whatever convinces people that its a bad idea

I have a big brain, so I refuse all microchips. I won't settle for anything less than a macrochip.
- they just shove a laptop in your skull
- Like a pringle the size of a pool tarp
- Time for a megachip
- Unfortunately, Robotron went out of business.
- “A small microchip about the size of a postcard”

Personally, I think the technology has great potential. But under capitalism? Fuck no.
- Gimme open sourced brain chips and I'm in
  
  You are now required to use the command line just to think.
  
  Yes. Democratically produced and managed
- Lol i would say no under any system.
  
  There are legitimate, helpful uses for such technology

Meh, I think the concept of interfacing directly with the brain is really interesting, I just don't know if an Elon company is the one I want doing it.
Of course I'd rather have a brain interface that I didn't have to implant though.
- Even if it's not Elon Musk. Do you want to have brain surgery every 2 years to implant a new chip because the old one is obsolete?
  
  No, the tech needs to be developed such that regular surgery is unnecessary.
  
  I'd be completely fine with a usb port in the back of my skull to update it /s
- I agree that the concept is interesting, but honestly the damage that could be done with something like that is just not worth it.
  With corporate greed you can't be sure what weird step they decide to do next. And everything they do directly affects you. Not to speak of the possibility of getting hacked and having a weird version of the bee movie play in your head on loop.
  
  Imagine ransomware for your memories

Alternative answer: YES!
Companies know best what is good for us and people crave stuff with a micro- prefix, like microplastics (yummy), microtransactions (funny), microbial infections (it's like a pet), microwaves in your brain (tickles), etc.
- ^^ the most awesome answer!!! i love consooming!!!
- I love my pet bacteria!
  
  I read somewhere that we have more bacteria in/on our bodies than actual cells containing out own DNA, so really, who's the pet here?
- micropenis!

I mean, that's how cautionary tales such as Black Mirror are supposed to work

We can hardly get our self-designed computer systems to adequately communicate with each other or function. How confident are you that we can design an appropriate interface with our brain? Something which we still have yet to fully decipher?
In no way do I want venture capitalists and tech bros fucking fumbling around in my brain with hardware designed and constructed by the lowest bidder.

There is a non-zero chance that once they have a chip in your brain, they will find a way to stream ads in to it.
For that reason, I'm out.
- Why stream ads when they can more-directly influence you?
  
  Waking up with an unavoidable craving to watch "OW! My balls!" I'm in!
  /s
  
  Hello You, come CloZer

Wait, you mean I can let the guy who invented a shittier version of a subway train (the tunnel has colorful LEDs though) and routinely bitches about safety regulations put computer chips in my brain?! Woah, sign me up for the future!
- i cant believe they actually built that tunnel. they filled a nearly inescapable underground tube with cars known for combusting and burning for ages
  
  Not only that, but burning aggressively. I've seen my share of car fires, having worked in EMS for 12 years, there's no such thing as a gentle car fire; if they burned any more aggressively, they'd basically just explode. Well, something about the lithium makes these fires fucking rip and they're a nightmare to put out. I just did some quick googling, and supposedly Li-ion battery fires are able to supply their own oxygen (holy shit), so you can't put a lithium battery fire out by smothering it with water or foam. Maybe I'm wrong and someone who isn't an Internet idiot (it's me, I'm the idiot) can correct me, but that sounds hella bad, and like of one of those cars caught fire in that tunnel, that fire just flat out isn't getting put out.
  
  That's fine. That thing is halfway round the globe. I'll be just fine

There is a long list of legit and or cook reasons to have a microchip in a brain. Controlling or assisting damaged brain structures, you can mitigate the symptoms.of Parkinsons, give vision to a blind person.. but I also think the cool parts van be nice and probably are inevitable. Being able to communicate in your head, that sort of thing. I see it as something that will happen and people WILL do it.
Also, who do you think will make these chips? A fairy? Of course companies will (and already do) make them.
I think instead of screaming NONONO we should start thinking about what rules your any such companies to follow. Maybe have the design schematics be open source. A hard "off" button, somehow. A ban on ads and tracking (in combination with the hard off)
Yeah there are very start things possible, doesn't mean it has to be like that
- "Should doctors implant microchips in people's brains". Is the question, and the answer should be 100% between the doctor and patient.
- Yeah, what is this meme? Like I get Elon is a douche. But I mean where do people think deep brain simulation and things that help tons of people already come from? We even have implantable devices that can record seizures directly from the brain surface and generate electric impulses to disrupt them. Not to mention pacemakers, spinal cord stimulators, etc. All these things have quite a lot of regulatory hurdles before reaching market. Obviously want to make sure that framework stays strong so no dystopian nonsense down the line happens. Once we get to the level of consumer grade brainchips, then I'll start to worry.
  
