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NEURAL IMPLANTS OTHER ASSISTIVE TECH Mobilizing to Expand Everyone’s Horizons BY JOHN SAILORS
Neuralink is another Elon Musk venture—the “Link” being a deep brain stimulator that facilitates communication between mind and machine. Get a view into how the company positions itself at Neuralink.com.
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esla founder Elon Musk launched his exploration into neural implants to give people with quadriplegia greater options and control. Similarly, via DEKA, Segway inventor Dean Kamen has worked on finding tech solutions which increase range and mobility. From brain implants to bionic arms, wheelchair modifications to smartphone apps—modern technologies have begun to advance the possibility of expanding everyone’s horizons. And the race could be just beginning!
28 | DIGITAL UNICORN Q1 2021
NEURAL IMPLANTS With neural implants, researchers have made strides which once would have seemed strictly fictional. One such ambitious venture is Musk’s Neuralink—the actual “Link” (or deep brain stimulator) itself the namesake of a company founded in 2016 with a goal of developing a brain/computer interface (BCI) that facilitates communication between mind and machine. Like SpaceX and Tesla, Neuralink is another high-flying effort aimed at changing how people live and imagine living.
“All of your senses—your sight, hearing, feeling, pain,” Musk announced in a live-streamed product demo on Aug. 31, 2020, “these are all electrical signals sent by neurons to your brain. If you can correct these signals, you can solve everything from memory loss, hearing loss, blindness, paralysis, … (to) brain damage. (Those) neurons are like wiring and you kind of need an electronic thing to solve an electronic problem.” The San Francisco-based enterprise has been initially developing im-
