With His Cars Crashing Themselves Into Policemen And His Social Media Company In Disarray, Elon Musk Prepares To Insert Microchips Into Human Brains

Would you trust Elon Musk to put a computer in your brain? That's the question many on social media are debating right now after the embattled billionaire announced yesterday that his Neuralink project, which aims to put a microchip into human brains so that people can control certain things using only their minds, is "six months" away from human trials.

"It’s like replacing a piece of your skull with a smartwatch, for lack of a better analogy," Musk said during the presentation.

everything i can say about what these people deserve is a felony

— Successfully paid for cube (@Boringstein) December 1, 2022

This is the third time Musk has projected a timetable for when Neuralink human trials will begin. Previously, he stated they would occur in 2020 and then stated they would occur in 2022. At the Neuralink presentation yesterday, he also claimed he would get the device implanted in his own brain in the future.

Considering the scores of recent stories about Musk's projects being perceived by many as either largely in disarray or posing danger to their users and others, the thought of letting Elon Musk's company insert a microchip into their brain proved a turnoff for many potential test subjects.

Elon Musk's Neuralink: for when you want your brain to burst into flames, but unexpectedly.

— Megs (@the_meghaning) December 1, 2022

I don't want to tell you what to do but maybe don't let Elon Musk give you an experimental brain implant

— Rob (@robrousseau) December 1, 2022

Seeing how well Elon Musk is running Twitter, I can’t wait to let him put a chip in my brain https://t.co/SjiknBTPBa

— Mark Gongloff (@markgongloff) December 1, 2022

While Musk's recent failures have made some highly suspicious of his ambition to insert microchips into a human brain, there are several issues with Neuralink itself that have people doubting whether it's a good idea or not.

For starters, the difficulty of the surgery required to get the implant made many wonder if it was safe. Christine Odabashian, the leader of Neuralink’s hardware insertion team, described the surgical process (which would be performed by computers) and said, "Imagine taking a hair from your head and sticking it into jello covered by saran wrap, doing that to a precise depth and precision, and doing that 64 times in a reasonable amount of time."

Many critics noted that what Neuralink has shown it can do in monkey trials can already be done with external hardware, making invasive and highly precise surgery unnecessary. Also, the Neuralink would need to wirelessly charge its battery in the brain, leading to several questions about what would happen if the battery stopped working.

The other thing is everything he's shown so far (controlling a computer interface with your mind) has been achievable for a while with EXTERNAL HARDWARE

— Shoegaze Socialist (@Fuzzy_DunIop) December 1, 2022

I mean according to the presentation it is. I have to imagine "Why do you need this in your brain as opposed to an external device" is a much bigger question though lol

— The Grimm who stole Christmas 🎄 (@ExileGrimm) December 1, 2022

Lastly, Musk seemed to be optimistic about human trials despite the alarmingly high fatality rate in animal trials. In 2022, it was reported that 15 out of the 23 monkeys used as Neuralink test subjects between 2017 and 2020 died.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) notably reviewed the data from the trials and did not come out with a positive view of Neuralink's brain chips.

"Pretty much every single monkey that had had implants put in their head suffered from pretty debilitating health effects," the PCRM’s research advocacy director Jeremy Beckham said. "They were, frankly, maiming and killing the animals."