Neuralink Human Trials—The Problem is That People Do Not Want Their Skulls Opened.

Elon-Musk—Neuralink-Human-Trials
Image by Midjourney

Person: “Gosh, typing on a keyboard is so exhausting. Oh!! I know; I should do the Neuralink chip.”

*Goes to Neuralink HQ*

Employee: “Welcome! We are pleased you chose to be part of this journey. Are you excited to control everything with your mind?”

Person: “Hell yeah!”

Employee: “Alright, we will now start with the insertion process.”

Person: “Uhmm… insertion?”

Employee: “Of course, we will use this machine to open your skull and put in our chip.”

Person: “What the hell? How about… no?

Employee: “I mean… what did you expect?”

Person: “Umm. I don’t know. Wireless?”

Employee: “…”

Imaginary Conversation.

Neuralink is for the future — 200 years from now.

Recently, Elon Musk showed what Neuralink could do and announced that the neuralink human trials could begin soon. This makes me feel uneasy when I think of it — “human trials.”

It definitely feels like we are in one of those movies. I am not trying to sound like a dinosaur. I work in tech. Hence, I love reading about every tech advancement, including Neuralink.

I was fascinated by what they have achieved so far. This product is plain genius and a definite point to our generation. When I look up “the target segment of Neuralink,” one of the results mentions paralyzed people. For that, it does seem like quite a good market. 

Although, I am sure there will be quite a resistance from some of this target segment as it will require an enormous amount of courage actually to go through with this.

We know technology quite well in our days. There are always bugs, customer support, updates, and hacks. Getting those items inside our brains is scary, specifically for the wide audience who do not necessarily need such a product.

My main concern is this sentence — “Elon Musk wants Neuralink to facilitate human symbiosis with artificial intelligence.”

It’s such a bold sentence. This does not confine to a target segment. It addresses the majority of people. This is why we are in a futuristic Hollywood movie when you actually think of it.

Yet, for those movies, directors like to add drama and fear into the equation. That’s how movies sell. But it does not have to be like that in Elon’s situation. Merging A.I. with the human brain sounds like a good step forward. 

Only it’s a bit unnerving. Frankly, I am not sure about my future son and grandson, but I would not, in a million years, let a laser machine open my skull and throw something there, even if I will become superman.

Yet, when you come to think about it, a long time ago, people wouldn’t allow doctors to operate on their skulls. It also sounded unnerving. Nowadays, you’d do it if it’s life-threatening. Yet, you would not do it for luxury. 

This is why I believe Neuralink will be a fantastic but limited product. It will not reach the masses that Elon has in mind. It will not “facilitate human symbiosis with A.I.,” at least not at the beginning.

With the niche market of people needing it, Neuralink might prosper.

If it facilitates one of our basic human needs, like walking, then there is no question that it is a company worth investing in. 

However, whenever I read articles online, I see people who claim that Elon Musk is overpromising and not innovating.

However, they did the same with Tesla; now, it’s a growing company. So, I wouldn’t be so sure about Neuralink. There could be an astonishing market, but it might be niche and specific.

Neuralink, as a company, could be one of the most valuable companies in 30 years.

Although, as a business consultant, I’d put a bet that Neuralink could potentially become a company much larger than Tesla and SpaceX. Simply because if they find a way to reach the average consumer, it will be widespread in no time.

Of course, this does not mean that their initial product has to pan out. They could release something surprising with what they’re working on right now that most people would accept.

The company has already raised $350+ million, which is not impressive for a company backed by Elon. Remember that FTX raised $1.8 billion. So Neuralink’s initial valuation at this stage is nothing, as they haven’t really had traction, per se.

However, their market is just enormous, and it’s forever growing. There’s no question there.

Finally, the company could literally shatter from a single bug in Neuralink human trials.

When they experiment on monkeys, they get an animal abuse claim with questions and notoriety. However, when they experiment on humans in actual Neuralink human trials, there is no such thing as a human-testing abuse claim in our day and age. 

All it requires is that someone would be harmed by such testing. A simple technical mistake is the deal breaker.

  • Tesla could send faulty batteries to cars.
  • SpaceX could have many rockets explode.
  • Neuralink can not fail with a single human being.

So, if there is a charge overload, for instance (excuse my mechanical engineering’s ignorance.)Neuralink’s gone.

If there is a mistake in one of the insertions where a person moves, Neuralink’s gone.

If a single bug in the chip results in any singular negative outcome, Neuralink could potentially be gone.

Finally, the only certainty with any tech company is that bugs will occur.

The question is, how will they survive the trending article that tells that story?


Meet The Author Of This Article

Al Anany

I’m Al Anany, the founder and CEO of Albusi.

Writing in the business industry has shifted my mentality toward entrepreneurship. I started on Medium in 2021 and ended up being a Top Writer of more than 4 categories and had my content viewed more than 213k times.

I always have a single goal while writing: focus on entertaining while adding value.

Start your own business. You could build your own Neuralink. If you need some planning documents, I recommend this team.


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