“Would you allow a computer chip to be inserted in your head?”
Though lacking hard data, I contend most people would respond to that question with a resounding “NO!”
Perhaps followed by, “Are you crazy?”
If you bear with me for a moment, I shall endeavor to convince you otherwise.
So, Would You Allow a Computer Chip to Be Inserted in Your Head?
Let’s imagine the devastating case of being struck by a dread disease, leaving you trapped inside your body—unable to move or speak.
Now imagine if, in this terrible circumstance, doctors offered to implant sensors into your brain that turned your thoughts into speech with 97% accuracy.
This technology already exists. Just ask Casey Harrell, an ALS sufferer who served as a test subject for the BrainGate research consortium, led by neurosurgeon David Brandman and neuroscientist Sergey Stavisky.
According to a release from Brown University, the brain-computer interface developed by Brandman and Stavisky provided a near-perfect outcome.
The system allowed Casey Harrell, a 45-year-old person with ALS, to communicate his intended speech effectively within minutes of activation. The powerful moment brought tears to Harrell and his family. Harrell, reflecting on his experience with the technology, described the impact that regaining the ability to communicate could have on others facing similar challenges.
“Okay, okay,” I suspect you’re thinking at the moment. “If I had ALS and couldn’t speak, I’d probably accept a brain implant.”
“Progress made,” I type in response, then continue, “May I further assume you would agree to a brain implant in other similarly dire health-related circumstances?”
“Well, okay, maybe, depending on the circumstances,” you might concede.
Having established that there are indeed circumstances in which you would allow a brain implant, let’s continue exploring the medical applications. Then, we’ll expand our discussion to other potential uses for brain-computer interfaces, which may surprise you.
Before we do, a quick explainer on the basics of the technology seems in order.
A Quick Explainer
A brain-computer interface (BCI) involves placing sensors in key areas of the brain that, thanks to decades of research, scientists are beginning to understand control various functions.
When a sensor detects activity in certain zones of the cortex, it can translate and digitize the person's intentions and transmit them to an external device, such as a computer or smartphone.
When we say “decades of research,” we mean many decades. In fact, the “invasive” brain implants that are currently used trace their origins to the electrocorticogram (ECoG) developed nearly a century ago, in 1930, by Drs. Penfield and Jasper. They pioneered the technology of placing electrodes directly on the cortex as part of their work in detecting epileptic seizures.
Here’s a schematic of how it works:
With that bit of housekeeping out of the way, we move on.
Meet Noland Arbaugh
Not happy with rethinking the automobile or conquering space, our most energetic Rational Optimist Society honoree Elon Musk started his company Neuralink in 2016 with the idea of revolutionizing brain-computer interfaces.
The first human subject to receive Neuralink’s Telepathy implant was Noland Arbaugh, who was paralyzed from the neck down after a diving accident at the age of 22.
Soon after receiving his brain implant, Noland improved to the point where he could use his thoughts to almost effortlessly control a computer cursor, allowing him to access most of a computer’s functionality.
Thanks to his implant, Arbaugh, who describes himself as a cyborg and neuralnaut, is able to follow his passion, competitive chess—and was recently invited by chess.com to attend the speed chess championship finals in Paris.
He’s also a successful blogger on X, where he regularly interacts with his followers.
Imagine the improvement BCI has made in his quality of life.
Enter the Cyborgs
Using BCI to decode motor intentions and transmit them to external devices, researchers have been able to bypass damaged neural pathways and allow a paralyzed person to use their thoughts to manipulate a robotic arm or even their own paralyzed limbs.
The Feinstein Institute recently released results from a clinical study in which Keith Thomas—a victim of a swimming pool diving accident—was able to lift a cup to his lips solely by using his brainwaves.
Imagine how motivating that would be for someone paralyzed from the neck down.
According to one news outlet:
“This groundbreaking clinical trial marks the first time the brain, body, and spinal cord have been electronically linked in a paralyzed human to restore lasting movement and sensation," Chad Bouton, the study’s principal investigator and professor in the Institute of Bioelectronic Medicine at The Feinstein Institutes, told Fox News Digital.
Still on the topic of cyborgs, the photo below is of Nathan Copeland, who was paralyzed from the chest down in a car accident. Copeland has had a brain-computer interface, designed by a team at the University of Pittsburgh, installed for years.
