Neuralink and the age of bio-digital pathogens
What do brain machine interfaces like Neuralink mean for human health in a bio-digital world?
The connected brain
In July 2019, after two years of speculation and under the radar operations, Elon Musk’s Neuralink finally graced the world with its vision of a scalable and high-performance brain machine interface (BMI). Since the unveiling, it’s fair to say that views on the businesses objectives (more on that later) have been mixed, ranging from extreme affinity to outright repulsion.
So, what exactly is Neuralink? This article is not about the technicalities; however, it’s important for us to provide background for those who are new to the concept. The Neuralink BMI connects the brain to machines such as computers via a “neural lace” or “flexible threads” of electrodes that are robotically inserted. A key feature of these electrodes is that they are designed with read and write capabilities, in other words, they enable upload and download of data between the brain and machines.
Present day technology enables us to control everyday electronic items through touch (e.g., pressing, writing, or typing); voice (e.g., Alexa, or Siri); or motion sensing (e.g., Nintendo Wii). BMI’s will enable us to take this a step further and not only control the same items with our thoughts, but also receive valuable information from machines beyond our five senses. Although BMIs have been around since the 1970s; they are yet to be adopted by the mass market — these uncharted waters are where the Neuralink growth plan aims to take us.
The starting point for Neuralink is to obtain Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to trial the technology in treatment of individuals with brain and nervous system disorders. However, the long term goal is to use the technology for enhancing the generic capabilities of our brains e.g., accelerated learning through brain downloads, improved memory, telepathy like communication and more. Elon Musk has many-a-time stated the view that BMIs are important for ensuring humanity retains its relevance in the age of AI.
It’s not difficult to understand what is attractive about the promises of BMIs — many will love and embrace the technology for medical and lifestyle reasons — but as with anything good, there are always potential downsides. In this case, the potential downside we will consider is how the emerging “bio-digital” world could impact human health.
The human health challenge
Topical issues such as ethics, privacy and data security have been at the forefront of criticism of the Neuralink plan and BMIs in general. However, a neglected area of analysis is what this means for human health.
During the multi-million year evolutionary process humans, and other living beings, developed complex immune systems for defense against pathogens (e.g., bacteria, viruses and other harmful micro-organisms). In contrast, the digital age is less than a century old, and protection from harmful “viruses” in that world is completely reactionary i.e., the machine must download the latest software patches and/or access the latest anti-virus updates to protect its integrity.
Machines have no established means of endogenously and proactively identifying new pathogens and neutralizing them like the immune system does. Furthermore, our immune systems have only evolved to handle biological pathogens, not bio-digital ones. This set of facts alone should be enough to make one pause and contemplate the potential health risks of BMIs as we transition to a bio-digital existence.
It must be noted that BMIs are only a viable concept because biological life is compatible with machines. This compatibility is due to the electrical characteristics of both biology and machines; the only difference being that machines are purely electrical whereas biological life is electrochemical. These electrochemical characteristics are particularly critical for the brain and nervous systems, and also have a secondary effect on other parts of our biology such as the endocrine system and cellular metabolism. The implication here is that there is theoretical scope for BMIs to not only impact the brain and nervous system, but potentially also other key functions of the body.
With the above in mind, it would be amiss to not reflect on (not discounting the benefits) how transitioning to a bio-digital existence via BMIs, carries new predictable and unpredictable health risks. The key risk being that bio-digital pathogens could interfere with biological processes that are vital for life; however we have no endogenous or proactive protection from them at the biological or digital level.
Those who downplay the risks would be well advised to consider the already identified threat of hackable insulin pumps and pacemakers. In BMIs, this risk of this is amplified by the fact that the human brain is essentially a control room, and most other parts of the human body can be affected from it.
The Spectre of Stuxnet
Now that we have established why the brain should be considered a key area of vulnerability, it’s important for us to consider the ways in which it and other biological systems could be targeted by hackers via Neuralink or other BMIs — to the detriment of human health.
In 2010 the public was alerted of a new and unique computer virus called Stuxnet. The difference between Stuxnet and more traditional computer viruses was its complexity, and level of specificity in targeting physical infrastructure. The main headlines at the time were about how it (Stuxnet) had infected and damaged several Iranian nuclear enrichment centrifuges by causing them to function incorrectly, whilst at the same time sending signals back to monitoring systems that the centrifuges were functioning properly. Equally worrying is that the virus’ code was made open source and could theoretically be used to carry out attacks on other connected infrastructure such as power plants and transport systems.
Whilst it may be science fiction today, it is not implausible that a Stuxnet like viruses could be created to impact a number of psychological and physiological targets in biological life via a BMI. Viruses could be created to wipe memories, impact our ability to store them; or even directly control elements of our autonomic and/or sensory nervous systems such as heart rate and/or vision. We can already achieve much of this through modern pharmaceuticals and biotech; however, BMIs present a new frontier of opportunity and risk that should not be under-emphasized.
Preparing for a future of ubiquitous BMI
The potential impact of BMIs being adopted at scale goes beyond just physical health. Adjacent industries such as health insurance will also be impacted. Theoretically speaking a whole new class of “bio-digital diseases” would have be considered and could therefore become a new source of claims. Important processes such as underwriting could also be impacted. Just imagine a world where an individual could tweak vitals such as blood pressure or heart rate via a BMI during a health check — all in order to achieve more favorable pricing.
The pharmaceuticals and biotech industries could also be impacted if BMI based bio-digital therapies prove to be more effective and less costly than their pharmaceutical and biotech counterparts. These are highly probable developments over the coming decades that will need to be faced and addressed in the event the likes of Neuralink attain the targeted scale.
That said, the benefits of a bio-digital existence for humanity will likely prove too difficult to ignore or inhibit. Leaders in the space should therefore play a proactive role in making our transition to this new world as seamless and positive as possible.
More transparency on findings during the technology development process is required; and additional research needs to go into how to handle the risks of BMIs on human health and well-being. Building in mechanisms to encourage endogenous defense against bio-digital pathogens is of particular importance.
The appropriate regulation and ethical considerations for how BMIs should be introduced into society at scale is also required. Without this, risk will be amplified and the technology is more likely to be abused and result in unnecessary negative outcomes.
Industries such as healthcare, engineering, and education, where intellectual capital and learning are highly prized; would also be best placed to embark on thorough scenario planning exercises on how to respond to the changes BMIs will bring.
Neuralink is yet to propose answers to these questions and/or take us on a journey specifying how they intend to address the key issues — hopefully this will come in time. All we can be sure of right now, is that the company that wins the BMI race of the bio-digital age, will be the one that takes the lead in shaping views on these issues, builds solutions that reduce market tensions, and share the benefits of the technology with as many people as possible.
Njabulo is a business strategist who believes science, technology, and innovation are key for enhancing human life. He writes in his personal capacity
