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Flat White

Elon Musk, Neuralink and the existential risks of human enhancement

4 September 2020

1:30 PM

4 September 2020

1:30 PM

Elon Musk’s Neuralink update on 28 August will be remembered by most of the public for clickbait news headlines involving pigs and memes referencing “cypork.” This drives more web traffic than “wireless brain-computer interface makes progress.” 

Cognitive neuroscientists and other leading medical technology researchers highlighted that the medical world already uses implants for some conditions.  

And the caricature of Musk as a cross between Victor Frankenstein and Howard Hughes distracts from the existential concerns Neuralink simultaneously seeks to address and triggers. 

Context is everything in relation to understanding why Musk is funding Neuralink.   

Apart from the late Stephen Hawking, no other public figure has sounded the...

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