At the beginning of 2021, a macaque named "Pegg" was able to play video games happily only through brain wave control after the brain was implanted with a wireless chip, and the brain-computer interface became a hot topic of discussion for a while.
The driving force behind this research is Neuralink, the brain-computer interface company owned by Musk, the world's richest man, when Musk tweeted: Soon, you will see our monkeys playing twitch (game live broadcast) and discord (game chat). In the follow-up live broadcast, he was even more excited to say that the ultimate goal of the technology will be "the coexistence of man and machine, and the consciousness will live forever".
But recently, a motion insurance association called PCRM has filed a complaint against Musk's brain-computer interface company Neuralink, on the grounds that his chip caused "extreme pain" to monkeys, which undoubtedly gave Musk a blow...
1. 23 monkey volunteers implanted chips, 15 died?
The concept of brain-computer interface originated from science fiction works, refers to the connection between the brain of a person or animal and an external device through a data connection line or a wireless chip to achieve the exchange of information between people and devices, which is a very cutting-edge research, MIT in the "21st century can change the world's top 10 technologies" list, the brain-computer interface technology ranked first.
In 1998, the first brain access point produced high-quality signals; in 2005, scientists successfully let monkeys use their brains to control mechanical arms; in 2014, through the network transmission of EEG signals, humans achieved brain-to-brain communication for the first time; in 2020, Musk's Neuralink developed a wireless chip and implanted three piglet brains; in 2021, monkey volunteer "Peg" who was implanted with Musk's version of the brain computer chip used brain waves to easily play table tennis games.
Just as the brain-computer interface was in full swing, a motion protection group called the Committee of Responsible Medicine Physicians (PCRM) applied for university public records and searched more than 700 pages of documents, veterinary records and autopsy reports, noting that 15 of the 23 monkey volunteers with implants had died between 2017 and 2020.
They disclosed the reasons in the report, such as Monkey A drilling a hole in the skull, unfortunately having a skin infection after implanting the chip, scratching his scalp every day and bleeding, and finally performing euthanasia; Monkey B vomited for several days after implanting the chip, and the autopsy report showed that the cause of his death was cerebral hemorrhage...
As the report flowed out, there was also a lot of criticism on the Internet, and Jeremy Beckham, director of PCRM publicity and animal research expert, even shouted directly to Musk: Monkeys are experiencing "extreme pain", which is undoubtedly a massacre.
Dramatically, Musk did not make any "excuses" for this, because on the one hand, angry netizens sprayed a "human light" project into a "cruel experiment", on the other hand, a large number of paralyzed people and rich people pleaded with Musk on social media to participate in the human trial of the technology. Paralyzed people hope to use their brains to control bionic prosthetics and regain their athletic abilities, while the rich set their sights on the ultimate goal of the technology, immortality.
Few people know that Musk is actually one of the "enthusiasts" of immortality. In order to maintain a youthful appearance, Musk, who began to lose his hair as early as the founding of the PayPal in 2000, chose hair transplantation and skinlift, and now more than 20 years have passed, but it is getting younger and younger, and his ex-girlfriend Grimes, although 17 years younger than Musk, has also used "Emine" anti-aging technology to maintain his appearance for a long time in order to please each other when he gets along.
Fudan science popularization team Time School disclosed that the "Amuin" scientific and technological achievements tried by Grimes have long been not new in the rich circles of Europe and the United States, and related studies have been published in hundreds of top journals such as "cell" and "nature", involving a number of organ tissues and even systemic anti-aging; the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chongqing Medical University and other institutions have also found in clinical trials for 45- to 60-year-old men that after supplementing the substance, the length of the participants' telomeres (symbolizing the length of life) is "getting longer day by day". In addition, according to the WHO clinical trial registry platform, at least 10 human experiments based on the substance are currently being advanced, and the results are mostly positive.
In 2018, with the technological advancement of the domestic biotech enterprise Hong Kong Gene, Ai Muyin was invited to enter the domestic JD.com and other platforms, and the search index remained high for a long time. To a certain extent, it can be said that the commercial popularization of Ai Muyin is inseparable from the steady follow-up of relevant scientific research, and the brain-computer interface is only experiencing a "painful period" from research to landing.
Musk is of course "crazy", and each of his layouts has been opposed to varying degrees, even blamed, at the beginning of his development, but time has proved several times that his vision is indeed long-term and unique, and in addition, even from the perspective of biologists, scientists have the right to conduct animal experiments, just not to make them suffer excessively in the process.
A spokesman for the University of California, Davis, said their lab followed all laws and regulations and did not do anything out of the ordinary.
On February 10, Musk, who graduated from college halfway and did not publish professional papers in any core journals, was awarded the title of academician by the National Academy of Engineering, and the so-called "biggest feature of mediocre talent is that he often feels that he is smarter than others", from this point of view, Musk often does not say a word about external comments, it is not difficult to understand.