Spikes are activity by neurons, which the National Institute of Health describes as cells that use electrical and chemical signals to send information around the brain and to the body. In September, Neuralink said it received approval for recruitment for the human trial. The study uses a robot to surgically place a brain-computer interface (BCI) implant in a region of the brain that controls the intention to move, Neuralink said previously, adding that its initial goal is to enable people to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts alone.
Imagine offering up your own brain (and probably life) for a beta alpha version of a prototype from a guy who’s products have never left the beta stage?
As a software engineer myself there are certain things I know I never want to work on. Things like heart pumps and diagnostic machines where firmware needs to be so incredibly precise that one fuckup and people literally die. And these people trust the guy who makes Teslas. They’re fun to drive… I wouldn’t stick one in my brain though.
So what if you had the capability to be good at that heart pump software, and by not doing it you’re letting in someone who’s not as good as you at it.
Not trying to trap you or anything, but at a certain point somebody’s gotta do that high stakes stuff.
Maybe you know you’re not good at that kind of precision stuff, and I respect that. But maybe the difference between you and the guy who did step up to do that work isn’t that he has more skill, but merely less humility.
Maybe you, the one scared shitless of the ramifications of a mistake, are the one for that job.
Maybe. I’ve just shipped too many bugs to prod to trust myself. But you’re right for every senior engineer who is paranoid about that there’s 100 devs who will ship it and then take vacation for a week.
RIP to whoever was desperate enough to try it. Hopefully they don’t die as painfully as the Neuralink monkeys did.
Imagine offering up your own brain (and probably life) for a
betaalpha version of a prototype from a guy who’s products have never left the beta stage?As a software engineer myself there are certain things I know I never want to work on. Things like heart pumps and diagnostic machines where firmware needs to be so incredibly precise that one fuckup and people literally die. And these people trust the guy who makes Teslas. They’re fun to drive… I wouldn’t stick one in my brain though.
So what if you had the capability to be good at that heart pump software, and by not doing it you’re letting in someone who’s not as good as you at it.
Not trying to trap you or anything, but at a certain point somebody’s gotta do that high stakes stuff.
Maybe you know you’re not good at that kind of precision stuff, and I respect that. But maybe the difference between you and the guy who did step up to do that work isn’t that he has more skill, but merely less humility.
Maybe you, the one scared shitless of the ramifications of a mistake, are the one for that job.
Maybe. I’ve just shipped too many bugs to prod to trust myself. But you’re right for every senior engineer who is paranoid about that there’s 100 devs who will ship it and then take vacation for a week.