Imagine a world where technology is fully integrated into our bodies, where microchips become an integral part of our daily lives. What once seemed like a fantasy is gradually becoming a reality. Scientists and engineers are already working today to develop chips that can significantly improve our health, increase our work efficiency and ensure our safety. But what happens when they start to totally control and subjugate our actions? What are the risks and benefits of such a technological revolution? This topic requires serious discussion and deep analysis, because it depends on our choice today: we will live in a world of great opportunities or in the realities of technological slavery.
Capabilities of microchips
At first glance, microchips can offer enormous possibilities: from real-time health monitoring to secure identification and even cognitive enhancement. Imagine for a moment that you can control technology from a distance with just one thought. Fantasy, you say. However, such a fantasy has long since become reality. And this is proved by the American entrepreneur and billionaire Elon Musk, who announced the successful implantation of a Neuralink chip in a paralyzed patient for the second time this year.
Such a chip has the form of a receiver capsule that is attached behind the ear, like a hearing aid. 1,500 electrodes thinner than a human hair are directed from the capsule to the brain. Nueralink plans to implant such devices in 8 more patients with spinal cord problems as part of its clinical trials.
At this stage, the capabilities of the chip are somewhat limited: with its help, a paralyzed patient can easily perform everyday tasks, such as turning on the TV, or music, playing video games. Moreover, the speed of these actions increases every time.
“I would like to upgrade my chip to be able to control the Optimus robot as well as the autopilot system of the Tesla electric car. But this implant has already given me a little independence”, – says the first patient Noland Arbo.
Elon Musk has visionary plans for Neuralink technology. He hopes that in the near future this technology will be able to treat neurological disorders, improve the functioning of the senses, and not just help control devices from a distance.
The new Blindsight device will allow visually impaired people to regain their vision over time.
“At first, the resolution will be low, like early Nintendo versions, but eventually it can become even better than normal human vision”, Mr. Musk assures. The entrepreneur is so confident in the success of his project that he even plans to implant a chip in his brain in the near future.
“Let’s give people superpowers. We could better align collective human will with artificial intelligence if, in particular, we dramatically increased productivity. And I think there’s potential to increase performance by, I don’t know, three, maybe six, maybe more orders of magnitude. So it’s better than the current situation,” the entrepreneur says.
Despite the resounding success of implant operations and the use of chips, the Neuralink company has received considerable criticism from various experts.
“Neuralink puts all the resources into implants that will never really be popular with the average disabled patient,” neuroscientist James Wu criticized the company’s developments. According to the specialist, in order to implement Musk’s bold idea, the entire medical system must be completely changed. And it is unlikely that one private company will be able to cope with this.
“This is nothing but the “Mask effect”, and what will happen to the industry when a billionaire becomes disillusioned with this chipping technology and abandons his hobby?”, – researcher Christoph Koch questions the whole idea.
However, Neurolink intends to continue its clinical trials. And thanks to Musk’s intervention, it was possible to attract not only the attention of the entire society to neurobiology, but also significant investments in the development of this field. It is clear that neurochips, like any new technology, cause an ambiguous attitude towards themselves: some see in them an incredible potential to improve the lives of mankind, while for others they cause concern from ethical and security points of view.
Advantages of using microchips
Musk’s neurochips are still undergoing a testing period and, despite the fact that there were thousands of people who wanted to implant such a device, only 400 possible options were selected, and only 10 patients were approved for the operation so far. Two successful operations were preceded by tests on primates. And this attracted the attention of conservationists who accused Neurolink of animal cruelty.
“In monkeys that used Neuralink at the University of California, Davis, parts of the skull were removed, and various devices were attached to the brain“, the lawsuit against the company states. Neurolink itself recognized only one fatality caused by a side effect of one of the operations. In all other cases, only successes were demonstrated. And the very fact that the second such operation has already been carried out speaks for itself.
In the case of the first patient, not everything went well at once, because minor brain movements and displacement of the electrodes of the neurochip, which affected their sensitivity, were not taken into account. But specialists quickly fixed the shortcomings, and the patient demonstrated an increase in the speed of reaction.
