Noland Arbaugh, a quadriplegic, can now send messages, use a computer, and play video games. Thanks to an experimental technology that, however, carries some dangers
Noland Arbaugh, in his twenties, has already lived three lives. The first ended in 2016, on the day of what he calls “absurd accident”. Arbaugh dives into a lake, hits something and after that he can no longer feel anything from the neck down. He becomes quadriplegic. It seems like the story of the film “The Sea Inside” by Alejandro Amenabar, but for Arbaugh it is unfortunately the reality of his second life, years spent in a bed without the will to do anything. Until 2024, when Arbaugh begins to control the computer with his thoughts. And so now, just thinking about what he wants to do, he sends messages, writes on social media, surfs the web, reads books. It seems like a science fiction film, this time: but, fortunately, this is also reality for him.
“I feel like I have a purpose again. Now I can reconnect with my family, friends and the world at large. I can start going back to school and thinking about getting a job. Being useful to others,” Arbaugh tells L’Espresso, in his first interview with an Italian newspaper.
The third life of this Texan boy, former athlete and fervent Christian, began thanks to a device from Neuralink implanted in his brain. Company of the famous billionaire Elon Musk. Arbaugh is the first patient of Neuralinkstill in the experimental stage, before the technology is marketable. The device is called N1 and is the size of a coin. Neuralink scientists placed it, through surgery, in a part of the brain that controls movement (the cortex). The chip records and processes the brain’s electrical activity, to translate it into commands, then transmitted to an external device, which could be a smartphone, a computer or something else.
Musk’s company is currently focusing on people like Arbaugh, to give them back some autonomy in using devices, but the stated goal is more ambitious: to be able to cure patients thanks to technology. Musk, in his unbridled vision, does not stop there, he even wants to enhance the brain of any person, even able-bodied, thanks to chips. He wants to “redefine the boundaries of human capabilities” and “expand the way we experience the world” (he declared). A futuristic scenario.
The present: “I control my computer cursor. I think about what I want to do, and it moves. I can click and do everything. It’s very natural and fast, even faster than using a mouse,” Arbaugh says. “Something as simple as sending a text message, which before Neuralink would take me more than 15 minutes, I can now do in a few seconds.” Among other things, “I can play video games with my friends, who have been asking me to try for years, but the prospect was too daunting to try.”
Before Neuralink, Arbaugh—like other quadriplegics—could control devices by moving a joystick with his mouth (including steering a car), but for many, that’s a complex and frustrating experience. “As for the future, I know there’s the possibility of connecting Neuralink to other devices. Soon I’ll be able to control a phone and a lot of other things, like driving a Tesla.”
Arbaugh’s third life will expand: “I want to use it to go back to school. I want to use it to get a job and write a novel. I want to play more complicated games. All of these things are now within my reach.” “Neuralink gives me a reason to wake up in the morning and get to work, feeling like I can face the day with my head held high.” Arbaugh is currently working closely with Neuralink scientists to fine-tune the device before it goes on the market (at a price and date that are still unknown). The company has also announced that it will open the trial to new patients.
It is certainly not the first time that a brain implant controls a cursor (the record was in 2006), but Neuralink stands out because the technology is very advanced and easy to use. It can also be used outside of a laboratory; it is wireless and therefore invisible (it does not require a cable connected to the brain) and has electrodes so thin and fragile that they must be inserted into the brain by a specialized robot. It is also true that other companies are working on similar devices, in some cases less invasive than Neuralink’s. The deeper the electrodes penetrate the brain, the more signal (i.e. information) they capture and therefore the greater the effectiveness; but the risks also increase. Arbaugh, in fact, hesitated a long time before agreeing to the operation; “I was afraid of losing the only thing I had left, my mind; my personality.”
Companies like Motif Neurotech and Precision Neuroscience are working on devices that rest on the brain without penetrating it. The challenge is to capture a sufficient amount of signal. Moreover, the founder of Precision, neurosurgeon Benjamin Rapopor, is co-founder of Neuralink with Musk and has argued over differences on the safety of the device. Several key scientists have also left the company, accusing Musk of running too fast just to get to the result. Typical of the billionaire, who with this spirit and taking risks has managed to relaunch the space race; “we will take a million colonists to Mars,” he declared this year. But with Neuralink the risks touch – one could say – deeper nerves of the human body and mind.
Furthermore, Musk is also not very transparent about the studies and experiments in progress, as various academics denounce. The Hasting Center, a think tank specializing in bioethics, in a report advises caution, especially since Neuralink’s scientific research is not public in nature, but is funded for the purpose of maximizing profits, which may conflict with the interests of patients.
Some scientists also criticize Musk’s promises that he can heal patients by restoring, with future developments in the technology, the functionality of limbs or muscles. Unreasonable hopes: there would be no scientific basis for assuming this at the moment. “The future applications of this device are many. I can’t wait for it to be used to start treating things like paralysis or blindness. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that this will happen in my lifetime,” says Arbaugh.
The possibility, also hypothesized by Musk, of extending the use of this technology to everyone, to enhance us like cyborgs is an old dream of the philosophy of Transhumanism (a cultural movement born in the 80s in the USA). But it opens up dystopian scenarios. Like the dawn of inequalities that from economic become structurally biological – between the rich who can afford enhancement and normal people. Fears also concern the possible violation of the integrity and privacy of our thoughts, as can be read in a study by the University of Zurich (by bioethicists Marcello Ienca and Adolfo Adorno). It would be the end of “cognitive freedom” (it is written), our last and deepest, if a machine could read and perhaps even control thoughts.
It’s a momentous social challenge: dodging enormous risks while supporting an innovation that’s so important to so many patients. “I finally feel like I might have a way to support myself for the rest of my life,” Arbaugh says. “But most of all, I’m having fun again. My family and friends say I’m smiling more.”
Source: lespresso.it
