Elon Musk implanted a chip in a paralysed man's brain, enabling him to control objects with his mind

Posted on Feb 11, 2025 at 10:02 PM

Noland Arbaugh, a 22-year-old New York summer camp student, uses Elon Musk's Neuralink brain implant to control computers with his thoughts, raising questions about potential life-changing innovations or the start of a dystopia.

Arbaugh suffered a head injury while swimming in a lake. Paralyzed in water, he woke up feeling calm and unfazed, attributed to his unpreparedness for high-stress situations, a key trait he believes is crucial in such situations.

Noland's Case: A Novel Implantation

Elon Musk implanted a brain-computer interface (BCI) into quadriplegic man Noland in January 2024; this allows him to control a computer with his mind, marking a significant technological advancement.

Noland was rushed to an operating table with a robot inserted into his motor cortex, risking infection, haemorrhage, and brain damage, four months after discovering Neuralink.

Moreover, Noland believes his brain is the last part of himself that he truly has control over, and believes that if Neuralink succeeds, he will fulfil his dreams of melding minds with technology.

Superman actor Christopher Reeve suffered severe spinal cord damage after a head blow to Noland's neck, dislocating his vertebra and causing paralysis. The injury left Reeve unable to hold up his head without assistance, highlighting the severity of spinal cord injuries.

While Noland, who suffered a vertebral injury, can move his head and shoulders and express himself with nods and shrugs. He often uses the phrase “luck” to describe his life without being ventilated or suffering from a traumatic brain injury.

Notably, BCIs, or brain-computer interfaces, have been used since the late 1960s, with the Utah Array being the gold standard in 1992. Matthew Nagle became the first person to implant a chip in his skull in 2004.

Noland is the first to try a chip produced by an entrepreneur aiming to feed and receive information into the brain, who has promoted far-right figures in the UK and Germany and fueled riots in England last summer.

Brain-Computer Interfaces: A New Era

Neuralink's N1 chip, smaller and more powerful than previous devices, is designed to be inserted into the brain's cortex using Neuralink's R1 surgical robot. The chip, about the size of a 50p coin, has 1,024 electrodes distributed across 64 threads, each thinner than a human hair. The Utah Array had 100 electrodes reading signals from targeted neurons.

In Walter Isaacson's biography of Elon Musk, he discusses his initial interest in implanting brain chips in 2016 when he was frustrated with the time it took to type a message on his iPhone. He envisioned a high-speed connection between the mind and the machine and sought a neuroscientist to help him understand brain-computer interfaces (BCIs).

Musk's SpaceX, Tesla, and Neuralink ventures are influenced by his love of science fiction, with Neuralink, a “neural lace” brain implant, he believes that the idea of Banks could potentially protect us on the artificial intelligence front.

Besides, Elon Musk's Neuralink, a company focusing on non-therapeutic BCIs, has faced criticism for its lack of transparency and public disclosure of human trials, leading to medical ethicists describing it as “science by press release.” This lack of transparency is expected to increase.

Ultimately, Musk predicts that hundreds of millions of people will have a Neuralink implant within two decades, potentially allowing superhuman abilities and uploading memories. This could be the ultimate wearable tech or a Black Mirror dystopia.

Imagine a future where everyone with a brain implant has access to all human knowledge, reducing anxiety and empathy, but potentially leading to significant inequality.

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