As someone who spent several years in the early 90's plunging electrodes into rat brains, and growing neurons out over copper arrays, I can tell you that people have completely misrepresented what he said.
Everything he said is correct.
But, the conclusions written in the Tweet and this headline are completely wrong. What he is saying is that the current technology that is being attempted is still inherently limited and not yet ready for prime time. It was even more limited back in the 90's, and those same issues are still present in the industry today.
That does not mean it is impossible. Merely that challenges still remain, and in his opinion is unlikely to be a realistic area for mass human adoption (and a thriving practice) given the current state of technology.
I personally would never allow an implant in my brain anyway, but just as we failed for decades getting organ transplants to be accepted until we finally stumbled upon a methodology to keep them from getting rejected, all it takes is a breakthrough in grafting to make this technology possible as well.
He doesn't believe Neuralink can overcome the inherent realities safely and consistently with their current approach. And Neuralink wouldn't be the first company that over promised in order to keep the funding coming in. But don't mischaracterize what he said.
As someone who spent several years in the early 90's plunging electrodes into rat brains, and growing neurons out over copper arrays, I can tell you that people have completely misrepresented what he said.
Everything he said is correct.
But, the conclusions written in the Tweet and this headline are completely wrong. What he is saying is that the current technology that is being attempted is still inherently limited and not yet ready for prime time. It was even more limited back in the 90's, and those same issues are still present in the industry today.
That does not mean it is impossible. Merely that challenges still remain, and in his opinion is unlikely to be a realistic area for mass human adoption (and a thriving practice) given the current state of technology.
I personally would never allow an implant in my brain anyway, but just as we failed for decades getting organ transplants to be accepted until we finally stumbled upon a methodology to keep them from getting rejected, all it takes is a breakthrough in grafting to make this technology possible as well.
He doesn't believe Neuralink can overcome the inherent realities safely and consistently with their current approach. And Neuralink wouldn't be the first company that over promised in order to keep the funding coming in. But don't mischaracterize what he said.