Imagine if you could connect your brain
to the internet.
You wouldn't need to type into a search engine,
you could just think your query
and download the relevant knowledge directly into your mind.
Such a world would involve
the biggest single upgrade in human intelligence
since our species evolved.
Seamless brain computer interfaces
are a long way off
but the melding of minds with machines
is already under way.
The implant goes directly into the motor control area
of the brain.
It's the neuro technology
that we've been developing for years
and it's designed to help restore
or replace function or enhance independence
for people who are paralyzed.
In a pioneering clinical trial
at Brown University,
volunteers have been given brain implants
that allow them to control devices using thought alone.
To date, this academic venture,
this pilot clinical trial
that we call Braingate
has enrolled 13 participants
and each of those has had the sensor placed
into the motor cortex and each of them
has been able to control cursor movement
on a screen.
Some of them have even been able
to control a prosthetic limb or a robotic limb
moving through space to reach and grab objects.
The sensors detect
the neural signals associated with the intent to move
and they're decoded by a computer in real time.
We're tapping into the native part of the brain
that controls movement naturally.
So, simply by imagining intuitive movements,
participants can immediately control a robotic device.
The technology could transform
the lives of people with disabilities
but it could go further,
enhancing the abilities
of the entire human race.
One problem is that current technology
can only record the activity of a couple of hundred neurons.
Our minds are generated by a bewildering network
of 85 billion neurons.
Listening to them all in real time
has proved an impossible challenge for neuroscientists.
But in 2013, their research gained powerful backing.
There's this enormous mystery
waiting to be unlocked
and the Brain Initiative will change that
by giving scientists
the tools they need to get a dynamic picture
of the brain in action
and better understand how we think
and how we learn and how we remember.
The Brain Initiative
is a six-billion dollar fund
to find new ways to map the activity
of an entire brain.
Leading neuroscientist Professor Rafael Yuste
was at the front of the queue for funding.
The goal of the Brain Initiative is precisely
to be a methods to read and manipulate
the activity of neuron circuits
so that we can eventually help patients
that have mental or neurological diseases.
In 2017, Professor Yuste's team
announced that they had successfully recorded
the activity from every neuron of an animal,
albeit a very simple one,
a tiny freshwater relative of the jellyfish
called a hydra.
In a way, you could argue that we're trying to read
the hydra's mind
because we can measure the activity
of every neuron in hydra
while the hydra is behaving.
And once you've learned to read neural code,
you can learn to write it too.
Can we input thoughts into a hydra,
can we write the patterns of activity
and change the behavior of the animal?
We're trying to do this in hydra
and we're trying to do this in mice.
We can imagine that you could do this
with humans in the future.
The human brain is vastly more complex
than the hydra
and converting the electrochemical signals
of the mind into the digital language of machines
remains a huge technological challenge.
But history has shown
that where there's a will and plenty of money,
there's a way.
That's one small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind.
I hope to achieve making neuroscience
the new rocket science.
We're not speaking publicly currently
about what we're building.
We will in time.
Tech entrepreneurs
are turning their minds
and their money to developing brain machine interfaces.
Bryan Johnson founded Kernel,
a neural interface startup
with $100 million of his own money.
Everyone's trying to find
how to go from where we're at now
and the next big jump
to where we're going to be
and in building Kernel,
my objective is to radically improve humans
in every imaginable and unimaginable way.
Bryan Johnson is not alone in this dream.
Elon Musk's latest company, Neuralink
aims to enhance humans by connecting them to computers.
DARPA, the research and development arm
of the American military
is also at the forefront of this technology.
Brain computer interfaces are coming.
But are we ready?
I think every day of the potential dangers
of building technology
without thinking carefully about the consequence
of this technology for society.
If we allow the internet into our minds,
what's to stop it reading the thoughts
we'd rather keep private?
We're not talking about data privacy.
This is much worse.
We're talking about the contents of your mind.
And if we discover
how to enhance our intelligence,
who gets to go first?
You need to ensure as a society
that there is equitable access to this technology
so that it doesn't end up in the hands
of a privileged few.
It's vital that ethical considerations
keep pace with advancing technology.
Melding our minds with machines
could radically transform society.
But some argue that the transformation
is already under way
and if we don't use machines to improve ourselves,
we risk being left behind.
Humans are the most intelligent species
on this Earth.
We are now giving birth to a new form of intelligence
in the form of AI.
At what point do we feel uncomfortable
within the delta between our own improvement
and that of our machines?
AI, the thing we need to contemplate very seriously,
for me, it's best that could ever have happened to us
and it's critical that we try to co-evolve
with this unbelievable powerful form of intelligence
that we're now building.
The matrix is not imminent
but enough research is now being done
on brain computer interfaces
that it's time to think hard
about their potential implications.
If superhuman intelligence is created in the future,
humanity could reap huge benefits
as long as it's handled with care.