The founder of Tesla Motors, Elon Musk, has long been touted to be the savior of mankind. This of course is for good reason. With the wide variety of interests the genius-multi billionaire has, he has gone on to found several influential companies such as Solar City, Tesla, and even a  company that specializes in space travel called SpaceX. And since he is a man with such an impressive portfolio, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise when he decides on starting new, more sci-fi sounding ventures. But that being said, he may have just outdone himself with his latest endeavor. The man basically wants to turn our brains into computers! How you ask? Let us take a look. 

Back in 2016, Elon Musk along with a group of other brilliant people, decided to start a new company called Neuralink. And the goal of this company, as expected, was to equip a human brain with a microcomputer so as to enable a wide variety of operations that a regular human brain is not geared to perform. 

In 2019, the company in which Musk invested $100 million took its first step towards realising its goal. Neuralink described a sewing machine like robot that could implant minute threads deep into the brain. The company claims that eventually, this system would enable us to read and write vast amounts of data associated with the brain. The vision behind this venture, just like Mr. Musk’s multiple other companies borders on the verge of being something straight out of a science fiction novel. So naturally, the team at Neuralink would have their work cut out for them as achieving Neuralink’s vision is no simple task. 

The company even openly admitted that there is still a long way to go before they could offer commercial service. But that being said, the team has continued to work hard along with Elon Musk to solve engineering problems and keep advancing. Recently, the company realised the potential benefits the technology could offer in the medical sector and has hence funneled a majority of its resources into developing its technology for such purposes. From helping people speak and see to aiding amputees in regaining mobility, the applications of Neuralink’s technology is vast. 

At the moment, the company says they would have to drill holes in the skull to implant necessary equipment. But in the future, they hope that the same could be achieved painlessly through laser technology. Most recently, the company demonstrated a system connected to a lab rat reading information from 1500 electrodes. This system was made to be capable enough for scientific research and medical applications. 

The flexible threads of electrodes which are the core part of the system, are placed in proximity to the neurons in the brain. This enables the system to capture information from a large number of cells and send it wirelessly to a computer for analysis. Moreover, to ensure safety, the threads are placed using ultra thin needles guided by a computer vision system that helps avoid blood vessels on the surface of the brain. These threads are made of a cellophane like material. And the actual purpose of them is to act as an insulator for the conductive wires that are used to link a series of electrodes and sensors. These threads have the added flexibility of being able to be inserted in different locations and to different depths depending upon the application. For example, researchers could use them to focus on different parts of the brain, such as the center for speech, hearing, vision, etc. 

This technology is obviously still in its early stages. The researchers still need to prove that the insulation of the threads could last for long periods in the brain’s environment. But that being said, Neuralink is sure to make progress, especially considering its 90 highly skilled employees and the $158 million that it has received as an investment. Moreover, with a man as talented as Elon Musk at its forefront, there is a strong possiblity that one day we may all be walking around with computers in our heads!