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Will cybernetic enhancements ever be more than just arm and legs and be like computer chips in your brain like science fiction movies?
Question Date: 2021-01-13
Answer 1:

Hi Noah, this is a great question! You're onto something--people like Elon Musk, founder of Tesla & Spacex and currently the world's richest man, are trying to do just that! As a matter of fact, he has started a company called Neuralink with the mission of "developing ultra high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers." They're pretty secretive about what they are doing, but we know that they have an animal testing facility open in San Francisco and that Elon has shown early demonstrations of the technology working in pigs (look up "neuralink pigs demo" on YouTube to learn more).

He's not the only one working on this technology: there is a whole field called "brain-machine interfaces" that you should look into. It might be a while before this technology becomes accessible to the public, however, because (1) it will be expensive for a long time before it becomes cheap (sort of like the first computers), and (2) because most people are afraid to have a chip implanted in their brain!

For those who are afraid of implanting a chip into their brain, there are other scientists who are trying to develop devices that allow humans to develop new senses without having to surgically implant a device. For example, if you look up "Can we create new senses for humans?" on YouTube, scientist David Eagleman describes a vest that he has developed that allows deaf people to hear... just by picking up on the voices in the room and translating them into vibrations on different parts of the vest!

I hope this is useful & stay curious!!



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