When a technological advance appears on the horizon, people get giddy with excitement. It means, at least intellectually, that humans as a species are evolving to become more aware and enlightened. These are the thoughts of many people when billionaire Elon Musk announced that a human’s brain had been surgically inserted with a coin-sized chip.
A product of Musk’s Neuralink company, the chip was inserted into the person’s brain with microscopic wires which can read neuron activity and beam back a wireless signal to a receiving unit. Neuralink officials claim monkeys can play a basic version of the video game Pong due to the chip. The Neuralink project was approved for human trials by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in May 2023.
Musk said the experimented human is recovering from the surgery “well” and initial results reveal “promising neuron spike detection.” While this may be cause for celebration for brain chip enthusiasts, it must be tempered with caution.
There is no doubt that a chip in the brain can play a significant role in the treatment or even the eradication of ailments such as dementia, depression, and sleep-disorders. Practically, life could be easier for many if they could order a pizza, browse the Internet, vote in an election, interface with a friend, perform work duties and study academically with a brain chip.
However, the concerns of those in the religious and ethics professions must be considered. Could the brain chip lead to a control mechanism that an unscrupulous leader uses to manipulate the minds of people? If you don’t have the brain chip, will someone be able to buy or sell?
The U.S. Congress and state legislative bodies such as the D.C. Council should monitor the activities of Neuralink and others seeking to explore the scientific, medical, and commercial benefits of the brain chip.
Depending on what leaders do regarding the brain chip, it can be an instrument of positive human evolution or destruction of mankind as a species.