[The Editors' Verdict] The Astonishing Future of Brain-Computer Interface Technology

Neuralink, a startup in the field of neuroscience, revealed on August 28 that it had implanted a coin-sized computer chip into a pig's brain and monitored it for two months. A live broadcast showed the electrical signals generated in the pig's brain when it ate or moved being recorded in real time on Neuralink's computer via wireless communication. There are three pigs implanted with two chips each and one pig with prior implantation experience, all of which are reported to be in good health.

Neuralink is a startup focused on developing brain-computer interfaces (BCI) founded in 2016 by innovative entrepreneur Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla. Musk stated that in the near future, chips that assist brain activity will be implanted in humans to treat diseases such as Alzheimer's and spinal cord injuries, ultimately aiming to significantly enhance human brain capabilities. He predicted that it will soon be possible to store and retrieve short-term memories.

BCI is not a new technology and has been researched for a long time. In the 1980s, magnetic fields were used to stimulate brain neurons to treat depression patients. In 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a system that sends small electrical signals to the brain to prevent seizures in some epilepsy patients. In the 2000s, BrainGate was launched, which used electrode arrays to detect and transmit signals from the brain to move limbs.

Unlike existing BCIs that used dozens to hundreds of electrodes, Neuralink connected 1,024 electrode channels using flexible polymer materials. The increased number of channels allows much more detailed information transmission than previous BCIs, and since both the electrodes and chipset are ultra-small, it represents a significant size advancement compared to existing BCIs. A medical robot was also developed to implant thin electrodes automatically without damaging blood vessels or neurons. In the near future, it is expected that Neuralink device implantation will be completed within an hour using lasers without opening the skull, general anesthesia, or bleeding, making the procedure as simple as LASIK surgery. So far, devices have protruded externally, but Neuralink's device is implanted in the skull and the scalp is restored to its original state, making it impossible to tell if the procedure was performed just by looking. Charging is possible via magnetic wireless charging, and the goal is to reduce surgery costs to a few thousand dollars. Musk plans to conduct human clinical trials on patients with nerve damage by the end of this year.

Neuralink's ultimate goal is to connect the human brain to a computer, enabling thoughts to be downloaded to a computer and digital information to be uploaded to the brain. If such science fiction-like scenarios become reality, everything could be controlled by thought alone. If the brain and computer are directly connected, the day may come when knowledge itself can be downloaded into the brain. If you want to speak another country's language, you just upload the program to your brain. The current education system would become completely useless. Teaching or learning anything would become meaningless. The movie "The Matrix" would become reality. Musk said this could be realized within 5 to 10 years.

Humans recognize their existence through memory. If memory is well preserved, one can live forever. By scanning the brain's memories and storing them in the cloud, and then downloading them from the cloud to a robot, one can create their own avatar. Extremely, downloading into the brain of a young person could allow one to live a new life. Essentially, immortality could become possible. This technology might only be available to the wealthy, creating extreme disparities. If this happens, the development of brain-computer connection technology will cause enormous ethical and legal issues beyond technical problems. Let us watch whether Neuralink truly brings happiness to humanity or brings about a tremendous disaster.

Juhwan Lim, Advisor, Korea Information and Communication Industry Research Institute