Will Neuralink Change the Way We Think About the Unconscious?

On July 17, 2019, Elon Musk unveiled preliminary research conducted by Neuralink, his company focused on developing a brain-computer interface (BCI). But imagine, in some alternate universe, this talk occurring in 1895; and imagine it just so happens that young Sigmund Freud is in the audience. Let’s say he has just enjoyed a large hit of cocaine, as he was often inclined to do. His thoughts are buzzing. He thinks back to his workday, mostly spent conducting dream analysis, struggling to tap into his patients’ deepest, darkest motivations. And now he hears Elon Musk speaking from the brightly-lit stage:

“Our goal is to record from and stimulate spikes in neurons…and do so in a way that is orders of magnitude more than anything that has been done to date.”

“My God!” thinks Freud, “this is a revolution! Forget dream analysis, I can now access the unconscious mind directly… I can connect unconscious processes to a computer…” It’s 1895, but let’s assume computers exist. Freud is just beginning to develop his theories about the unconscious mind but, lucky for him, he happens to be alive during the age of computers.

Sniffing furiously, his mind races through the possibilities. “I can capture internet-searches mid-dream. I can document slips-of-the-tongue occurring not through speech, but through internet activity. Maybe I can capture patients’ half-formed, unspoken thoughts? And I’ll have their thoughts unfiltered, straight from the unconscious!”

This is Freud hopped up on coke, of course, so we should take his musings with extreme reservation. He’s also thinking about an army of robots controlled by his patents’ IDs. As the general of the army, “I’ll take over the world!” he thinks. Wild as his thoughts are, however, it’s impossible to not be carried along by his excitement for this new technology.

On stage, Musk and his team are reassuring the audience about the practical implications of his brain-computer interface. With this technology, we’ll be able to help patients with Parkinson’s. Quadriplegics. The elderly… Eventually, yes, we’ll be able to have immediate access to the knowledge of the internet through the cloud — zero latency! What else? Well, of course, there are the powers of telepathy… As well as the potential…