Magadonians— The Polite Way Of Referring To MAGAts— Are Lining Up To Get Brains From Elon Musk

As you’ve probably read by now, Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain implant company, has been approved by the FDA for human testing. Reporting for The Guardian, Kari Paul and Maanvi Singh wrote that last week Musk’s company “received regulatory approval to conduct the first clinical trial of its experimental device in humans. But the billionaire executive’s bombastic promotion of the technology, his leadership record at other companies and animal welfare concerns relating to Neuralink experiments have raised alarm. ‘I was surprised,’ said Laura Cabrera, a neuroethicist at Penn State’s Rock Ethics Institute about the decision by the US Food and Drug Administration to let the company go ahead with clinical trials. Musks’ erratic leadership at Twitter and his ‘move fast’ techie ethos raise questions about Neuralink’s ability to responsibly oversee the development of an invasive medical device capable of reading brain signals, Cabrera argued. ‘Is he going to see a brain implant device as something that requires not just extra regulation, but also ethical consideration?’ she said. ‘Or will he just treat this like another gadget?’”

Neuralink is neither the only nor the first company working on brain interface devices. Research teams around the world have been exploring the use of implants and devices to treat conditions such as paralysis and depression for decades. Kernel has been actively developing non-invasive neurotechnologies aimed at improving brain health and cognition. They have focused on creating advanced brain interfaces and have made progress in their research and development efforts. CTRL-labs (now part of Facebook Reality Labs) has been working on a wrist-worn device that can interpret neural signals to control digital devices and interfaces using hand movements and gestures. Paradromics is focused on developing high-bandwidth, implantable brain-machine interfaces, and their scientists have been working on technologies that allow for bi-directional communication between the brain and external devices. Blackrock Microsystems specializes in neural interface technologies, including implantable devices and systems for recording and stimulating neural activity. Synchron has been developing an implantable brain-computer interface called the Stentrode, which is designed to be implanted into blood vessels near the brain. Their technology aims to enable thought-controlled interaction with external devices.

“But the broad scope of capabilities Musk is promising from the Neuralink device have garnered skepticism from experts,” wrote Paul and Singh. “Neuralink entered the industry in 2016 and has designed a brain-computer interface (BCI) called the Link– an electrode-laden computer chip that can be sewn into the surface of the brain and connects it to external electronics– as well as a robotic device that implants the chip. The design appears to use a novel kind of electrode, said John Donoghue, a neuroscientist at Brown University who led the team that developed the brain–computer interface ‘BrainGate’ to restore movement for people with paralysis. Musk has claimed Neuralink’s device could be used for a range of therapeutic uses, to treat conditions like blindness, paralysis, depression. But he has also said that the eventual aim is to create a “general population device” that could connect a user’s mind directly to supercomputers and help humans keep up with artificial intelligence. He has also suggested that the device could eventually extract and store thoughts, as ‘a backup drive for your non-physical being, your digital soul.’”

The company is not there yet. So far, Neuralink has tested its chips on animals. A video released in 2021 shows a monkey using the device to play the video game Pong with his mind and another from 2022 appeared to show a monkey typing on a computer telepathically.

The FDA approval cleared the first hurdle toward a human clinical trial, but the scope, focus and design of any such study remains unclear.

…The FDA approval also comes amid ongoing scrutiny of Neuralink’s testing practices, and allegations of animal cruelty. The company has killed more than 1,500 animals since it began experimenting on them in 2018, according to another report from Reuters. While death of animal test subjects is not uncommon in labs, employees told the news service the mortality rate has been higher than necessary due to Musk’s grueling development timeline, which they allege has led to more mistakes and botched operations.

Former employees interviewed by Reuters characterised some experiments as “hack jobs.” In one botched experiment, the wrong size of devices was installed in 25 of 60 pigs used for testing. In another, Neuralink’s device was accidentally implanted into the wrong vertebra of two different pigs during two separate surgeries, leading to their euthanasia due to pain and suffering. Neuralink did not respond to Reuters request for comment at the time. And the FDA declined to comment, citing laws keeping commercial information private.

Most of the company’s founders, which included top scientists in the field, have quit. As of July 2022, only two of the eight founding members remained at Neuralink.

“I would love to know what the FDA was thinking,” said L Syd Johnson, a neuroethicist at the Center for Bioethics and Humanities in SUNY Upstate Medical University. “One of the concerns about Neuralink is that it’s not functioning in the way that many other research laboratories or organisations function,” Johnson added. “There’s concerns about the potential that they are performing a kind of sloppy work and that their data may not be reliable.”