  Even with consumer grade brain chips, the risk isn't a bit thing until there is a direct interface and even then it's a question of what it can interface with. And even then it's a matter of good design. Some hardware off switch would be a basic requirement, but also software firewalling would be a very basic requirement.
  Interfaces, if done right, should not have to be a dystopian future, we won't become the Borg just bectof some implant somewhere
  People should watch less tv.
- Medical usage is different from the general public and when, not if, someone figures out an exploit, u can bet I'll be glad I never got one.

Given how big corpos are already fucking up the job market due to AI, it's not such a good idea to go all in with cutting edge technologies right from the get-go
- The job market evolves, you either evolve with it or you don't. What do you think these implants are for? Lmao.
  
  This isn't just about the job market
  Life is more than work, you fucking drone
  
  You write like a tween who doesn't know what they're talking about

If I can play videogames in my head while I'm at work, great. If my addict dopamine brain gets highjacked so that I don't know how to do anything except consume ads then bad.
- It will be the latter, and if you complain then people will call you a "privacy nutjob" because it will be considered normal
  "Experiencing life without the chip is like stealing content"
  I can hear it now
  
  thats so true. "no-ones forcing you to get chipped (unless you want to work or buy anything or enter a mall or ...)"

If the person has a disability and the chip somehow improves the condition, then, under extremely tight legislation, yes. Otherwise, no.
- yeah, tons of informed consent too
- Literally thw movie "upgrade"
  
  Repo men comes to mind

Friendly reminder that pacemakers can and do get hacked
- They usually have no security at all though for some reason, maybe for the same reason viruses spread like crazy in the early days of the internet, people didn't consider that and assumed everyone was acting in good faith
  Making a secure device isn't reeeally that hard these days, as long as you don't also have to consider physical access (which, if someone has access to physically probe the chip in your brain, you have bigger problems)
  
  Security is an illusion a determined hacker will get into the brain chip

Should a profit-driven company do it?
HELL NO!
Should it be researched so one day it can be done cheaply, safely, healthily, with absolute control given to the person receiving the hardware?
HELL YES!
- It'll never happen. As long as there is any kind of economy there will be some greedy fuck running nike ads in your brain every time you think about shoes.

I can see them being a game changer for the medical industry, but before I'd trust putting them into anyone's brains they need to be regulated into the ground first.

PC parts can’t even go few years without losing backwards compatibility (e.g. cpu sockets changing every few years). Last thing I need is for my physical body to incompatible with the newest and best stuff because I got a permanent implant when the tech wasn’t as evolved. This will always be the problem with invasive technology in my opinion.
- So I have a cat chipped 15 years ago, and she can still operate modern devices with it - open doors, get food from a robot.
  Not all tech goes obsolete fast, there are legacy compatibility layers!
  
  There are chips that make cats smart enough to operate doors and robots? That's so cool!
  
  I think human brain implants might be a bit more complicated than chips for pets.
- That’s a cable standard. Imagine being stuck with usb 1.

No. (It's made by Elon Musk, I would not buy it use anything he made if you held a gun to my head)
- Don't forget Elon Musk is a big fan of the game franchise Deux Ex. And that's an insanely distopian future. That's the kind of dark hellish world that whiny little manchild wants.

If it is advertised well, it will be the same as with smartphones nowadays. Companies won't plant chips into human brains, people will pay to have chips planted into their brains and pay even more for yearly upgrades.

I’m theory I don’t oppose it to help regain senses and such. In practice that’s already happened and been a disaster
- Hi theory! It's so great to finally meet you!

