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Implanting microchips in people’s brains
to establish a permanent connection between the living organ and a computer, or a robotic tool: That is what tech mogul Elon Musk promised on 7 December to do next year, through his Neuralink technology, as the Daily Mail explains. In April, Neuralink showed off its brain chip in a monkey, which allowed the animal to play a game of Pong using only its mind.
This article comes as another report (read below) says that “time is running out to regulate neurotechnology. Headbands for scanning brain activity are already on sale to the public. But regulations for how such products should be used are lacking”.
Promises have a long history in making science fantastic – or not, as an expert in the field told me a few years ago in an in-depth interview for Le Temps. Marc Audétat, from University of Lausanne, summed it up: “Excessive promises and one-upmanship lead to decisions that are more political than scientific, to misplaced hopes; they do not illuminate the vision of the possibilities offered by the state of the art, they obscure it.” So, I always take such news sceptically, especially as Musk isn’t the first one to try this.
Still, with neurotechnologies, and largely beyond the billionaire’s announcements, the field is moving tremendously fast, as a session at the recent Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipation Summit underlined. And it now becomes urgent to act: “Two years on from the world’s first official ethical recommendations for mind-reading technology, experts in the field worry that the industry is still an unregulated Wild West, with the risk that will go down the same privacy-invading, manipulative path taken by social media, eventually triggering a public ‘techlash’,” writes Science|Business.
Olivier Dessibourg, GESDA
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