The allegations have led to ongoing investigations of Neuralink from multiple government agencies and members of Congress, including an inquiry from the Department of Agriculture over allegations of animal abuse and the Department of Transportation over mishandling of bio-hazardous materials across state lines. Earlier this month, Democratic representatives Earl Blumenauer and Adam Schiff called on the US Department of Agriculture to investigate conflicts of interest in the board responsible for oversight of animal testing at Neuralink. In an email, the USDA said it could not confirm or deny the investigation. The Department of Transportation did not respond to a request for comment.

“I would want to wait to hear how those investigations go and what are the findings before giving the company a greenlight for trials,” said Cabrera. “If the allegations turn out to be true, it certainly raises concerns about the handling of human subjects’ brains.”

…Musk’s track record of mishandling user data at Twitter also raises questions about his company’s ability to handle highly sensitive data extracted from the participants of its eventual clinical trials, both Johnson and Cabrera said.

“There are some ethical concerns about privacy, anytime you’re using a brain device,” said Johnson. “Things to look out for are: will Neuralink have access to the brain data of the people that they implant these devices in? What are they going to do with it? And how are they going to protect user privacy?”

Neuralink did not respond to questions about how it plans to handle the data of trial participants.

Musk’s marketing sets Neuralink apart from other companies and teams at public institutions working in the BCI field, which have focused on using the devices to treat specific medical conditions such as seizures, Parkinson’s tremors or paralysis.

The industry of “neuromodulation devices,” which record or stimulate neural activity, has surpassed $6 billion. Synchron, another BCI manufacturer, received FDA approval to test brain implant devices in July 2021 and Blackrock Neurotech, which installs brain implants that enable people with paralysis to control digital devices and prosthetics, has been carrying out human trials for more than a decade.

Musk, meanwhile, has said he founded the company largely in response to concerns that artificial intelligence would gain too much power over humans. The Neuralink device would allow humans to compete with new sentient AI, Musk has argued, stating “I created [Neuralink] specifically to address the AI symbiosis problem, which I think is an existential threat.”

Reporting Rolling Stone for over the weekend, Miles Klee suggested we all meet the folks lining up for Elon Musk’s brain implant. He didn’t mention them, but here are the Magadonians:

Click the picture to get to know the Magadonians

“[P]eople,” wrote Klee, “are more than ready to lead the charge.” One told Klee that he understands that “there are risks, but someone has to be willing to step up and take that risk… I am also a Tesla owner, and it would be pretty rad if I could communicate with my car using just my mind.”

Klee admits that “While that sounds far-fetched, it’s not out of step with how Musk hypes Neuralink’s budding technology. The company has so far developed a brain-computer interface (BCI) that is implanted within the skull by a surgical robot and uses electrodes to process the electrical activity of neurons, then transmits these signals to another device, such as a computer. Motor impairment and spinal cord injuries have been the focus of Neuralink’s early explorations— the same is true of other biotech researchers developing brain implants— because this technology can allow for paralyzed individuals to move limbs or prosthetics and write text messages with thoughts alone. Yet Musk, who has poured at least $100 million of his own money into the venture, makes far broader and fantastic claims ahout the capabilities of his company’s implant. Apart from declaring that it ‘will enable someone with paralysis to use a smartphone with their mind faster than someone using their thumbs,’ and ‘paraplegics to walk again,’ he’s speculated it could eventually treat blindness, schizophrenia, depression, autism, obesity, and insomnia, and one day meld human consciousness with AI. This is in addition, of course, to creating a direct channel between minds and machines, not to mention the global internet. Oh, and did we mention that Neuralink could, according to Musk, allow for telepathic communication?”

The scientific community has expressed frank skepticism about a lot of this, with some experts saying Musk has little to no reason for such optimism. What’s more, the corporate culture at Neuralink, which has lost several founding members, is reportedly plagued by a “culture of blame” and unrealistic deadlines imposed by Musk. They have stiff competition from rivals in the space, including Blackrock Neurotech, backed by billionaire and former Musk business partner Peter Thiel, which claims it has already implanted their chips in more than 30 people’s brains. On top of all that, Neuralink has faced at least two federal probes from regulators, one of them tied to whistleblowers’ claims that rushed testing led to the “needless suffering” of 1,500 animals— and deaths of over a dozen— in experiments since 2018. Neuralink has denied that they acted improperly with any animals, yet still, in some corners of the internet, it’s is less known for pioneering neuroscience than as the Musk company that allegedly tortured a bunch of monkeys.

