Yesterday I wrote a post on the Neuralink event where they announced a bunch of things, including a device that can be connected to the brain as well as the many technologies they have developed over a period of two years.

The technology that they are creating will still take a long time to get into the hands of the average Joe, as they still have to perfect it, ensure safety, come up with a business model, nail down logistics, get approval from regulators and so on.

But when it is finally here, I wonder how many people will be eager to try it out. For the first time in history, there will be a device that will actually get attached to our bodies for day to day use, that too, our brains.

This will require only a minor surgery which wouldn't even need to be done at a hospital and in the words of Elon, you 'won't even feel a thing'. But is that enough to get people to adopt this tech, considering the expenses and risk when weighed against the potential benefits?

Limitless Potential

Apart from helping people suffering from brain disorders and other disabilities, the technology offers a huge promise of making us much smarter and more capable than we are in our natural form. This is bound to happen as we add a digital layer to ourselves.

Some might argue that, that is already the case. We all have smartphones, computers and we have easy access to all of the world's information. That is correct, but as Elon says, the issue here is of bandwidth. Our ability to absorb information and output information from and to our devices is painstakingly slow.

That bandwidth can only be increased to lightning fast speeds if we create a digital layer on top of our brain. This will essentially make us cyborgs because we will have both biological as well as digital parts. The digital part would be very small but would contribute greatly.

We will still be humans but could be much smarter than what we are today. If everything goes right, the average human could become Einstein level genius just by the addition of such a device. In the future, we might not have a choice but to do that as AI systems are predicted to one day surpass human intelligence. It could be our only way to remain relevant.

But all of that is way into the future. In the present, we would have a choice and although the surgery and the thought of living with an electronic device in the brain sounds scary as well as hugely expensive, it is intriguing to think about how life could be after the transition.