Neuralink will bring us closer together

Sci Fight: Science/Comedy Debates

Sci fight is a quarterly Science Comedy Debate where scientists and comedians come together to debate serious issues in a ridiculous manner.

This round's topic: Neuralink will bring us closer together

Elon Musk recently announced the first results from an in-human clinical trial of Neuralink; a brain-computer interface that decodes brain waves allowing humans to control anything from a computer, prosthetic limb, to an errant robot vacuum cleaner.

Which journal did he publish this in, I hear you ask? Twitter? No, I'm not familiar with that peer reviewed science journal.

The technology is an incredible opportunity for people with paralysis to communicate and interact at a greater level with the world around them. This is very cool.

But where is this technology heading?

What access to our thoughts will this give Musk in the future? I’ve tried to block him on Twitter, and yet, he’s always in my feed. Organic intrusive thoughts are bad enough; how does one block a pop up from inside your head? What happens if governments can see your thoughts? Are we heading for a police mental-state?

What would it be like living in a world where our insecurities, nasty thoughts and desires are on display? Would it herald the collapse of society as we know it? Or would the end of the final frontier in privacy invoke a new era of universal understanding and empathy? Would discovering your shameful secret of writing erotic parliamentary fanfic isn’t that unique after all?

Come and get neurological with Melbourne’s best scientists and comics at the brilliant Howler.