From Tesla cars in space to Boring Company flamethrowers, Elon Musk is known for his weird and wonderful ideas.
Now, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has turned his attention to brain implants, which he claims could enable ‘superhuman intelligence.’
Musk’s firm, Neuralink, will finally give us a first glimpse at its futuristic device that connects your brain with a computer.
The live webcast will begin at 23:00 BST (15:00 PT) tonight, according to Neuralink.
It tweeted: “We’re excited for our update event livestream tomorrow at 3pm PT. We’ll tweet out a link to the livestream in the early afternoon.”
If you want to watch the live demonstration this evening, make sure you check in on the Neuralink website at 11pm.
While the brain implant has only been tested on monkeys and rats so far, Musk claims that it could ‘solve brain disorders of all kinds’ in humans.
The chip measures just 4x4mm, and is connected to the brain via thousands of tiny threads that enter through four holes, which must be drilled into the skull.
Electrodes on the threads would be used to detect electrical impulses in the brain, and even influence your behaviour, according to Neuralink.
Initially, Neuralink hopes to offer the technology to paralysed patients to help them control their computers and smartphones.
Next, the technology could be used to treat patients with brain disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease.
Finally, later versions could allow healthy people to boost their intelligence to ‘superhuman’ levels, according to Neuralink.
Speaking last year, Musk said: “This is not a mandatory thing. This is something you can choose to have if you want.”
While you might think that getting implanting the chip into the brain would require invasive surgery, Neuralink hopes that this won’t be the case.
In fact, Neuralink claims that the brain chip could be implanted in a few hours without a visit to a hospital, in a process that it compares to Lasik eye surgery.
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