It sounds like things are going well for this guy and that is great and all, but how much would we honestly expect to hear if it wasn’t going well?
This story is circulating all the media outlets and feels more like PR than a legit example of how this procedure is actually going to work for most people.
It sounds like things are going well for this guy and that is great and all, but how much would we honestly expect to hear if it wasn’t going well?
Given how eager people are to pounce on negative news about anything Elon Musk-related, I expect we would be hearing way, way more about this if it wasn’t going well. “Elon Musk’s Neuralink Damages a Man’s Brain!” and “Elon Musk’s Neuralink Fails!” Headlines and such from every rooftop.
You mean like these articles doing the rounds a while back? https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-pcrm-neuralink-monkey-deaths/
Yeah, exactly. People love to amplify any negatives they can find about Musk, it plays to the rage mobs and that translates into clicks and endorphins.
…do you think that fucked up things like that shouldn’t be reported on?
Sure, they should be reported on. The problem is in the focus and bias present in the reporting overall. If all you ever report on are the bad things that could conceivably be linked to a particular person who is popular to hate, the overall result can be an unrealistic portrayal of the world even if each individual story and each individual fact within them is true. History is rife with distortions like that.
It kinda seems like you’re saying it’s a bad thing to report on things he does that are bad simply because there’s an audience that’s interested. But, that’d be kind of a weird take
I’m saying that reporting disproportionately negative news about someone is not going to lead to a realistic view of the world.
For example, consider Fox News pouncing on every possible headline that could paint Joe Biden in a bad light because Fox viewers already hate Biden and such reports draw engagement as a result. Nor a good thing if your goal is a realistic view of the world, right? Same idea here.
Patient 2: “unresponsive”
Two years later
Patient 27: “unresponsive”
Patient 28: “Guys! We’ve got a live one here!”
“Patient 28, you are now Patient 1.”
I think it’s an amazing advancement and that’s awesome for a quadriplegic person to interact with the world.
The part that I haven’t heard anyone mention is what is the life cycle of these chips. Computers and cell phones all become outdated so quickly. Are recipients guaranteed upgraded chips as they become available?
I was reading an article recently about people who have had implants in their eyes that help them to see become obsolete. One because the company stopped supporting the specific version that was in the patient. The other because the company had gone out of business.
Even if the chip never went obsolete, the scar tissue build up around implanted brain devices interferes with signal over time and they need to be replaced.
Also, each installation/replacement has a few percentage point chance of leading to a life threatening infection.
Unless both those issues are solved, irrespective of obsolescence this is only the sort of thing that makes sense for patients who feel that their life is effectively over without it and have low risk thresholds for treatment options.
This is your scheduled reminder that Musk’s companies have a history of faking test footage and results on his direction.
I don’t know why, I have zero reason to even think this. Maybe it’s my growing distaste for Musk and his bullshit. But something about this whole thing has my “press X to doubt” meter going off the charts.
If I’m wrong. Great. But something in my gut tells me that you don’t just go from multiple dead test subjects and a steven king novel’s worth of FDA investigations, to suddenly having someone using it perfectly fine with no side effects.
Again, this is all allegedly. I have no proof or evidence either way. It’s just my own gut. So don’t sue me, Elon.
Why? Because time and time again it has been shown that Musk’s big bold ideas are shaky prototypes based on lies that just blagged it long enough for him to find someone who could kind of make something work. It’s a complete coin toss as to whether it actually works out or not, but it will be despite Musk not because of him.
Imagine letting Elon Musk drill a hole in your head just so you can make the mouse move with your mind
Imagine being a quadriplegic and having someone invent a method by which you can better interact with the outside world again, but refusing it because “Twitter man bad!”
You realize Elon Musk doesn’t actually do the surgery himself, right?
You realize this tech has existed for like a decade, right?
Shit, I remember research from 20 years ago.
So why is Neuralink a thing, then?
I have a number of concerns about Neuralink specifically. Mainly:
-
The scientists I’ve seen saying stuff like, “I work in a lab with Nematoads (flatworms), and if we had casualty rates like they’ve had with monkeys, we’d have our license revoked and a full investigation of the lab.”
-
What’s the long-term look like for these? How often will they need to be replaced? What’s the End of Service going to look like? Will they be like that recent issue with those bionic eyes that the company just stopped supporting and the patients who had them implanted had no other choice but to go back under and get them surgically removed because they were going to just stop working.
The idea of the tech is great, but I don’t trust a for-profit company to care about the people that it’s going into, and a company under Musk especially. Look at all the issues with Teslas that make it seem like there’s no regulatory oversight on those cars. From that billionaire woman who just drowned because the glass Tesla uses is shatterproof when submerged and the doors are electronic (so don’t work without power - like when the car touches water) and the only way to manually open them is to disassemble the door panel and pull an unmarked wire, to how they have the highest accident rates of any car brand. And supposedly, their newer models (since 2021 or so) don’t even have a manual shifter. The car guesses whether you want the car in drive or reverse, and if it guesses wrong, you have to change it in the touchscreen menu.
Musk’s name being attached is reason enough to worry simply because of how often it seems that safety regulations just seem to disappear when he’s involved.
-
Imagine being a quadriplegic and having someone invent a method by which you can better interact with the outside world again, but refusing it because “Twitter man bad!”
I would have a different opinion if it had been Civ5.
I quit playing after Civ IV, there’s just nothing better than Leonard Nimoy’s voice narrating it.
Heh. Yeah, the older they get the more I actually enjoy them. In fact, I actually picked up Unciv, https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/unciv-is-a-free-open-source-take-on-civilization-5-thats-coming-to-steam, since its FOSS and I can play it for hours on flights.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=121611292
I’ve never played Civ 4, but even though I keep the voice volume nearly inaudible, I still always play with this mod.
He’s a quadriplegic. It’s not like it was done because he was a Musk fanboy.
On one hand, I get it, on the other, I’d trust just about any other tech company above anything Musk does
Which other tech companies are doing this?
Let’s separate the asshole from the accomplishments please, I don’t think we should deny people potentially life changing technology because it’s associated with some rich dickhead.
The company and its accomplishments are pretty sketchy though
Their accomplishment seems pretty good in this case.
It was an incredibly reckless process of development that involved abusing monkeys and skirting regulations
I have 200 hours in Civ 6, and have yet to win a game on anything except points. The latter eras are such a slog.
You almost need to pick your victory condition at the start and focus everything on that, and what you can’t focus on that win condition you focus on denying the win for someone else, whoever happens to be winning by that point. Generally the same will be over before you get to the modern era.
Religion and war are the sloggiest.
Culture victory is almost impossible without mods. Even if you get past how cryptic it is, other civs basically have free reign to stall you if they focus at all on culture.
Funny thing is though, I got a culture victory as Gilgamesh… because I nuked Greece. I was going for war victory so it was really funny to launch a nuke at the greek capital then suddenly jump to the culture victory cutscene.
