this post was submitted on 10 May 2024
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This was to be expected and they handled it well imo. I'm not gonna get one though.
Agreed. I was flippant after reading the headline, since I don't like Musk, but once I read the story I was like "oh yeah this tech does have big potential for the differently abled. "
A quadriplegic being able to control a cursor on a screen with the implant for 100 days seems like a legit first attempt.
Could be great for the accessibility movement in the long run. But I could be naive or too optimistic.
Why, when we already have non-surgical solutions that allow the same thing but don’t come with the risk of killing you?
Please dude I promise you this is near universally hated by disabled people 😭
I get that there are better choices now, but let's not pretend like a straw you blow into is the technological stopping point for limb-free computer control (sorry if that's not actually the best option, it's just the one I'm familiar with). There are plenty of things to trash talk Neuralink about without pretending this technology (or it's future form) is meritless.
I feel like I’m going nuts, is eye controlled adaptive tech really that obscure? We’re not talking about maybe letting people walk again or giving them otherwise unattainable control over a computer, we’re talking about a different mouse input. The risks should be proportional to the gains.
Can you take a moment and imagine some possibilities of taking input directly from someone's mind and applying it without needing to use your body? I know moving a mouse doesn't seem impressive, but it demonstrates success at a technological concept that still seems impossible. I can't speak for the ethics because I don't know how voluntary the subjects are for the research, but this is very exciting for me, because it will inevitably become more sophisticated.
Cool, when you can upload your thoughts somewhere we’ll be having a different conversation about its risks and uses. But what’s happening right now is that they did brain surgery on a man to let him move a computer mouse.
Do you think we'll get to that advanced level of use without experiments? And do you think that this is wrong despite consent to the procedure?
I don’t accept that disabled people must be sacrificed at the altar of Progress, and I think the entire process for how they recruit patients and explain the capabilities and risks of the implant deserves extreme scrutiny. There’s a reason doctors have to get hours of education in ethics to be considered competent, it’s a lot more complicated than “just do whatever if it can technically work for a bit.”
Your criticisms are reasonable ones.