Brain implant that connects you to the internet

Weekend Reads

Brain-computer interface

09.26.2020

Hello Weekend Readers,

This week's edition is all about brain-computer interfaces. A brain-computer interface means no touchpad, no keyboard, just pure thought. We look at cutting-edge research in neuroscience and computing in the quest to create a brain-machine interface that really works. But can they ever match the hype?

Speaking of hype...

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Elon Musk's Neuralink is neuroscience theater

Elon Musk's livestreamed brain implant event made promises that will be hard to keep.

Facebook is funding brain experiments to create a device that reads your mind

Big tech firms are trying to read people's thoughts, and no one’s ready for the consequences.

Man with brain implant on Musk’s Neuralink: "I would play video games"

Nathan Copeland, a pioneering research subject, talks about his brain-computer interface and why he's excited for Elon Musk's.

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Scientists have found a way to decode brain signals into speech

It's a step towards a system that would let people send texts straight from their brains.

Now playing: a movie you control with your mind

Richard Ramchurn's The Moment lets you play film director, using just your brainwaves.

The surgeon who wants to connect you to the internet with a brain implant

Eric Leuthardt believes that in the near future we will allow doctors to insert electrodes into our brains so we can communicate directly with computers and each other.

Blind patients to test bionic eye brain implants

The prosthesis could help more people who have lost their vision than a device already on the market.

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The entrepreneur with the $100 million plan to link brains to computers

Tech big shots are charging into neuroscience, but do they even have a clue?

Reached via a mind-reading device, deeply paralyzed patients say they want to live

A brain-computer interface records "yes" and "no" answers in patients who lack any voluntary muscle movement.

A shocking way to fix the brain

Neurosurgeons hope to treat some of the most intractable mental disorders by putting advanced arrays of electrodes into patients' brains.

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Let us know what you’d like to hear about next at weekendreads@technologyreview.com. Until next week!

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