埃隆·马斯克的黑科技即将颠覆世界

by Nick Statt

他立志于送大众移民到火星，让民众都开上电动车，但现在他想的是改造大脑。

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is backing a brain-computer interface venture called Neuralink, according to The Wall Street Journal. The company, which is still in the earliest stages of existence and has no public presence whatsoever, is centered on creating devices that can be implanted in the human brain, with the eventual purpose of helping human beings merge with software and keep pace with advancements in artificial intelligence. These enhancements could improve memory or allow for more direct interfacing with computing devices.

根据华尔街日报，SpaceX公司和特斯拉电动车的首席执行官埃隆·马斯克注册了一家名为Neuralink的公司，这是一家想改造大脑成为计算机的创业公司。该公司仍处于最初阶段，主要想法是在人脑中植入芯片，最终帮助人类大脑中融合各种软件和不断进化的人工智能。这些改进可以提高记忆力或是更直接的和电脑互动。

Musk has hinted at the existence of Neuralink a few times over the last six months or so. More recently, Musk told a crowd in Dubai, “Over time I think we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence.” He added that “it's mostly about the bandwidth, the speed of the connection between your brain and the digital version of yourself, particularly output." On Twitter, Musk has responded to inquiring fans about his progress on a so-called “neural lace,” which is sci-fi shorthand for a brain-computer interface humans could use to improve themselves.

马斯克在过去6个月里暗示过几次Neuralink的存在。最近，马斯克在迪拜时说过，“在未来的某个时候，我相信生物智能和数字智能会更加紧密的结合在一起。”他随后又说道“更多的关于是信息交互速度，特别是你的大脑对电子版的大脑的输出速度。”这是马斯克在推特上就粉丝关于“神经织网”的回答。其主要目的是通过人脑和电脑的交互让人类可以更方便的提高自己的知识水平。

These types of brain-computer interfaces exist today only in science fiction. In the medical realm, electrode arrays and other implants have been used to help ameliorate the effects of Parkinson’s, epilepsy, and other neurodegenerative diseases. However, very few people on the planet have complex implants placed inside their skulls, while the number of patients with very basic stimulating devices number only in the tens of thousands. This is partly because it is incredibly dangerous and invasive to operate on the human brain, and only those who have exhausted every other medical option choose to undergo such surgery as a last resort.

只有在科幻小说中才会出现这样大脑和电脑交互的场景。但在医疗领域，电极和其他植入物已经用于帮助改善帕金森，癫痫症和其他神经性疾病。但是现在只有极少数的人在自己大脑中植入复杂的芯片，而大脑中植入很简单的模拟芯片的病人数量只有1/100左右。主要是因为植入有很高的危险性和对大脑入侵式的操作，所以只有那些所有医疗方法都用尽的病人为了生存才会为此一搏。

This has not stopped a surge in Silicon Valley interest from tech industry futurists who are interested in accelerating the advancement of these types of far-off ideas. Kernel, a startup created by Braintree co-founder Bryan Johnson, is also trying to enhance human cognition. With more than $100 million of Johnson’s own money — the entrepreneur sold Braintree to PayPal for around $800 million in 2013 — Kernel and its growing team of neuroscientists and software engineers are working toward reversing the effects of neurodegenerative diseases and, eventually, making our brains faster and smarter and more wired.

但这并没有丝毫减弱来自硅谷科技创业界大佬对此黑科技的兴趣。Kernel是一家创业公司，由Braintree的联合创始人Bryan Johnson创办。Kernel主要目的是提高人类的认知能力。Jonson自己出资1亿美元（2013年时他把Braintree卖给了PayPal获利8亿美元）召集了神经系统科学家和软件工程师来一同合作，试图逆转神经退行性疾病的影响，最终把我们的大脑改造的更快，更聪明和更加紧密地联系在一起。

“We know if we put a chip in the brain and release electrical signals, that we can ameliorate symptoms of Parkinson's,” Johnson told The Verge in an interview late last year. (Johnson also confirmed Musk’s involvement with Neuralink.) “This has been done for spinal cord pain, obesity, anorexia… what hasn’t been done is the reading and writing of neural code.” Johnson says Kernel’s goal is to “work with the brain the same way we work with other complex biological systems like biology and genetics.”

Johnson去年在接受前沿网(The Verge)采访时说道，“我们知道如果我们在患者大脑中植入芯片然后释放电流就可以改善帕金森的症状。”(当时Johnson也确认了马斯克正在参与Neuralink的事情。) “同样的方法我们也已经用于改善脊髓疼痛，肥胖，厌食症等疾病，但我们还没有做的事情只剩读写神经代码了。”Johnson说Kernel的目标是“像我们对待其他复杂的生物学系统比如生物学和遗传学一样对待我们的大脑。”

Kernel, to its credit, is quite upfront about the years of medical research necessary to better understand the human brain and pioneer new surgery techniques, software methods, and implant devices that could make a consumer brain-computer interface a reality. The Wall Street Journal says Neuralink was founded as a medical research company in California last July, which bolsters the idea that Musk will follow a similar route as Johnson and Kernel.

Kernel公司已经走在了现有的医疗研究前面，他们在理解人的大脑和大脑手术技术，软件方法和植入芯片领域的经验对于以后实现商业化的人脑和电脑交互有着促进作用。

To be fair, the hurdles involved in developing these devices are immense. Neuroscience researchers say we have very limited understanding about how the neurons in the human brain communicate, and our methods for collecting data on those neurons is rudimentary. Then there’s the idea of people volunteering to have electronics placed inside their heads.

老实说，对于开发这样的芯片来说阻碍是巨大的。神经性研究人员说我们对大脑一直是知之甚少，根本不了解神经元是如何沟通的，而我们获取这些神经元的数据方法也是最原始的。此外还有人自愿往自己脑袋植入芯片。

“People are only going to be amenable to the idea [of an implant] if they have a very serious medical condition they might get help with,” Blake Richards, a neuroscientist and assistant professor at the University of Toronto, told The Verge in an interview earlier this year. “Most healthy individuals are uncomfortable with the idea of having a doctor crack open their skull.”

Black Richards是一名来自多伦多大学的神经系统科学家和助理教授，他今年初在接受前沿网(The Verge）采访时说道，“人们只会在极度需要医疗帮助的情况下才会接受在自己大脑中植入芯片。”他解释道，“大部分健康的人无法接受医生打开自己脑袋。”