If you like the famous Hollywood X-Men series, then you will also be familiar with Professor X, who had the power to control everyone's mind while reading it. But now it's going to happen in reality and that too in just 1 year. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, the world's largest electric car maker and founder of Aerospace Startup Space X, has developed a device that can read human brains. 
The special thing is that this device can be implanted in humans and this device can be controlled through a mobile application. Let us know that in the year 2017, Musk launched the artificial intelligence startup "Neuralink" and this device was designed under Neuralink. Following approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the company will begin testing it in humans starting in 2020.

WHAT IS NEURALINK?

Neuralink is a device that will be surgically implanted into your brain and with it, you’ll be able to communicate with machines and even control them.

It will also help study the electrical signals in the brain and arrive at solutions that can help cure various medical problems.

How will this device of Neuralink work?

With this technique, N1 (Chip device) will be implanted in the human brain. This device will be placed close to the ear, which will connect wirelessly to the tuning chip inside the brain. This device can be controlled from an iPhone application called the N1 sensor. The application must be connected via a USB port from the ear to the device. N1 Chip will transmit data over 96 thin wires. It is said that the thickness of each wire will be less than the thickness of human hair. In other words, after the arrival of this device our brain will always be connected to the computer.
This device will prove to be a boon for paralyzed people, suffering from cerebral palsy, that is, a neurological disorder, or for such people, this device can prove to be a gift that fights against brain disorders. This device will also help in the treatment of these patients. To use this device, an 8mm hole must be used in the patient's skull, into which the device will be placed. At present, the company is testing the device on rats to make sure this machine is stable or not. At the same time, after successful experiments on rats, it will settle on the human head and transfer data from a large bandwidth. 
Neuralink Chairman Max Hodak said in a statement that we disagreed with this idea before, but agreed after Alan Musk's advice. Hodak said: "We don't want any threads to pass through our skin and have to be removed after 2-3 years." We want something long and practical. “Let Alan Musk hire many renowned neurologists from around the world for this project.
Advantages & disadvantages of neuralink:

Obviously the cons are the risks are:

1. Brain surgery though less risky than we might think if conducted with precision under sterile conditions.

2. Some unknown long term impact on the brain from decomposition by the body of the electrode materials over time.

3. A Bluetooth device that is controllable by a digital computer connected direct to your brain. The security better be amazing.

4. They touched upon the need for regular upgrades, brain surgery every couple of years?

Pros there are two categories sort term with a first generation device on the motor cortex and longer term with later generation devices placed anywhere on the cortex.

In the former category:

1. Ability to control a computer with your mind helping shut in people with sever paralysis communicate.

2. Research the ability to watch high resultion neural activity in real-time why subjects carry out tasks.Could really help us better understand the cortical circuits.

Longer term with later generations of the same technology elsewhere on the cortex.

1. A neural shunt allowing paralyzed people to regain control of their bodies.

2. Totally immersive AR and VR with elements directly projected on the cortex bypassing the senses.

3. High precision mental control of machines.

4. Brain augmentation essentially allowing us to gain additional cortex on the cloud.

5) Brain to brain telepathy.

6. Body swapping via a sort of neural telepresence.

8. Recording of incoming sensory information.

9. Ultimately a way to back up your mind although this would need to go deeper than just the cortex.

Usage of Neuralink

1 | For visual prosthetics 
One of the Neuralink engineers working in the visual neuroscience department said that this project has the potential to provide a visual prosthesis for people who have retinal injuries or blindness from eye injuries. The idea is essentially to connect a camera directly to the visual cortex and stimulate a huge array of thousands or perhaps tens of thousands of electrodes to recreate a visual image. And, over time, perhaps the same technology can be used to produce some kind of front-view display. To this, Elon Musk added that we could actually supervise someone. One can see the world in various wavelengths like ultraviolet or infrared and radar. All one has to do is basically name its frequency and dynamically adjust the sensor for superhuman vision. 

2 | For Telepathy 
According to one of Neuralink's leading chip designers, telepathy may be the next frontier for Neuralink. He explained that it takes an incredible amount of effort to put thoughts into a set of words. These words are a compressed format of our immense thinking capacities. Musk also weighed in on this idea, adding that the data rate of words is very low and we are putting an enormous amount of mental energy into compressing the concepts and thoughts in our head into words. With Neuralink, one could send true thoughts and communicate much better. Musk called this communication a "conceptual telepathy consensual by non-linguistic consent." 

3 | Like an oscilloscope for the brain Oscilloscopes provide visual information from printed circuit boards (PCBs). Similarly, the Neuralink device can shed light on many functions of the brain. "The side effect of this device is that you will end up learning a lot about how the brain works," said one of the team members.

4 | Unlocking hidden creativity 
As discussed in the case of telepathy, our communication systems are inefficient when it comes to translating thoughts. One of the lead researchers believes there is a lot of untapped creativity in each of us. “For example, you know how to close your eyes and conjure up an incredible scene like a doll, but you know if I wanted to show someone that it would take years to perfect an art to be able to paint it. With enough electrodes in the right places, I could start to take advantage of those crude concepts or thought vectors and be able to decode them and show people primitive versions of music or even 3D models for engineering, ”he explained. 

5 | Nostalgia on demand 
Memories fade. They are replaced, edited through narratives. As the years roll on, the original version no longer exists. Although this sounds like something out of the movie Memento, it is unfortunately true. Then one of the team members hinted at the idea of ​​memories as repositories. Like music, one can revisit memory and alter mood whenever one wishes. If this is resolved, then cognitive disorders like dementia can be easily treated. 

6 | Eliminate pain 
One of the in-house neurosurgeons who was present at the event spoke about how pain is the essence of basically all human suffering. Today there are so many diseases that can cause a lot of pain. Even treatments can be painful. If this pain is minimized in any way, then the way we view ailments changes dramatically. Neuralink devices can also play a crucial role in this.

7 | AI symbiosis 
From the perspective of our species, Musk reminded everyone, it will be important to discover how we coexist with advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and achieve some kind of AI symbiosis where an AI extension of oneself is like a tertiary layer. above the limbic system and cortex. Having that symbiosis can be good for having a world in the future that is controlled by the combined will of the people of earth. According to Musk, this will be important from an existential threat point of view to achieve a good AI symbiosis and that is the most important result of Neuralink. 

8 | Consciousness through the lens of physics 
One researcher expressed a desire to understand the nature of consciousness. "There is a lot of very silly philosophy that has been written about for the last thousand years," he added. “But I think we have been very limited by the tools and our ability to interrogate. And as we measure the brain, these tools get better, they take it into the realm of physics and it's really one of the last great mysteries of science."

9 | Disease prediction 
Imagine a disease-free future where you know you know what will happen to you before it happens so you can prevent it with these devices. Not only will we be able to talk about electrical signals, but we will also be able to pick up chemical signals in the brain and prevent diseases in advance. 

10 | Solve mental illness 
The device has the potential to scale to more channels, more regions. As you go deeper, the chances of solving problems related to anxiety, fear and depression increase. One of the team members wants fear removed so he can enjoy his rock climbing. However, Musk was quick to suggest that a little fear might still go a long way. All of the futuristic sound apps mentioned above can seem quite ambitious. But, we can never bet against Elon Musk. He was even giving a thumbs up when someone suggested if a Tesla could be summoned using Neuralink. So there definitely seems to be no upper limit to what this coin-shaped implant can do.

An article by Munna Suprathik