…“I’ve actually been waiting for this for years,” says Lyric Caballero, 23, a piercing and tattoo artist in Dallas. The reports of animals dying gruesomely in Neuralink labs are nothing to worry about because they were “killed in early trials,” she explains, and wouldn’t dissuade her from becoming a test subject. “After all, it’s FDA-approved now, and for that to have happened the entire team at the Neuralink facility have spent and dedicated their entire time on researching and developing this technology.”

…“My interest in Neuralink is selfish,” says Feudi Pandola, 72, a financial aid officer for a Philadelphia university health care system. “I have read that this technology can add years to life expectancy, perhaps decades. As a 72-year-old, that interests me.” Susan Holden Martin, 69, a college educator in New Hampshire, thinks along the same lines: “I wouldn’t mind being a Neuralink test subject. I’m fascinated by the potential enhancements, and I’m getting older and wonder if it might help stall or eliminates cognitive decline.” As for whether she feels FDA approval for human trials may have been premature, given some of the alarming headlines about turmoil at the company and monkeys dying in labs, she’s agnostic. “Out of my wheelhouse,” she says. “But if my gut counts, it doesn’t feel early or too fast.”

Another common refrain among these Neuralink-positive interviewees is that Musk is just the man to make the breakthrough on brain-computer interfaces. Caballero cites SpaceX’s development of reusable rockets and says Musk is “always constantly working on making the next best thing and how to improve his products and services,” claiming that he “isn’t one to release something to the market that isn’t perfected.” (Some who own a Tesla, by far the most recalled of any car brand, may disagree.) “Elon Musk has achieved so many amazing breakthroughs that the mainstream media doesn’t even credit him for it,” she argues.

…Not everyone is looking to Musk’s biotech firm for medical reasons, and if he has perhaps exaggerated on that front, he’s also encouraged the impression that this brain implant can unleash human ability by turning us into advanced cyborgs. John Kalning, 49, works in film production and produces a gothic Western AI art project on YouTube called “NeuralPunks.” For him, Neuralink offers a “seamless creative process” through a “direct neural connection with AI systems.”

Already invested in “bypassing the limitations of traditional tools and methods” through AI tools like Midjourney, Kalning wants to take things a step further— and believes a Neuralink trial could get him there. “The communication between my limited human mind and AI could unlock new dimensions of artistic expression, making AI films that truly emanate from my imagination,” he says. “Excited to be a ghost in the shell.”

“Ever since I first heard about Neuralink, I’ve been hooked by the idea of being able to tinker around with my own brain,” says Brock Brown, a 27-year-old programmer who imagines “downloading stuff to my brain, managing complex negative emotions, having all sorts of trippy experiences.” But beyond these applications, Brown has a sweeping philosophical view of what this kind of hardware represents. “I can’t shake the feeling that we’re on the cusp of something the same magnitude of when the cells decided to team up to become animals,” he says. “We might be on the brink of a change so profound, it could strip all the fluff, all the deception. It could lay us bare, giving us the chance to live raw, authentic lives.”

Whether it’s Neuralink or a successor that will open up this gleaming world, Brown isn’t sure. What he knows is that to be there at its beginning is a once-in-history opportunity. “The possibility of being one of the first people to take that leap, or to at least get a taste of it, feels worth risking everything for,” he says.

Regardless of their different theories of what a Musk-backed neural implant means for our species, this seems to be a shared conviction among its biggest proponents: The change will be seismic, and there’s no sense in shying away from what’s to come. Where some are dissuaded by perilous hazard and deep uncertainty, they see virtually infinite upside. That their dream of a brain chip as panacea for all of humanity’s ills and weaknesses currently hangs on Musk, rather than the biomedical industry as a whole, is a testament to his relentless salesmanship.

Still, it’ll be a good while before Neuralink arrives at a finished product, and the company may never get there if the federal investigations and negative headlines continue. It’s hardly out of the question that Musk himself, the very picture of a mercurial billionaire, would scotch or somehow pivot the plan in years ahead. No doubt he’s whetted the collective appetite for transhumanist advancement— an open waitlist for Neuralink’s human trials would be quite lengthy, even at this early stage— but he’s also run into a complication faced by any zealous futurist: When you promise people an idealized tomorrow, they start to want it today.