Copeland is able to control a robotic arm and interact with computers to play video games. Here’s a video clip of him using his robotic arm to eat a taco. It is not a quick process, but in the end, he manages to feed himself. Big progress!
In our optimistic view, we are still in the earliest days of this tech and—supercharged by artificial intelligence (AI)—there’s little question that, in the foreseeable future, the technology is going to be vastly improved.
Can this be far behind? (Just joking… I think).
But Wait, There’s More!
In another very promising development, just this past September, Neuralink received “breakthrough device” designation from the FDA for its Blindsight implant which, according to Musk, “will enable even those who have lost both eyes and their optic nerve to see.”
As with the Telepathy device, Blindsight essentially digitizes brain waves and transmits them to an external device, such as a computer or phone.
So, up to this point in our story, we have:
People with ALS regaining the ability to speak
Paralyzed people interacting with computers and robots to move objects
Blind people soon being able to see
All thanks to brain-computer interfaces.
Talk about living in the age of miracles!
The Players
While Neuralink has received a lot of media coverage, Musk is far from alone in the BCI space. Here's a partial list of the many companies now working with BCI, and their areas of focus:
Neuralink: Founded by Elon Musk, Neuralink is developing high-bandwidth, implantable BCIs for medical—and eventually consumer—use. It aims to treat neurological disorders and ultimately enhance human cognition. (https://neuralink.com/)
Kernel: Kernel is creating noninvasive BCIs for both medical and consumer applications, with a focus on improving mental health, cognition, and overall well-being. (https://www.kernel.com/)
Synchron: Synchron is developing minimally invasive BCIs that can be implanted without open brain surgery. Its initial focus is on restoring communication and motor function for people with paralysis. (https://synchron.com/)
Paradromics: Paradromics is working on high-bandwidth, bidirectional neural interfaces for advanced prosthetics to restore sensory and motor function. (https://paradromics.com/)
CTRL-labs (acquired by Meta/Facebook): CTRL-labs is developing noninvasive, wristband-based BCIs for intuitive device control and human-computer interaction. (https://ctrllab.com/)
Neurable: Neurable creates noninvasive, EEG-based BCIs for gaming, virtual reality, and other interactive experiences, with a focus on accessibility and user experience. (https://neurable.com/)
EMOTIV: EMOTIV offers consumer-grade EEG headsets and software for BCI applications in gaming, education, research, and mental health. (https://www.emotiv.com/)
BrainCo: BrainCo develops EEG-based BCIs for education, focusing on attention monitoring, cognitive training, and personalized learning. (https://www.brainco.tech/)
Blackrock Neurotech: Blackrock Neurotech provides invasive BCI systems for research and clinical applications, with a focus on neuroscience, rehabilitation, and assistive technology. (https://blackrockneurotech.com/) (FYI, no relationship with Blackrock, the Death Star of venture capitalism.)
MindMaze: MindMaze creates BCI-driven virtual reality systems for neurorehabilitation, with applications in stroke recovery, brain injury, and other neurological conditions. (https://www.mindmaze.com/)
Inbrain: A Spanish company doing pioneering work in the use of graphene for BCI implants. (https://inbrain-neuroelectronics.com/)
Inner Cosmos: A startup experimenting with a minimally invasive BCI to treat depression with targeted electrical stimulation. (https://innercosmos.io/news-press/)
When you have a lazy afternoon, click through the links and view what each of these companies is working on, as the range of their endeavors is wide and very exciting.
As of this writing, BCI gets the occasional headline. But this burgeoning industry is evolving just below the surface of widespread recognition.
Those of you who missed the early days of the internet—and the tremendous investment potential—will want to put this sector on your radar.
This is a map of a fruit fly’s brain.
To state the obvious, rapid developments in artificial intelligence will be crucial to the future of BCI.
In that regard, understanding where various functions are controlled from within the brain will be key to the future of successful brain-computer implants. This is exactly the sort of task AI excels at.
Last month, scientists used AI to successfully complete the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly. While it may seem like a small step, it’s truly a milestone in neurobiological research.
I liken it to the early attempts to map human DNA, which quickly led to the full mapping of DNA and created a new approach to dealing with many human ailments. The learning from the mapping of the fruit fly’s brain will almost certainly, in time, lead to a fully functional map of the human brain.
