A recent survey by Pew Research found that 13 percent of Americans believe that Elon Musk’s Nueralink brain chip will be good for society. The overwhelmingly negative opinions about Musk’s tampering with the human brain will create serious headwinds for his persuit of a “brain-computer interface.”
Gizmodo reports that six years after the founding of Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain chip interface development company, public opinion on the tech has been polled. According to a recent poll by Pew Research, the majority of people are still against the idea of a computer chip in their head.
Elon Musk shades his eyes in front of a Tesla ( Maja Hitij /Getty)
Monkey playing pong (CNET/YouTube)
The vast majority of U.S. adults surveyed by Pew Research, around 78 percent, stated that they would not personally want a brain chip implant even if they were readily available. Only 13 percent of those that responded to the survey said that they thought the types of implants developed by Nueralink and other biotech companies seem like a good idea for society.
56 percent of those polled by Pew stated that they believe technology like Neuralink would be actively bad for society. A second majority of 57 percent worried that the widespread use of brain interfaces could potentially widen the gap between high and low-income Americans. Less than a quarter of all surveyed believe that even if the tech was widely available it would actually improve human decision-making.
There were some specific instances in which individuals would consider a brain-computer interface (BCI). Approximately 60 percent of respondents said they would be more comfortable if they could turn the effects of the chip on and off, while 53 percent said they’d be more comfortable if the BCI didn’t require surgery.
The Pew Research report surveyed a group of 10,260 U.S. adults late last year on a number of tech-related issues including opinions on driverless cars, artificial intelligence, gene editing, and other tech developments.
Many neuroscientists have reportedly begun taking issue with Musk’s claims about Neuralink, stating that he is exaggerating the technology’s capabilities — a common trait of Musk’s. Musk has previously stated that Neuralink could cure brain diseases and disorders, something which neuroscientists and technologist James Wu took issue with, stating in a tweet: “Neur*link is pouring funding only into implants that realistically will never be used by the average patient with disabilities in the absence of structural changes to our health care systems.”
Source: Bretbart
