Having a microchip implanted in a man's brain may be common in sci-fi movie plots, but it may soon become an actual possibility.
Elon musk, founder of Space X and co-founder of electric car maker Tesla — has been working on this technology. On Aug 28, Musk gave display of the chip, which was implanted into the head of a pig named Gertrude.
The chip, developed by Musk's company, is the size of a coin. But don't let its size fool you. The tiny chip has over 3,000 electrodes（电极）attached to flexible threads, which can monitor about 1,000 neurons (神经元). It collects neural signals from an area of the brain, and then transmits those signals wirelessly to nearby computers. In the display, Gertrude could be seen walking around her pen sniffing the ground while a monitor showed her brain activity.
Though the technology is still in its early stage, it is encouraging for humans. This technology would solve a lot of brain injuries, which will allow the human brain to combine with an artificial intelligence.
When the device can be applied to humans, its main goal will be to help those who are incapable of moving freely. Musk hopes this technology can also be used to help those with hearing and eyesight issues and one day lead to a cure for epilepsy (癫痫).
Although such a device could, in principle, repair those problems, putting it into practice is by no means a piece of cake. Currently, the device can transmit signals from about 500 neurons in the pig's brain. Compared to 80 billion neurons in a human brain, this number is tiny. And to cover the whole human brain also means the electrodes have to be much smaller.
Also, implanting the chip into the brain poses a potential danger. There is a risk of the immune system attacking this foreign body.
Right now, the hope of controlling the brain via controlling a few neurons seems overly optimistic. "There are many technological challenges to overcome before Neuralink can put its devices to the purposes," Yuan Lanfeng, an associate professor at the University of Science and Technology of China, told China Daily.
