Elon Musk has 'happy monkey' with brain wired for videogaming
What's the story
In a revelation that's not going to sit well with PETA and company, Elon Musk claimed that he has a monkey playing video games with wires hooked up to its head. The interesting titbit was a part of Musk's interaction on the audio-only social app Clubhouse, where he talked about a number of things ranging from his work on brain implants to colonizing Mars.
Primate pong
Wants monkeys to play mind-Pong with each other
Musk was referring to ongoing research at his Neuralink startup, which is perfecting brain implants for humans. This currently involves animal testing featuring monkeys with brain implants. They're trying to figure out if monkeys can play "mind-Pong' with each other. Calling these devices a primitive version of neural implants, he described them as "Fitbit in your skull" replete with tiny wires interfacing with the brain.
Eerie coincidence
Musk's Neuralink recruitment tweet resembles the plotline of 'The Surge'
Musk even took to Twitter to recruit personnel for Neuralink. The short-term goals detailed using cranial implants to help paraplegic or brain/spine injury victims, with the long-term plan being human-AI symbiosis, which he describes as "species-level important". That is precisely the plotline of Focus Home Interactive's underrated RPG game The Surge, but the species-level human-AI symbiosis doesn't exactly pan out well for humanity.
Science-fact
Humans will reach Mars in five and half years: Musk
Musk also revealed a rather ambitious timeline for getting humans to Mars. Just five and a half years! Musk is known to relay overambitious timelines, but this one takes the cake. This is especially true given the regulatory hurdles and safety probes SpaceX has been subjected to owing to the break-neck pace at which tests and launches have taken place in recent times.
No petro-dollars here
Musk declares support for Bitcoin; jokes about meme currency Dogecoin
Musk also used the platform to bring (even more) attention to the WallStreetBets phenomenon where he professed his support for Bitcoin, while also talking about Dogecoin, which had its own rally alongside the GameStop stock manipulation madness. Musk joked about the meme cryptocurrency becoming the dominant currency of Earth in the future. However, the recent 300% spike in its value is no joke.