As “rational” optimists, we must accept that this mapping won’t happen overnight. That’s because the fruit fly has a mere 130,000 neurons versus the roughly 86 billion found in human brains.
Regardless, having developed the tools and methodology to map the fruit fly’s brain is a significant early step that will only gain momentum.
A number of the companies on the list above are working on building databases of neural signals and their functions in the human brain. Using AI, these databases are only going to get more robust and useful over time.
“Okay, Okay… for a Dire Health Condition, I’d Get Chipped!”
Up to this point, our brain implant candidates are individuals who have been severely physically limited by an accident.
In which case, I think most of us would now agree to a chip implant.
But what if the chip to be implanted was designed to alter your mood?
This is an important topic because, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), about 7% of the US population suffers from severe depression. That adds up to about 24 million people.
I know several people who suffer from this affliction. It is incredibly difficult to witness as a friend. If you are one of the 24 million affected, you have my sincerest sympathies.
Fortunately, help is on the way in the form of a specialized BCI. The Singularity Institute recently posted an article showcasing the treatment received by Sarah, who had suffered from depression her entire life. Here’s a quote:
At 36 years old, the avid home cook has struggled with depression since early childhood. She tried the whole range of antidepressant medications and therapy for decades. Nothing worked. One night, five years ago, driving home from work, she had one thought in her mind: this is it. I’m done.
Luckily, she made it home safe. And soon she was offered an intriguing new possibility to tackle her symptoms—a little chip, implanted into her brain, that captures the unique neural signals encoding her depression. Once the implant detects those signals, it zaps them away with a brief electrical jolt, like adding noise to an enemy’s digital transmissions to scramble their original message. When that message triggers depression, hijacking neural communications is exactly what we want to do.
Flash forward several years, and Sarah has her depression under control for the first time in her life. Her suicidal thoughts evaporated. After quitting her tech job due to her condition, she’s now back on her feet, enrolled in data analytics classes and taking care of her elderly mother. “For the first time,” she said, “I’m finally laughing.”
We’ll come back to the mood adjustment technologies in a bit, but solving depression seems a very good start.
Then there’s the matter of chronic pain, something which your correspondent has become familiar with of late due to a two-month-long bout of acute sciatica. As with depression, this is a huge addressable market:
Chronic pain is incredibly common. In the United States from 2019 to 2020, more adults were diagnosed with chronic pain than with diabetes, depression, or high blood pressure, researchers reported May 16 in JAMA Network Open. Chronic pain is also incredibly complex, an amalgam influenced by the body, brain, context, emotions and expectations, Martucci says. That complexity makes chronic pain seemingly invisible to an outsider, and very difficult to treat. —Science News
By implanting electrodes to monitor the brains of people suffering from chronic pain, scientists have begun to isolate the regions in the brain where pain signals are produced. Testing is now ongoing into ways of reducing that pain by applying low doses of electricity to disrupt the pain signals. Here’s more from the NYU Langone NewsHub:
The technology, known as a closed-loop brain–machine interface, detects brain activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, a region of the brain that is critical for pain processing. A computer linked to the device then automatically identifies electrical patterns in the brain closely linked to pain. When signs of pain are detected, the computer triggers therapeutic stimulation of another region of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, to ease it.
Since the device is only activated in the presence of pain, Dr. Wang says, it lessens the risk of overuse and any potential for tolerance to develop. Furthermore, because the implant offers no reward beyond pain relief, as opioids do, the risk of addiction is minimized.
Related treatments are also advancing for people suffering from Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. For Parkinson’s patients, BCIs has shown to help manage motor symptoms through deep brain stimulation, improving tremors, mobility, and speech. For Alzheimer’s patients, BCIs are also being explored to enhance memory and cognitive function through brain stimulation, helping patients regulate brain activity, potentially improving focus and attention, while tracking brainwave patterns could help monitor disease progression.
Early days still, but for the millions who suffer from these afflictions, serious potential game-changers.
Insomnia represents another significant problem to solve. Around 10% to 15% of US adults suffer from the condition. Although cognitive behavioral therapy currently remains the primary treatment, scientists are experimenting with BCI to improve sleep by disrupting unhelpful brain signals at bedtime.
So now we can add to the list of people likely to be helped by BCI:
People with depression
People suffering from Parkinson’s and Alzheimer's
People suffering from chronic pain
Insomniacs
Transcending Human Limits
What if a brain implant could let you transcend your mental limitations?
