Humanity is on the verge of chipization, human experiments

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In mid-April, Elon Musk and the startup Neuralink launched a fantasy video: a monkey with a microchip in his head controls a computer game using his thoughts. The cursor moved where the monkey wanted, but the animal did not need paws to play the game.

It is enough to imagine the action, and the microchip under the control of artificial intelligence realizes the desires. Elon Musk promises to soon chip people too - we figure out what is behind these fantasy pictures in reality.

Mind games

Neuralink is a research project by Elon Musk. After the monkey video was released, the inventor tweeted:

According to Elon Musk, the microchip will help people with limited mobility, and in the future, with the help of implants, humanity will treat Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

This created a demand for chipization: for example, someone Hamun Kamai noted Elon Musk on Twitter and said that he had been confined to a wheelchair after an accident for twenty years. Hamun notes that he is ready to undergo chipping, because it gives hope for recovery.

But Neuralink is not the only project of this kind: in April 2021, innovators from BrainGate proved that it is possible to establish a wireless connection between the human brain and the device, which is especially useful for people with paralysis. You no longer need to make an effort to communicate in social networks, write a note, draw on a graphic tablet: just imagine the action, as in a video with a monkey, and the "Wi-Fi" of your mind will complete what you started.

Instead of wires, BrainGate fixes a small transmitter to the user's head. The device connects to a network of electrodes embedded in the test subject's cerebral cortex. The company's experiment has already involved two men who suffer from paralysis, and this is the result. The subjects used the BrainGate system to point the direction on the gadget, press buttons and type text on the tablet, and the speed of the actions performed was as close to reality as possible. As soon as they mentally imagine the action, what they wanted instantly materialized.

Sounds tempting? Scientists plan to continue experiments and attract doctors to study the brain activity of people who suffer from paralysis and other diseases. At the moment, the employees of BrainGate are confident that soon this invention will allow "reprogramming" the brain so as to completely get rid of the disease. Time will tell whether it will succeed or not.

Chipization: how it all began

The first experiment with chips dates back to 1998, when British cybernetic scientist Kevin Warwick tested an RFID implant with radio frequency identification on himself. The chip was used to open doors, turn on lights and give voice commands in the house. The chip was seized nine days later and has since been kept in the Science Museum in London.

In 2005, Amal Graafstra inserted a chip into his left hand: his EM 4102 RFID repeater is encased in a bioactive glass sheath and operates at a frequency of 125 kHz. Initially, the biohacker used a chip to confirm his identity when entering the office, but later he chose the more advanced low-frequency model HITAG S 2048 and was able to open the doors in the car and enter the password on the computer with one wave of the hand.

In 2013, Amal Graafstra founded the biohacking company Dangerous Things and invented the world's first NFC repeater. Near field communication is a wireless transmission technology that transmits data between devices at a distance of 10 cm. The next innovation of Graafstra was a smart gun, capable of shooting only in the hands of the owner, whose identity was determined by the weapon precisely thanks to the chip.

In 2015, biohacker Hannes Sioblad also inserted a microchip between his thumb and forefinger, and organized special parties popular with young people, where everyone could insert a microchip almost painlessly.

Living with a microchip under the skin

Hannes Sioblad talked about how life will change after total chipization.

Hannes himself decided to introduce a microchip when he realized how easy it is to program an implant using a smartphone.

Unsurprisingly, Hannes wanted to share his discovery with tech advocates. But at the same time, the organizer of the so-called micro-parties, where a chip can be inserted for $ 150, has to face criticism.

Hannes does not argue with critics.

In general, Hannes Sioblad advises contacting professionals who will insert the chip under sterile conditions, otherwise it will be dangerous to health.

Hannes is also the managing director of Dsruptive Subdermals, which received funding late last year to conduct preclinical research on human health implants.

By the way, Hannes believes that using chips for identification is more reasonable and secure than choosing biometric authentication (face, voice and fingerprint recognition).

Hannes Sioblad is confident that by 2025, many millions of people will want to implement a microchip.

What are microchips criticized for?

In 2009, British scientist Mark Gasson agreed to surgery to insert an RFID chip, an electrical circuit enclosed in a tiny glass capsule. In 2010, Gasson demonstrated that a computer virus can remotely infect his implant and then infect other wireless devices. The experiment naturally made scientists start talking about the fact that chipping is dangerous from the point of view of cybersecurity.

“Will hackers now penetrate the human mind and control it for their own purposes? Manipulation will move to a new level, people will start making decisions that are beneficial to others, and will not even be aware that they are not following their desires,”the critics said. And if now the IP address can be encrypted from prying eyes by turning on the VPN, the chip under the skin will not provide such an opportunity.

However, in 2018, another company of Amal Graafstra, VivoKey Technologies, developed the first microchip with a cryptographic cipher. The Spark device has a 128-bit AES encryption standard, with a security level approved by the US government. The security element, Flex One, also connects the chip to special software, Java Card applets, which means that Bitcoin wallet and PGP digital signature information is available to the chip. The system is compliant with OATH OTP, the Open Authentication Initiative, so users can enjoy universal two-factor authentication with ease. The program is installed on the chip both before and after implantation.

Amal Graafstra talks about how safe microchips are.

Chipization: how to distinguish truth from falsehood?

Amal Graafstra believes that humanity's interest in microchips is not connected with biohacking itself, but with curiosity inherent in each of us.

By the way, the idea to invent such a microchip was born after Amal Graafstra got into an unpleasant situation.

Amal Graafstra believes that now his life has changed significantly and wants to improve the lives of other people.

Amal Graafstra believes that it is foolish to be afraid of hackers who will break directly into the microchip. But at the same time, we must not forget that the chip is connected with other gadgets, which means that the technology must be protected.

Amal Graafstra created an implantable NFC transplant, and in the process he faced a lot of difficulties. Considering that at the moment this is the only project of its kind in the world, the company has to work on fulfilling a huge number of orders to provide everyone with devices.

In an interview, Amal joked that he would like to turn people into cyborgs. But now he refutes this idea - or rather, formulates it in a more humanistic way.

Amal Graafstra does not believe in conspiracy theory: she believes that criticism of chipping stems from elementary ignorance.

Amal Graafstra himself follows the development of science with great interest.

Chipization is a new, not yet studied phenomenon that is just making its first steps in the field of scientific and technological progress. Everything unknown is scary, and implants are no exception. Time will tell what this invention will be for humanity.