Notes

How the brain works
The brain predicts what happens before it happens. The brain compares the predictions with sensory input and when there are any errors in the predictions then it explains away errors by figuring out what is causing the error. The prediction errors that can't be explained away get sent to higher levels of the brain for it to focus on. This was shown by a pair of scientists of the University of California when they presented the sentence 'I take coffee with cream and ___' when the last word 'dog' snapped into place rather than the expected 'sugar' a significant and specific patterned pulse of neurons appears and peaks 400 milliseconds after the word was revealed. The Bayesian brain explains this in almost the opposite way to what was previously thought in the 20th century. It proposes that the brain makes a series of predictions, the 'best guess', for what is going to happen using it to explain experiences and fill in the unknown data. That's why according to some experts we might think of perception as a 'controlled hallucination'. This is how illusions work.

How the technology works
The prominently known Elon Musk has set up Neuralink a company established to create the technology to fuse human brains and technology. The technology works like this; a coin-sized hole in the skull will have to be drilled and thousands of wires, 1/4 of a hairsbreadth, will be surgically implanted by a robot as the precision needed is beyond the capabilities of a human being. Each wire will have 32 independent electrodes capable of sending and receiving electric signals, called spikes. The hole in the skull is then covered by a chip, or 'Link', that is connected to each wire and controls each electrode. Each chip will be the same width as the skull and so you won't notice it under your hair. Each chip can be wirelessly charged overnight for full-day use. They are developing the procedure so that it is short and non-intrusive. This will allow you to have Neuralink implanted and go home on the same day. Each electrode can receive and send out signals from the brain. This means that each electrode can read and send the chip information on the activity of the neurons around it. This will allow the link to filter through the spikes and the idle neurons. After training the chip, and Bluetooth device connected to it will recognise that a spike from certain neurons means different actions.

What are the impacts on the people using it?
The main aim of Nueralink is 'restoring movement and communication in, for example, a spinal cord injury patient'. This will be accomplished by allowing the link to read the person's neurons. When the link reads the spikes it will send out, via Bluetooth, information about what the person is thinking to the connected phone or device. This will allow any mechanical help to coordinate with what the person would like to do. This will allow less-abled people to be able to have a more normal and easier life.

What are the problems behind the technology?
There are multiple problems when someone implants a device that can control brain activity that you can barely control. One of the main problems is the fact that the thought produced might not necessarily be your own. This means that you could be thinking about something that, without the device, you would not like to think about. Another concern is that it could get hacked which means that your thoughts or memories could be accessible to someone else and someone else could control what you are thinking.
There is also the fact that we do not know that much about the brain. The people designing this might, unknowingly, create something that might cross a line in the brain so that you might never be the same, for good or bad. We also do not know what makes consciousness, we have the best guess but we do not strictly know what consciousness is. This could mean that the creators could accidentally create, change or destroy consciousness.