For example, you might wish to stimulate the part of your brain controlling focus.
While medically useful to a person with ADHD (or a writer with a wandering mind), students or captains of industry might wish to maximize focus for a critical hour or two a day when working on important projects.
BCI research is currently being conducted to allow individuals to do just that. From Scientific American:
The researchers found that delivering electrical pulses to areas of the brain involved in decision-making and emotion significantly improved the performance of test participants. The team also mapped the brain activity that occurred when a person began failing or slowing at a set task because they were forgetful or distracted, and found they were able to reverse it with stimulation. They are now beginning to test algorithms that use specific patterns of brain activity as a trigger to automatically stimulate the brain.
It’s well established that much of the brain’s functionality remains a mystery. Might we mere mortals be able to tap into a significantly higher percentage of the latent brain power we are blessed with?
There is a surgical procedure called a hemispherectomy, where doctors treat people with severe and intractable seizures by removing roughly half of their brains. Surprisingly, after the procedure, most patients show no detrimental effects and have no loss in IQ.
And that brings us to something referred to as the “Acquired Savant Syndrome.”
The Strange Case of Derek Amato
While horsing around by the pool in 2006 (a common scenario for brain injuries—consider this a warning), Derek Amato dove into the shallow end while trying to catch a football. He hit his head and suffered a severe concussion, leading to an emergency trip to the hospital.
Four days after his release, Amato experienced an unusual urge to play the piano—despite never having played before. Amazingly, without any lessons or even knowing how to play the chords, he sat down and performed a fully fluid composition of his own creation.
He has since released several albums, which you can listen to on YouTube.
Jason Padgett, Math Genius
Padgett, a mullet-wearing party boy (by his own description), was attacked outside a nightclub and suffered a serious brain injury. It turned him into a math genius.
In Finland, he was given a functional MRI. It revealed that, due to the injury, he was able to consciously access a part of the brain that humans are not usually able to.
His newly acquired “superpower” allows him to visualize advanced mathematics in unique ways, solving complex Einstein-level problems.
Someday, might augmented mathematicians use BCI to tap into their brains to solve some of the world’s greatest problems?
Given enough time and a full brain map, I certainly wouldn’t rule it out.
Lived Experiences in the Virtual World
The Unincorporated Man is an excellent book about a wealthy man who has himself cryogenically frozen and then wakes up several hundred years in the future.
The book included the prediction that video gaming would be banned in the future. The reason?
BCI technology made gaming so immersive and realistic that millions of people died after becoming lost in artificial worlds. The environments were so convincing that players truly believed they were, for instance, a barbarian chief. They forgot the real world—neglecting basic needs like eating or caring for their children.
Back in the present, according to Sify.com:
… BCI is changing the contours of gaming and entertainment as they move into the virtual and augmented world of experiences. “Virtual reality gear has completely revolutionized gaming, providing ultra-realistic gameplay,” says gaming industry veterans. From manipulating your characters or yourself with just a thought to diving into a virtual world with the depth of your imagination, BCIs share and transcend the border between real and unreal, which attracts audiences from all around the globe.
Beyond gaming and entertainment, this sort of immersive application will have widespread training applications, for example, allowing medical students to realistically experience performing surgical procedures… or training pilots on hyper-realistic flight challenges… or allowing firefighters to feel what it’s like to enter a burning building.
The list of possible applications is almost endless.
The Downsides
The most obvious downside to BCI is you can only get it through brain surgery.
Then there’s the erosion of the microscopically thin sensors in the brain over time. According to some sources, the current probes used by Neuralink have a lifespan of only 5–10 years. Rising to the challenge, Spanish company InBrain is currently testing the use of graphene—one of the world’s strongest materials—to create ultra-thin sensors that lay on top of the cortex, with fewer probes needing to be inserted into the brain. That could work.
Mind control is another concern. With the exponential acceleration of AI, hacking is going to be a part of everyday life. Now, imagine being connected to an external limb that someone hacks and, I don’t know, makes you slap yourself upside the head.
Or, more realistically, forces you to shout out the passwords on your financial accounts.
One of the uses being foreseen by people working in the field is to deliver advertisements directly into your brain. If BCI can do that, it can probably deliver other ideas into your mind as well. Like suggestions to vote for a certain candidate? Seems feasible.
