o.O

Feels like the dystopia is starting to kick real well. What a trip.

t's amazing how scientific persons are so keen on making true seemingly delirious concepts.

21th Century Schizoid Man ...

I watched about half of it, they only covered reading activity, not sending any input to the brain. What is so strange? Many psychedelic related studies used PET (positron imaging) or fMRI. This is just a different interface to investigate.

Thanks, muladharma, for the voice of reason.

People are afraid of what they don't understand and tend to regurgitate what the fearful masses fed by sensationalist headlines say.

The idea of the internet, smartphone or GPS satellites, too, would have seemed delirious 100 years ago. Luckily reason prevailed and now we can enjoy these wonders of progress.

Elon Musk may be a jerk and a narcissist, but he's a bold visionary, his can-do attitude is inspiring people across the globe and pushing the boundaries of what we believe is possible.

This is by no means a new subject of research. Neural prosthetics are being researched, developed and even applied, for the last 10 years.
And it is really exciting stuff!

So happen that having the name Elon Musk ( who I have a lot of respect for, given the visionary that he is and being one of the very few humans who both contemplates the future of humanity and has the means to actively pursue it ) attached to something, is guaranteed to create a buzz... for better and for worse.
Beside being a visionary, he is also a brilliant marketer and PR'ist

Here is a video from 7 years ago presenting some of this amazing field of research:

Like all technology it is essentially a neutral agent without action. Depending on how it's used technology like this could do a lot of good things in the health care department. However Elon's also plans for this to act as a interface between our brain and the internet. I don't know how that will play out (or if it will be as capable as he thinks it will be). I have my eye on this piece of technology.

It does feel like we are taking our first steps into a cyberpunk like future .

Medical technology is heavily regulated. Big tech is not.

One of the many questions is if you would trust people like elon musk (or jeff bezos or mark zuckerberg or peter thiel) enough, to give them unrestricted acces to your brain.

And before answering that question, consider the damage social media have done to society already (think cambridge analytics and the USA being almost on the brink of civil war through filterbubbling people), with the very limited acces they have to our brains right now.

But this is false. Technology demands ressources to be created and the way it is created is the result of a certain view of the world. They are people who think we can always extract the good of things, that we could have night with no obscurity and eternal growth. This ideals belong to the realms of abstraction but cannot be imprinted on the world. What they assertate doing so most essentially is that we not only can but outright need to control our environements and reshape them to our own image.

Internet and smartphone still is a delirious idea, nothing has changed from what it was then and what it is now. A self made bubble where we lock ourselves up. The computer is the latest update in a view of the world with man at it's center: a flat surface with a light that exist only for us. Pretty Moyen Age actually. A telephone can make you hear the voice of someone on the other side of the planet. Wow, great. Being stripped of body and context surely makes one feel free. Not limited by the silly flesh ! Yes, to be totally disconnect from your immediate reality. Far from the trouble of everyday life, like the sage having reached enlightenment in his cave. You can spend your days listening to people from the other side of the world and learn, share, expand beyond any limitations and boundaries. You are all powerful and ubiquious. Yepee.

But yeah, obviously something that is gratifying to us will present benefits, like aristocrats benefit from the labor of those below them or the oil industry from ruining the planet.

Still, Elon Musk is far from alone in his delusion of grandeur and narcisism, it's the entirety of society that has been swallowed by the mirrors it created. The places that exist untouch are but a few, and those who have been in contact with the "virus" can no longer escape, as the space they have started inhabiting can be accessed from any other place, it stays unchanged to the passage of time. A little heaven for dried souls.

Really, cyberpunk stories are warning, not advertising of where to put money for vacation. If you think Akira or (more directly speaking here) Paprika were praising you need a good rewatch. As does the Head of Tesla it so seems.

Your right I hadn't thought about the toll that technology takes from the natural world. My point was the intentions used to with technology can make the technology good or bad. But that also is not right because despite the intention complications arise with technology that makes figuring out the impact of technology in the world tough.

Yeah that was my point, I got carried away ...

To be more precise about neural link, and though I don't have technical capabilities for more detailled analysis, a phone is not something that feels natural for the body to hold, you hold it for a little too long and your hands starts to itch, you curve your back, your neck, etc. It's very apparent with phones but also happens with computer, though it seems easier to remedy. Still, looking at a flat surface with rounds eyes is not very healthy. How could putting a device in our heads not bear similar consequences ? The thing is going to be on all the time because of how versatile and dematerialised it is. They might happen at a different level, but similar concerns for the body are a real possibility ... not ? The promise being so great, wouldn't the side effect be just as risky ?