Neuralink’s Plan To Merge AI With Humans Before It’s Too Lake

Josh: So this is a different type of episode, but you got to stick with me because Josh: one of the most interesting frontiers that I've been personally obsessed with Josh: is brain computer interfaces, especially Neuralink, which is what I believe Josh: to be the last personal device that will ever need to make. Josh: As I went down this rabbit hole, I was fascinated at how awe-inspiring that Josh: technology is, but also its inevitability.

Josh: This technology is here today and it's becoming sci-fi level great incredibly Josh: quickly. So what you're about to listen to is a short video essay on just that. Josh: It's most exciting to watch this visually, either through YouTube or you can Josh: even watch the video straight from your Spotify feed. Josh: Everything you need is at limitless.bankless.com or you can click the link in Josh: the top of this episode description.

Josh: Thank you as always for the support and sharing these episodes with any friends Josh: who might be interested in this cool frontier crazy tech stuff. Josh: So with that said, let's get right into this mini episode on Neuralink. Josh: Would you allow a developer you've never met to install software in your brain Josh: that gives total access to all of your thoughts, your memories, Josh: and everything that makes you, you, the same way you install an update on your iPhone?

Josh: The knee-jerk reaction is probably no. That's creepy. It's weird enough that Josh: my phone knows everything about me. Josh: The last thing I want is a company to see my literal thoughts and fears. Josh: But what if I made you a few promises? Josh: Like this chip can remember your dreams and memories and then play them back Josh: as if you were reliving them for the first time, fully viscerally.

Josh: It'll hijack your senses and you'll feel everything you felt as if you were Josh: right back there for the very first time. Josh: It can give you super sight that allows you to see night vision or infrared rays. Josh: It can teach you the language overnight before you get on that plane to Japan. Josh: It could cure you of injuries, curing paralysis and blindness. Josh: It can remove your depression, fix hearing loss, remove that annoying tinnitus you have.

Josh: It can stop your loved ones from suffering from Alzheimer's,

Josh: dementia, and strokes. Oh, and you'll be able to communicate with others totally telepathically. Josh: Suddenly, this sounds a little more compelling, doesn't it? Josh: If you're thinking this is just like an episode of Black Mirror, Josh: you're right, but this technology is real, and just this week, Josh: two more patients answered yes to that question.

Josh: They received the chip that will eventually do all these amazing things, Josh: but for now, in these patients, it's doing just one job, and that's fixing people's paralysis. Josh: The company is called Neuralink, and their first product is called Telepathy, Josh: and just last week, they embedded the Telepathy chip into patients number eight and number nine. Josh: These are some of the first people in the world to benefit from this technology, Josh: and the results are pretty remarkable.

Josh: We'll get into that, but first let's peel back the skull figuratively and see Josh: exactly how this thing works and why it matters. Josh: So there's two reasons Neuralink is important, and they actually couldn't be more different. Josh: The first is human liberation. If your spinal cord quits on you or you become Josh: paralyzed, telepathy can give you digital hands, and this isn't sci-fi.

Josh: Patient number one is this guy named Nolan, who's already trash-talking friends Josh: in the popular video game called Civilization VI, just by thinking about it. Josh: And just recently, the Neuralink team gave this super cool demo of their patients Josh: actually playing Call of Duty together using just their thoughts, Josh: walking around the 3D world, pointing their gun, then actually shooting enemies.

Josh: And as a fellow Call of Duty player, seeing someone telepathically walking around Josh: Nuketown, it's pretty freaking cool. Josh: They also continue the demo with an example of how a person can telepathically Josh: connect to an optimist humanoid robot. Josh: Picture you're disabled, but want to interact with the physical world?

Josh: Well, with the chip, you can telepathically embody a humanoid robot and walk Josh: and talk and one day even feel the sensory inputs that the robot also feels. Josh: They gave an early demo of this playing rock, paper, scissors and the optimist Josh: hand flipping off the audience, which, you know, nice touch. Josh: The second reason Neuralink is important is for civilizational survival.

Josh: Elon's gamble is that when AI superintelligence levels up to god mode, Josh: we'll need a bandwidth upgrade to stay co-pilots and not turn into passengers. Josh: If artificial general intelligence keeps compounding, human decision-making Josh: bandwidth becomes the bottleneck that turns us from stewards of the future into mere spectators. Josh: Elon frames the link as a defensive and democratizing upgrade, Josh: a direct cortical interface that scales our input-output rate.

Josh: So, to explain that simply, think of your body as a computer for a second. Josh: Over the course of the day, how many operations per second, on average, can you do? Josh: It's pretty low. You can say a couple of words, type a few things into your Josh: phone, walk a step or two, and that's really it. we're pretty low bandwidth.

Josh: Like, think about it. You're using your two thumbs on a slab of glass that you Josh: call a smartphone to communicate incredibly complex thoughts with this device. Josh: There's a ton of compression of your big ideas reduced down to just a few keystrokes. Josh: And the same is true about communication. Josh: As I'm talking to you, I'm having this whole rich idea of how I want to describe this technology.