These are all serious concerns. But as a rational optimist, I believe that no matter the challenges, we humans—likely aided by AI—will address them as they arise. Possibly by incorporating blockchain technology to keep our brainwaves secure and private.
As for companies or governments sending signals into your brain, no one is going to get an implant that allows unwanted signals to be received. That said, might someone allow a marketing firm (for a fee) to use their anonymous brainwaves to gauge reactions to things like packaging design or a social media commercial? That application is already in use.
Every new technology offers both rewards and risks. In the case of BCI, like AI, there are plenty of ethical challenges to be worked out. In time, they will be.
Wrapping Up
We’ve explored a smattering of actual or feasible uses for brain-computer interfaces:
Enabling people with ALS to speak again
Allowing those with spinal cord injuries to control computers and machines—including prosthetic limbs
Helping blind individuals regain sight
Aiding insomniacs in achieving better sleep
Reducing or eliminating chronic pain
Alleviating depression
Enhancing focus
Amplifying cognitive abilities in areas like music and mathematics
Training for surgeons, pilots, and others who perform high-risk jobs
And this is just a partial list. For example, there is also research into eliminating deafness by bypassing the auditory system and feeding signals directly into the brain. And successful tests have already been done allowing two people to communicate with each other telepathically.
Importantly, this research is very much in the “baby steps” mode and will only get better from here.
For most of us, the only real drawback to BCI is the idea of having your cranium opened and a network of probes embedded into your brain. Not an easy sale.
But what if you didn’t have to have chips implanted in your brain?
At the same time Musk and others are working to perfect “invasive” BCI, multiple research teams are working on noninvasive technology that would, over time, have the same efficacy.
The advantage of implanting sensors (the more the better) into the brain is that technologists are able to tap into much “purer” brain signals, which are then digitized and used for the various functions we have discussed.
Many of those signals can be detected using external brain monitors, but the data is “dirtier” with a lower resolution, so the digital output is a lot less precise. But isn’t that just the sort of problem AI is so good at solving? Yep!
A number of BCI companies I listed above are working to improve noninvasive technologies for accessing brainwave data.
Here’s a picture of a Kernal Flow 2 BCI helmet, which can be yours for a mere $176,000:
Of course, we are in the very early stages of BCI. Once the shortcomings of noninvasive BCI are sorted out, technologists will quickly turn their attention to downsizing clunky helmets in favor of something smaller and, therefore, more practical.
Did You Change Your Mind?
At the beginning of this missive, I asked you if you would agree to have a chip implanted in your brain. You were understandably reluctant.
Let me now rephrase that question. Would you be happy to wear a nice-looking circlet that taps into your brainwaves, uses AI to clean them up, and lets you perform mind magic?
Sign me up!
It’s just a matter of time… and probably not all that much.
We truly do live in magical times.
Until next time, stay optimistic and resist the temptation to dive into swimming pools!
David Galland for the Rational Optimist
BONUS: Investment Implications and Approaches
The Rational Optimist Society is not meant to provide investment guidance, but rather to shed light on the accelerating progress we humans are making to improve our world.
Yet, given the scale of the markets AI-powered BCI can address—coupled with all the other exciting new uses we cannot yet imagine—BCI has the very real potential to be the “next big thing.”
That alone makes it worth your attention as a potential investor.
As you might suspect, virtually every pure-play BCI company—including Neuralink—is privately held by a combination of founders and venture capitalists. In some cases, the technologies are being developed by university researchers supported by corporate and government grants which, eventually, will be spun out into commercial enterprises.
Ultimately, the successful private companies will either (a) go public, or more likely (b) be bought out at a huge premium by a larger company.
Either way, early investors get paid and paid well.
To get “into the room” with these companies, you will either need to invest a considerable amount of money (definitely in the seven figures) with a venture capitalist working in the BCI space, or you could try the backdoor approach.
That approach involves researching the companies working in BCI—you can start with the list above—and identifying five or so that seem particularly promising. With list in hand, reach out to the companies and ask to be put on their mailing lists.
Then make a point of regularly following up with their investor relations teams with questions about each company’s latest news and research milestones. It’s not a sure thing, but it is also not unusual for staunch supporters of a company to be invited to participate in early equity offerings. Doesn’t hurt to try.