I lost to a cyborg. When I played the online game WebGrid, using my finger on my laptop’s trackpad to click squares that appear unpredictably on a grid, I was able to beat him at 42 beats per minute. When Noland Arbaugh, a self-described cyborg, played the game, using a chip implanted in his brain to send telepathic signals to a computer, his speed was 49.
Arbaugh was paralyzed from the neck down in 2016. In January, he became the first person to be surgically implanted with a chip made by Neuralink, a company founded by Elon Musk. Since then, Arbaugh has been able to use his mind to control his phone and computer, surf the web, and play games. civilization And chess.
But Neuralink is not the only company using brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) to blend the human brain with machines. Thanks to a series of trials, many people paralyzed by spinal cord injuries, strokes and movement disorders are regaining lost abilities. These successes have surprised some researchers, says Jamie Henderson, a neurosurgeon at Stanford University in California. “It’s been an incredible advance.”
Where that will take us remains to be seen. Musk recently mused about developing bionic implants that could compete with artificial superintelligence. Others are pondering deeper implications. “In the future, we will be able to manipulate human perception, memory, behavior and identity,” says Rafael Yuste of Columbia University in New York.
But while BCIs are undoubtedly impressive, as Arbaugh’s WebGrid scores show, the relationship between brain activity, thoughts, and behavior is incredibly complex. Memory…
