There’s Nothing Novel About Neuralink’s Monkey Mind Pong
Meanwhile, the BrainGate already allows people to control a tablet computer with their mind
A macaque monkey named Pager stands in front of a screen. His paw holds a joystick while he sucks on a shiny metallic straw. On the screen, we see a dot and an orange square. Pager expertly manoeuvres the dot towards the orange square. Pager receives banana smoothies as a reward, which is delivered via a straw.
The narrator explains that a Neuralink implant collects signals from individual neurons. Using these signals, the implant predicts the direction that Pager wants to move the dot. After a while, Pager can play without a joystick. Pager can even play Pong using only his mind, as seen later in the video.
Monkey Pong Isn’t As Novel As You Think
Elon Musk aims to do with brain-computer interfaces what it did with the electric car. Instead of Tesla, the vehicle for this venture is Neuralink. As I’ve written before, Elon Musk has a…
