chips after Neuralink performed hundreds of tests on pigs, sheep and monkeys — and was called out for animal abuse by animal rights groups in the process.

“The last two years have been all about focus on building a human-ready product,” Neuralink co-founder DJ Seo told Bloomberg News in November. “It’s time to help an actual human being.”

I am not a fan of animal testing and chips in monkeys’ brains, haven’t I seen several of those movies? Co-founder DJ Seo makes the chip sound really creepy with “a human-ready product” to help “an actual human being”. And, then it goes from creepy to creeptacular:

The brain chip — which has 1,000 electrodes — is meant to allow people to wirelessly perform computer functions by just thinking of what they’d like to do via a “think-and-click” mechanism.

Last month the company said it was looking for quadriplegics under 40 years old to participate in the human trials. It also said a surgeon would remove part of the test patient’s skull before a 7-foot-tall robot named R1 would take over to implant 64 threads lined with electrodes into their brain.

The electrodes are programmed to gather data about the brain, including neural activity attached to movement intention. These neural signals recorded by the electrodes would then be sent back to Neuralink computers for decoding.

“The short-term goal of the company is to build a generalized brain interface and restore autonomy to those with debilitating neurological conditions and unmet medical needs,” Seo, who also holds the title of vice president for engineering, told Bloomberg.

“Then, really, the long-term goal is to have this available for billions of people and unlock human potential and go beyond our biological capabilities.”

The part with “part of the skull” and “a 7-foot tall robot”, um. I don’t give a fig what the robot’s name is. Then there is this: “Then, really, the long-term goal is to have this available for billions of people and unlock human potential and go beyond our biological capabilities.”

Thank you, no. Living and dying in a video game is way too Matrix for me:

Did he say “Not necessarily”?

My late Mother-in-Law was Schizo-Affective. Schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder. The last 50 years of her life were a living nightmare. If Neuralink could help with mental illness, blindness, paralysis and other human frailties, then God bless this work.

This transhumanism thing of making people better that is being sold to us, is it really? What if fixing the broken parts of us breaks our creative and genius parts and turns us into boring cogs. Or worse.

While I was pondering writing about Neuralink. I said I didn’t want to become a human air drop. I don’t want file sharing directly into my brain. My blogging sister Nina said that “Skynet was supposed to be just a movie.” Shite. I forgot about that:

Skynet is a fictional artificial neural network-based conscious group mind and artificial general superintelligence system that serves as the antagonistic force of the Terminator franchise.

In the first film, it is stated that Skynet was created by Cyberdyne Systems for SAC-NORAD. When Skynet gained self-awareness, humans tried to deactivate it, prompting it to retaliate with a countervalue nuclear attack, an event which humankind in (or from) the future refers to as Judgment Day. In this future, John Connor forms a human resistance against Skynet’s machines—which include Terminators—and ultimately leads the resistance to victory. Throughout the film series, Skynet sends various Terminator models back in time to attempt to kill Connor and ensure Skynet’s victory.

Surely, Elon Musk has seen the Terminator movies and has though about this. Or like most geniuses does he think he can solve the glitches.

Jan 2024, they knew the danger & implanted anyway. It glitched & Skynet was activated. We didn't see it coming. #neuralink

*Terminator theme music fades in https://t.co/1vrI2AoeZT pic.twitter.com/3TdyxOmDMf

— JDHR68 (@JDHR68) January 30, 2024

Last week, I was so naive. I was worried about the Southern Border and A.I.. Now, I am worried about being forced into the “hivemind” through Neuralink.

We are not going to make it, are we?

Featured Image: Steve Jurvetson/flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons