Why Elon Musk thinks his Neuralink brain chip will unleash human potential

Neuralink’s announcement that it had implanted a chip in a person’s brain is a glimpse at a future that could change what it means to be human, writes Andrew Griffin. But what would it really mean to control our phone or computer, and through them almost any device, just by thinking?

Elon Musk

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“This is unbelievable,” said Barack Obama in 2016. “Nathan is moving this hand with his brain.”

It isn’t normally the kind of activity that elicits surprise. Usually, moving one’s hand doesn’t even elicit a thought; the kind of movement that happens continually, throughout the day, not so much unbelievably as unconsciously.

But Obama was right to be shocked.