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Archive for the ‘computing’ category: Page 433

Aug 31, 2020

Elon Musk unveils ‘Fitbit in your skull’ brain chip, demonstrates on pig

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, Elon Musk, food, neuroscience

It was at this webcast that Musk unveiled the latest version of his company NeuraLink’s latest prototype, the Link VO.9 — a chip that would allow humans to control devices with their brains.

Musk said this could eventually help cure people with conditions like memory loss, hearing loss, paralysis, blindness, brain damage, depression and anxiety.

Viewers of the webcast met Gertrude, a pig that had the chip implanted in her brain two months ago. A graph shown onscreen showed the waves inside Gertrude’s brain, which fired when her brain communicated with her snout while she was eating.

Aug 30, 2020

Elon Musk during his BCI demo: “The future is gonna be weird” (S/T en Español)

Posted by in categories: computing, Elon Musk, neuroscience

45 seconds with Elon Musk during his BCI demonstration. The excerpt counts with subtitles in Spanish.


Excerpt from the demonstration by Elon Musk of the Brain Computer Interface (BCI) in development progress by Neuralink. The event took place on August 28, 2020.

Continue reading “Elon Musk during his BCI demo: ‘The future is gonna be weird’ (S/T en Español)” »

Aug 29, 2020

Elon Musk reveals new details of Neuralink

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, Elon Musk, internet, neuroscience

In this video, Elon Musk demonstrates a prototype brain–computer interface chip – implanted in a pig – that his company, Neuralink, has been working on. The device could one day be used by humans to augment their abilities.

Founded in 2016, the Neuralink Corporation remained highly secretive about its work until July 2019, when Musk presented his concept at the California Academy of Sciences. It emerged that he planned to create brain–machine interfaces (BMIs) not only for diseased or injured patients, but also healthy individuals who might wish to enhance themselves.

Yesterday, in a livestream event on YouTube, Musk unveiled a pig called Gertrude with a coin-sized chip in her brain. Simpler and smaller than the original revealed last year, the read/write link device can nevertheless pack 1,024 channels with megabit wireless data rate and all-day battery life. This latest prototype – version 0.9 – has now been approved as an FDA breakthrough device, allowing it to be used in limited human trials under the US federal guidelines for testing medical devices. The chip is removable, Musk explained, as he showed another pig called Dorothy, who no longer had the implant and was healthy, happy and indistinguishable from a normal pig.

Aug 29, 2020

Elon Musk unveils pig with chip in its brain

Posted by in categories: computing, Elon Musk, neuroscience

Gertrude the pig is a prototype of a brain-to-machine interface.

Aug 29, 2020

Neuralink: Elon Musk unveils pig he claims has computer implant in brain

Posted by in categories: computing, Elon Musk, neuroscience, sustainability

The tech entrepreneur Elon Musk on Friday showed off a pig whose brain he says has been implanted with a small computer.

“We have a healthy and happy pig, initially shy but obviously high energy and, you know, kind of loving life, and she’s had the implant for two months,” Musk said of Gertrude, the pig.

The billionaire entrepreneur, whose other companies include Tesla and SpaceX, presented during a live-stream event to recruit employees for his neuroscience startup Neuralink. He described Gertrude’s coin-sized implant as “a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires”.

Aug 28, 2020

Caltech Innovations Using Alkaline-Earth Atoms Pave the Way for New Quantum Computer Designs

Posted by in categories: chemistry, computing, particle physics, quantum physics

Physicists’ latest achievement with neutral atoms paves the way for new quantum computer designs.

In the quest to develop quantum computers, physicists have taken several different paths. For instance, Google recently reported that their prototype quantum computer might have made a specific calculation faster than a classical computer. Those efforts relied on a strategy that involves superconducting materials, which are materials that, when chilled to ultracold temperatures, conduct electricity with zero resistance. Other quantum computing strategies involve arrays of charged or neutral atoms.

Now, a team of quantum physicists at Caltech has made strides in work that uses a more complex class of neutral atoms called the alkaline-earth atoms, which reside in the second column of the periodic table. These atoms, which include magnesium, calcium, and strontium, have two electrons in their outer regions, or shells. Previously, researchers who experimented with neutral atoms had focused on elements located in the first column of the periodic table, which have just one electron in their outer shells.

Aug 28, 2020

People Power Increase Processing Speed

Posted by in categories: computing, neuroscience

Big initiatives to understand the workings of the brain

Neuroscience has a data problem. In our efforts to understand the brain researchers are generating ever greater amounts of data. The problem is, how can they gain meaning from it?

Continue reading “People Power Increase Processing Speed” »

Aug 28, 2020

DARPA Launches Project CHARIOT in Bid to Shield Big Tech Profits

Posted by in categories: computing, encryption, internet, military, quantum physics

DARPA announces a new type of cryptography to protect the Big Tech firm profits from the dawn of quantum computers and allow backdoor access into 3 trillion internet-connected devices.

by Raul Diego

Continue reading “DARPA Launches Project CHARIOT in Bid to Shield Big Tech Profits” »

Aug 28, 2020

Elon Musk Says First Demo Of His Brain Chip Is Coming This Friday

Posted by in categories: computing, Elon Musk, media & arts, neuroscience

Elon Musk’s controversial ‘brain chip’ might be coming to us sooner than we first thought, with the technology entrepreneur promising a working demo by the end of this week.

The news comes a little over a month after Musk announced his latest start-up, Neuralink, was in the process of developing a brain-computer interface that allegedly has a life-changing range of benefits – including the ability to stream music straight into your brain.

Now, Neuralink, which has already received more than $158 million in funding, will be demonstrating a working device this coming Friday, August 28, at approximately 6.00pm ET (11.00pm BST).

Aug 27, 2020

The US military is trying to read minds

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, biotech/medical, computing, Elon Musk, military, neuroscience

Elon Musk’s Neuralink will likely show off its design for a brain-computer interface Friday evening. The concept it unveiled last summer involves surgically implanting it into the brain to detect the activity of neurons. The US military also wants to develop a brain-computer interface, as we explain in this story from October. But here’s the kicker: no surgery required—and the device could be put on and taken off like a helmet or headband.


In August, three graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University were crammed together in a small, windowless basement lab, using a jury-rigged 3D printer frame to zap a slice of mouse brain with electricity.

The brain fragment, cut from the hippocampus, looked like a piece of thinly sliced garlic. It rested on a platform near the center of the contraption. A narrow tube bathed the slice in a solution of salt, glucose, and amino acids. This kept it alive, after a fashion: neurons in the slice continued to fire, allowing the experimenters to gather data. An array of electrodes beneath the slice delivered the electric zaps, while a syringe-like metal probe measured how the neurons reacted. Bright LED lamps illuminated the dish. The setup, to use the lab members’ lingo, was kind of hacky.

Continue reading “The US military is trying to read minds” »