“I don’t want to spoil it, but it seems that everything went extremely well with the second implant. There is a lot of signal, a lot of electrodes. It works very well“, – Elon Musk commented on the second operation.
Use of neurochips in medicine
Neurochips are no longer a technology of the future, but our reality. They are increasingly used in various spheres of society, can help restore lost body functions, improve and strengthen cognitive abilities.
As the stories of several patients have proven, neurochips are capable of returning the joy of a full life to people who have lost the ability to move. They can restore limb mobility or control epileptic seizures. Implants improve cognitive abilities in case of impaired cognitive functions. In the near future, neurochips will be able to restore sight or hearing to people. It is obvious that for people with disabilities, thanks to the development of neurobiology, there is a chance to return to a normal existence and become a full member of society.
Neuralink does not pretend to be the palm of the hand. In medicine, the practice of inserting implants into the brain is already used. In the Netherlands, a similar implant gave 40-year-old Gert-Jan Oskam the ability to walk again. The patient was paralyzed for 12 years.
“We captured Hert-Jahn’s thoughts and translated those thoughts into spinal cord stimulation to restore voluntary movement“, explains the principle of operation of the implant, a neurologist from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Gregoire Courtin.
Now the patient can walk more than 100 meters, climb stairs and cross difficult terrain.
The experts themselves predict the future use of neurochips to restore hand and hand movements, as well as to rehabilitate stroke survivors.
In Great Britain, 13-year-old Oran Knowlson was helped by an implant to control his epileptic seizures.
“The neurostimulator sends electrical signals deep into the brain and thus reduces the severity and intensity of seizures by 80%”, – stated in the article of The Guardian.
The boy suffered from epileptic seizures since 2023: he fainted, lost the ability to breathe and needed resuscitation. All this could happen several times a day until the teenager was connected to a neurostimulator. Two electrodes were brought up to the thalamus, and the device itself was placed in the crevice of the skull, where the bone was removed. The device is charged through headphones. Once activated, the implant delivers mild electrical stimulation to the brain and thereby blocks the pathways leading to seizures.
“We saw a significant improvement in his quality of life: the attacks became less frequent and less intense. He became more talkative and interested”, – the boy’s mother is happy.
Neurochips in everyday life
Implant chips the size of a grain of rice began to be used as far back as 2002 in the countries of Latin America and the USA. The purpose of the device was to track the location of criminals and migrants, as well as help in finding children or people suffering from mental or mental disorders.
The next achievement was the creation of an implant chip that served as an analogue of a bank card. A chip containing a unique identification number was simply implanted under the skin of a person. You could forget about carrying credit cards with you. Simply put your palm to the scanner and pay for your purchases.
Technical progress has reached such heights that even special RFID inks are being developed, which are used for tattooing and are completely invisible to the eye. Such ink performs the function of a chip, capable of storing and transmitting information.
Object RFID tags have gained wide popularity. These are chips that contain information about clothing: country of manufacture, brand, fabric composition, size, etc. Such a system helps to track the movement of goods from the producer to the final consumer. And although the radius of action of this chip is insignificant, the very fact that your purchase is being monitored so closely causes some tension.
Possible risks from microchips
“The real problem we face today is the blindness of the mind to the whole immaterial realm of reality.” Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (former Pope Benedict XVI) once wrote.
As you know, there is always a flip side to the coin – despite the obvious advantages of microchips, this latest technology carries with it certain risks. We all understand very well how the system of collecting information works in the same web browser, or how interference in private life is carried out with the help of social networks and mobile devices. And this process takes place around the clock. The computer collects and transmits data about the user’s location, requests and interests. Now imagine that such a device is contained in the cortex of your brain. The fantasy film Upgrade comes to mind, where the main character is implanted with a chip, which later establishes complete control over the man.
Are you ready to give access to your personal life when the chip collects all the information about your location, meetings, conversations, products you buy and thoughts that arise in your head? And the most important question is who exactly will collect this information and carry out control?
