Neuralink in a Dozen Pigs

In a far-ranging chat with Kara Swisher, Elon Musk talked about sustainable energy, brain implants, the stupidity of the press, and more. He gave a casual update on the “Three Little Pigs” demo of Neuralink's 1024-channel chip, finally admitting that his lofty goals are in a “very, very primitive stage”:

Elon Musk: You can make people walk again. You could solve extreme depression or anxiety or schizophrenia or seizures. You could give a mother back her memory so she could remember who her kids are, you know. Basically, if you live long enough, you’re going to get dementia of some kind. And you’ll want to have something to help you. [NOTE: here, he didn't acknowledge the potential for advancements in biological treatments for dementia.]

Kara Swisher:  Could it program in empathy? Or other things? Do you imagine that being part of this? [LAUGHTER] Or hey you could—

EM: You could technically program anything. So empathy is probably a good one.

KS: So where are we in doing this?

EM: So where we are right now is we’re still in a very, very primitive stage. Where thus far we’ve had a lot of successful implants in pigs. And we now have a pig that has had an implant that’s working well and it’s been there for over three months. And we now have implanted about a dozen pigs. And the sensors are working well. A large part of a pig brain is about its snout. So you can literally rub the pig on its snout and we can detect exactly where you touch the snout. [NOTE: “Yeah, that's called somatotopic mapping,” said John Hughlings Jackson in 1886.]

Listen to the podcast: Elon Musk: ‘A.I. Doesn’t Need to Hate Us to Destroy Us’ 

In a conversation with Kara Swisher, the billionaire entrepreneur talks space-faring civilization, battery-powered everything and computer chips in your skull.

Bonus!! Musk on Trump:

Kara Swisher: Do you like him? Are you voting for him?

Elon Musk: [SIGHING] I mean, I’m — to be totally frank I’m not — I mean, I think — let’s just see how the debates go. You know?

KS: That’s going to be your thing, the debates?

EM: Well, I think that is probably the thing that will decide things for America.

KS: Why is that?

EM: I think people just want to see if Biden’s got it together.

KS: Mm-hmm. And if he does?

EM: If he does, he probably wins.

 

He hasn't yet tweeted about the disgraceful dumpster fire... 

 

"That was a hot mess, inside a dumpster fire, inside a train wreck,” says @JakeTapper about the first presidential debate between Pres. Trump and Joe Biden. “We’ll talk about who won the debate, who lost the debate ... One thing for sure, the American people lost.” #Debates2020 pic.twitter.com/wjMnUmt2WS

— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) September 30, 2020