Neuralink 'Participant 1' says his life has changed

Reviews by independent experts about the quality of this guy's life? I think he can be considered an authority on that subject.

> in particular I'm not sure why the fluff bits about Musk "being a regular guy" are relevant

They're relevant because this was almost certainly written by a PR firm being paid by Musk to resuscitate his 32% approval rating.

Its a sample size of 1, of course its ancedotal.

Its a promising first sign, but that's all. I think you have unrealistic expectations if you expect rigorus science on the cost/benefit after just one experimental procedure. Stuff like this takes time.

The mere fact he didn't die from the procedure is probably a success in and of itself.

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Oh noes a positive article mentioning Musk, quickly get it off of HN!! /s

Could it perhaps be that the person who was immensely helped thanks to the initiative of 1 person, likes that person? Might it be that people like the good Elon Musk does? Could it possibly be that Musk truly did immense good for some people?

Tip: watch the videos of the people who have the Neuralink implant and draw your own conclusion.

Let the downvoting begin. The success of the anti-Musk media psyop is truly awe inspiring IMO.

Probably necessary PR in order to avoid being cut off. Or just gratuitously inserted by the device into the wearer's decoded thoughts/output.

My brother has had YOPD since his late 20s. He got DBS done about 3 years ago, and it was life changing. Not only in the symptom reduction (tremors and rigidity significantly reduced -- he walked straight for the first time in years, could button his shirts again, etc), but also in lifestyle improvements around the amount and frequency of medication, the ability to sleep properly (several side effects of both PD and the meds affect sleep), the ability for his body to actually relax.

DBS, like you said, is rather course tech and actually quite old technology. Doctors still don't entirely know why it works, so the adjustment is often experimental. In fact prior to specialized MRI machines that they use during surgery now, the patients would remain awake during the placement (brain surgery) of the electrodes so that the surgeons would know when the placement was "correct" based on real-time assessment of their symptoms. Now they do it under MRI, but the point being it's far from an exact science.

Can't wait to see what the future holds as they improve on it. Hard to imagine a world where his symptoms are fully managed (PD is progressive degeneration, so his symptoms, even with DBS are gradually worsening with time), but it was also hard to imagine how DBS could overnight change his life in the ways it did.

Has this been used for other health issues too?

Divisive is an understatement.

If this tech could be made to work flawlessly, it would be the gate to all the SciFi cyborg stuff, including body enhancements, "telepathy", etc.

Also, as a "side effect", it would open a path to fully immersive VR, as in Matrix, Snow Crash, Neuromancer, etc - with all the upsides and downsides of those scenarios.

All that "just" from hooking up motor and sensor neurons. And then people would probably start and mess with neurons that are involved in cognitive functions and the consciousness.

If generative AI had potential for cultish behavior, I think that will pale in comparison to this stuff.

It killed the vast majority of animals used for testing. Two would probably yield that result for you

There are flexible electrodes, rather than rigid arrays. The idea was that this would reduce scarring. I'm not aware of the exact results of the trials, but it works better than rigid arrays for longevity of recording.

Not sure but they did manage to make the patients say that it had changed their lives. :smirk:

Trade secrets?

No one has to hope he succeeds. He's demonstrated a supreme lack of judgement and character, I hope he doesn't gain more power.

Neuralink is super cool actually great medical tech, and elon comes in -in this article- blabbing about optimus robots or whatever as usual. I hope elon continues to get neuralink lots of money so that they can do useful things.

> It’s sad that many want to dismiss these amazing achievements just because it’s an Elon Musk founded company. A

The one thing that most people realize with age is that intelligence is not confined. One cannot be smart in one area while being a complete moron in another area. The reason why college educated people especially in STEM lean heavily Democratic isn't because of brainwashing, its because once you learn to critically think, you can apply it to the world and see what is better for society.

Furthermore we live in an age where ideology often gets substituted for fact, and people can't tell the difference.

So at this point, its a safe bet to assume that everything Musk touches is going to be shit until substantial evidence is provided otherwise, and a single article isn't it.

When Elon Musk was in charge of DOGE, one of the many horrible things they did was end clinical trials abruptly while medical devices were still implanted in patients' bodies. Clinicians were ordered to stop all work, leaving the devices in peoples' bodies and not provide any monitoring or support.

This man should not be in charge of any clinical trials.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/health/usaid-clinical-tri...

> It’s sad that many want to dismiss these amazing achievements just because it’s an Elon Musk founded company

That's not a fair take. This isn't "just a thing", this leads to massive financial gain by someone whose now a very influential power into people's lives from his involvement in politics and other circles of influence.

People can do good and bad at the same time, and if you're impacted by the bad things the person does, the good doesn't excuse it, and you'd want to stop them from doing more bad, it makes sense not to cheer on the good things they do that then fuels their effort into the bad things.

There can be disagreement on if they are doing bad, but to someone who believes so, it's a rational stance to not cheer on what can further fuel what they consider bad.