Our brain is the same bioprocessor that acts as a receiver-transmitter, it is capable of receiving and transmitting tons of information in a matter of seconds. The impact on any part of the brain or the entire human brain by electromagnetic radiation through a system of satellites opens up enormous possibilities for manipulation. Can we know our own brain? Yes and no. According to Kurt Gödel’s theorem, a system of a certain complexity cannot know a system of equal complexity or more complex than itself. The human brain has about 100 billion neurons, each of which has up to 15 thousand connections. The number of cells serving neurons is 10 times greater than the number of neurons themselves. Every second, our brain emits 200 thousand impulses, and this is only in a calm state.
Scientists still do not understand why a person needs such a complex brain, the capabilities of which most people use only 5 percent. Scientists believe that there have long been ideas that the brain, in addition to performing its function of controlling the body and perceiving information with the help of the senses, is also a receiver of other information. Perhaps there is some other information system (supersystem) that is much more complex than ours, and somehow it can seep in here. This is related to states of intuition, an unusual creative surge, when they say that the idea came in a dream.
Therefore, the threat of controlling people with the help of artificial intelligence, or other people in whose hands such power is concentrated, is probably becoming more and more real.
In this case, it is appropriate to mention a quote by the English science fiction writer Aldous Huxley:
“Rule by clubbing and firing squads, artificially created famine, mass incarceration and mass deportations is not only inhumane (nobody cares much about humanity now) but also patently inefficient, and in our age of advanced technology, inefficiency is a sin against the Holy Spirit . In a truly effective totalitarian state, an all-powerful cohort of political bosses and an army of administrators under them will rule over a population consisting of slaves, who do not need to be forced, because they love their slavery”.
These words were written almost a hundred years ago, but how relevant they are in today’s realities. Don’t we, by giving permission for mass implantation of neurochips, run the risk of becoming an unfree controlled crowd that dances to the tune of an invisible tyrant?
It should not be forgotten that the use of neurochips also affects ethical issues, such as violation of human privacy and misuse of brain activity data. Perhaps this can lead to the use of this technology to manipulate people. Since neurobiology requires a large amount of expensive materials, the technology of neurochips will still remain the privilege of wealthy people. And this is another way to create a chasm in society, creating unequal opportunities.
Technical progress cannot be stopped. Ethics, as always, lags behind technology. The threat of human control, including by artificial intelligence, as shown in the movie “The Matrix”, is becoming real. Hacking neuronet networks (neurohacking) and the spread of specific viruses can cause real damage to the human body, especially the brain. It will change the human essence and turn people into cyborgs. The transformation of the elite into a new biological species of superhumans will inevitably lead to the stratification of humanity. It’s scary to imagine what the consequences could be.
With increasing dependence on technology comes the risk of losing control over one’s own life. Who guarantees that these chips will not be used for total surveillance or mind manipulation? Already today, we are faced with questions about the privacy and security of our data on the Internet. And what happens when these questions apply to our own bodies? Would you like to live in a society of total control, where it is impossible to hide neither your actions, nor your feelings, nor your thoughts? Imagine that someone is constantly watching you through a hidden video camera. How will you feel?
Implantation of microchips can be justified in the future as protection against terrorists, sexual maniacs, pedophiles and other criminals. In a society where all information will be stored, maybe rape and self-serving crimes will disappear. Although, undoubtedly, there will remain spontaneous murders and crimes committed, for example, in a state of intoxication. In conditions of global transparency, when it is impossible to hide anything, a new morality will be needed. But if a person does not have any secrets left in his personal life, will he remain a person?
As you can see, the use of microchips has an extremely important ethical aspect. Who will have access to this technology? Will a new kind of social inequality emerge between those who can afford such implants and those who cannot? How will we protect people’s rights in a world where the boundaries between man and machine will become increasingly blurred? There are more questions than answers.
Therefore, microchips can become a revolutionary step in the development of humanity, offering unprecedented opportunities to improve the quality of life. However, along with these advantages there is a great risk of loss of privacy and personal freedom, as well as the emergence of total control over society. It is important that all aspects of implementing this technology are carefully considered, providing an ethical and legal framework that will protect us from abuse. A future in which microchips control people can be bright and progressive if we manage to find a balance between innovation, law and ethics.
