Now Elon Musk wants to build brain-computer interface - within four years

Is there nothing Musk can't turn his mind to?

In a week in which Facebook revealed plans to enable people to type using mind control, multi-talented Elon Musk has also revealed that he intends to design a brain-computer interface that will be working as smoothly as Tesla Model S within four years.

The technology will be developed by yet-another organisation controlled by Musk, this time his new company Neuralink.

It follows reports at the end of March suggesting that, rather than focus on the financial challenges surrounding Tesla, SpaceX and SolarCity, Musk was turning his attention to the development of 'Brain 2.0'.

Musk's approach, though, will involve biocompatible implants, which will almost be like fitting the brain with a USB port. The idea, though, is strictly with people who have suffered serious brain injuries in mind. For disability, he believes that it can be done within the decade.

The work is based on Musk's fears about the rise of artificial intelligence eventually rendering the human race obsolete, and his belief that by "increasing bandwidth", there's a chance that the human intellect can compete with AI.

Musk's project was detailed in Wait But Why. It describes the concept as "a wizard hat — a brain interface so complete, so smooth, so biocompatible, and so high-bandwidth that it feels as much a part of you as your cortex and limbic system".

It goes on to talk about the concept of "conceptual telepathy", a sort of Bluetooth for thoughts, which if you didn't know how to control it properly could be a nightmare.

Of course, such a system could do far more than meet the medical needs of a disabled person, but rather would likely be capable of wirelessly communicating with any computer system using the power of thought.

That's a lot of power to have, but it might work the other way round, making the human brain open to hacking or tapping into by, say, security services, police forces and authoritarian regimes to make thought crime a reality.

Alternatively, the level of bandwidth involved could just send a person mad...

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