Earlier this year, the US Food and Drug Administration gave Neuralink, which Musk cofounded in 2016, approval to launch human trials of its device that Musk has described as a “Fitbit in your skull.” The FDA had previously rejected Neuralink’s bid for human testing in March over safety concerns, Reuters reported, including that the wires connected to the brain chip could move within a subject’s head or that the chip could overheat.

    • snorkbubs@fedia.io
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      1 year ago

      Neuralink said in a blog post that it was looking for people who had paralysis in all four limbs because of a spinal-cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

      Not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, these people are willing to take a risk in order to overcome difficult conditions, and that should be allowed. On the other hand, it feels like Neuralink is preying on their hopes.

      If the company figurehead wasn’t a libertarian billionaire edgelord, I might look past that second hand. No chance of that, though. He’s going to kill people, and then he’s going to retweet memes about it.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I admit, under the right circumstances, cybernetic enhancements could be cool.

      Anything connected in any way with Elon Musk is emphatically not the right circumstances, of course.

      • HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        What I wouldn’t give for a cybernetic gastrointestinal tract. Maybe one where it combines a trash compactor with the butt, so I could literally shit bricks.

    • Rottcodd@lemmy.ninja
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      1 year ago

      We’re dumb animals, not much different from other dumb animals.

      If squirrels had news media, they could have a story that says, “Thousands of squirrels are lining up to try to cross busy streets in front of cars.”

      And some number of squirrels would read that and think, “What the hell is wrong with them?”

    • Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 year ago

      I mean, if I couldn’t communicate with the outside world or have use of my limbs I would take any risk to regain that functionality. This could have a real shot of giving people with terrible conditions a better quality of life.