Josh: That idea then has to be compressed into words, then spoken to you, the listener. Josh: I make my vocal cords vibrate. Those vibrations resonate against your eardrums, Josh: where you interpret the words I'm saying and build your own model of what you Josh: believe my message means. Josh: Like right now, I'm imagining this world in which I'm telepathically connecting Josh: to an optimist robot on Mars and walking around the planet as if it was my real body.

Josh: The visual I have is almost certainly drastically different than yours, Josh: but if we had a neural link, well, you could just see it exactly how I see it. Josh: So, to tie back to the civilizational survival thing, we're looking to go from

Josh: sluggish thumbs per second to megabits and then hopefully gigabits per second Josh: of neural data, letting us collaborate with superintelligent systems instead Josh: of being outmaneuvered by them. Josh: In this view, the implant is less a medical device and more a civil engineering Josh: project for the species, us. Josh: It's a neural on-ramp that allows every individual brain to tap into the real-time Josh: computational power that a frontier model AI enjoys.

Josh: By hardwiring humans into the loop, the argument is we keep moral judgment, Josh: creativity, and lived experience inside the feedback cycle that guides the machines, Josh: preventing a narrow elite or the AI themselves from monopolizing the layers Josh: of economics, politics, or even kinetic forces like our military. Josh: So in short, boost the bandwidth, merge the perspectives, and humanity maintains Josh: a seat at the negotiation table instead of being placed on top of it.

Josh: And yeah, this is effectively the point at which we merge ourselves with the Josh: singularity, defined as a hypothetical point in time at which technology growth Josh: becomes completely alien to humans, uncontrollable, irreversible. Josh: Resulting in unforeseen consequences for the human civilization.

Josh: Well, good news is Neuralink is trying to avoid just that. And in doing so, Josh: opens up the door to an ideal called transhumanism, which is a philosophical Josh: intellectual movement that kind of advocates for using technology to enhance Josh: human capabilities and improve the human condition as a whole. Josh: Remember earlier when I said neural link could cure blindness? Josh: It can do a lot more than that. Think of your eyeballs as a camera and then

Josh: think of all the amazing things that cameras are capable of doing today. It gets pretty wild. Josh: Blindsight could deliver high resolution vision that's equal to or better than Josh: perfect 2020 eyesight but with even more fun features on top. Josh: Imagine built-in telephoto capability to zoom in and see things further out, Josh: or a macro ability, just like your iPhone, to see microscopic objects without Josh: any external tools. But it gets even cooler.

Josh: It can let you perceive beyond normal human limits, like infrared for detecting

Josh: heat in the dark, spotting warm objects in the night, or ultraviolet for hidden Josh: patterns, even radar to see through fog and walls. Josh: And imagine augmented overlays too, with real-time info like navigation directions Josh: projected right into your view. No need for glasses, just your eyeballs.

Josh: And for those born blind, your brain would just adapt these new signals creating Josh: vision from scratch now that's for the advanced versions in the future but for Josh: the initial versions well it still works. Josh: It won't be like your natural crystal clear eyesight at first. Josh: It'll be basic and low resolution, kind of like pixelated graphics from an old Josh: video game on Atari or early Nintendo.

Josh: You'll perceive the world in blocky images, maybe grayscale or with simple colors, Josh: spotting large objects, basic outlines, movement. Josh: Think navigating a room, dodging obstacles, or noticing a door or a person nearby, Josh: but not being able to make out the specific details just yet. Josh: But it gets really good, really fast, and they've laid out a pretty cool timeline Josh: for when we can expect these things to work.

Josh: So as of this month, which is July 2025, Neuralink has nine human implants, Josh: patient one through patient nine, with patient eight and nine done in one day, which is a first. Josh: Bandwidth is about nine and a half bits per second, with the team aiming for Josh: 40 by end of year, so about a 5x, at which they will plan to have the chip implanted Josh: in 30 patients, as well as roll out their blindsight and the robot arm controller Josh: project they call Convoy.

Josh: From 2027 to 2029, they plan to increase the throughput of the chip to 25,000

Josh: channels, which basically means a full HD neural feed to the chip. Josh: Also during this window, they want to release a pair link with spinal cord stim Josh: to reanimate your limbs. Josh: You can think of it like a digital bridge on steroids in the case that you've Josh: actually damaged your spinal cord.

Josh: Then by 2030, things start to get pretty weird. We get elective cognitive coprocessor Josh: for memory search and language translation, Josh: which means real-time translate and searching through your past memories, Josh: whether you are excited to do that or not. Josh: This comes with always-on-cloud AI creating a true symbiosis for the first time between human and AI. Josh: You are always connected all the time. As well as creating a chip mesh network.

Josh: This is also when we can expect to see what Neuralink is calling the telepathy party mode. Josh: So humanity now has a USB-C port poking through the blood-brain barrier. Josh: Today, it's letting nine paralyzed pioneers swipe, click, and maybe soon see again. Josh: Tomorrow, it can beam Grok10 straight into our visual stream.

Josh: So ask yourself, when the install wizard pops up and you have to click the terms Josh: of service, with the risk-adjusted return on investment of civilizational survival, do you click accept? Josh: Because whether we're ready or Josh: not, the age of downloadable upgrades for wetware has officially booted. Josh: Our next grand task isn't actually inventing the tech, it's just deciding, Josh: together, what it means to stay human while we use it. Thank you so much for watching. Music: Music