Depends on the use case and the oversight. If I lose the ability to walk and an implant can make it easier I'll take the implant. It's unfortunate this type of technology didn't exist for Hawking. With what he had he could only write a sentence a minute IIRC.

RemindMe! 40 years

Amazing article on neural implants for blindness and some of the real world challenges.

As soon a company offers this shit I am in.
However I need proof that I am the owner and user of the chip. So if Apple would sell it I probably won't buy it, because I wouldn't own what I bought
- Pro:
  Can find a new proof for Fermat's theorem.
  Con:
  Suddenly believing in Conservatism.
- Why would you get an implant?
  
  Imagine an implant giving you the ability to speak a foreign language? Or code? Or whatever specialized knowledge?
  If it was safe I would totally do it. But by that point specialised knowledge X would probably be worthless since anyone can get an implant.
  
  Why not? Transhumanism is cool. It would take a lot of convincing for me to be sure that it is safe, but I also roll the dice every time I drive to work or take a pill so whatever.
  
  It would be one way of correcting at least some medical conditions, such as potential paralysis.

The only way I would accept a microchip is if they implant it deep in my ass with a huge cock
- Based.

More RAM would be kinda nice though.
- Just download more bro
- External RAM is cheap. Pen and paper
  
  Ah fuck I forgot where my pen went

The devices need FDA approval and some safeguards. A neurosurgeon needs to assess the risk vs benefit for the patient and they need to come to an agreement on whether it's the right treatment. Problems with these devices are strokes, bleeds, infection, swelling in the brain, etc. which while fairly rare aren't insignificant.
Aside from that general statement on risks of brain implants and brain surgery, the other big issue is whether or not they will be supported in 10-15 years or will Elon Musk flush that company down the drain as well? There was a company making implants that helped patients see that just shuttered it's doors and said "whelp, sorry folks, no one can help you with your implant now".
- Yes, medical technology needs an umbrella insurance plan to cover cases where a company is not fiscally viable but still has to remain responsible for the lifetime service of the device. Like a bond or something.

Common sense can be used to sustain any stupid argument, and it should be disregarded as a valid counterpoint to anything.
- Common sense is subjective.

I think in a perfect world it could be really cool
In this one however it'll just be exploited
- Could it be so cool that it's worth making the world perfect?

Nobody fearmongering in this thread seems to have any idea how it works.
A brain chip would connect to a specific region of your brain. For example, in the case of a physical disability it would only need to connect to your motor neurons using read-only connectors.
If you specifically had them implant read/write connections into your visual cortex, then sure, someone could hack it and play ads in your head but that's kind of on you at that point.
- Also you don't seem to either.
  There is no such thing as a "read-only connector." Electrical signals can go down a wire both ways. It is up to the manufacturer of the chip to decide what pins are read and write, which is up to the governing body to regulate and restrict.
  Not to mention that we are 10-20 years out from that kind of tech as development has been drastically slowing down in general. The best we can do as humans so far with the funds we put into this is stimulate general areas with current pulses to essentially cover up or stimulate the area's nervous response to relieve pain. We can't even accurately measure brain signals yet with fine enough detail to do much more than control a direction. Though that is coming along better.
  The other applications close to this are for controlling muscles for sleep apnea, limb motor skills, heart muscles, etc... and are even "easier" to control.
  If the tech becomes available to effect the video and audio brain receptors directly and is owned by corporations, you can bet your sweet ass they will make everything read/write and blast that thing so full of ads and harvest every bit of data they can to make a profit.
  Source: electronic engineer working in the implantable device medical field
  
  I hope I will duck off before we go full dystopian
  
  I'm sure something can be done to prevent outbound signals from the device.
  
  Why couldn't you build a "read only" connector? I mean sure, wires conduct both ways obviously, but diodes and other one-way conductors are a thing right?
  The other point of only putting the implant in the place it's needed and where it can't make you see and hear things seems valid too.
  I'm not saying there wouldn't be other risks and issues with the whole thing, but I feel like the "they'll put ads in your brain" thing is kind of a ridiculous fear.
- i hate to say this but the last sentence would be victim blaming

I'm convinced that the Neuralink is the dumbest idea ever, but I've come to the conclusion that it's better for people to just learn the hard way. Like, it's so obviously stupid that anyone who's still going for it cannot be helped.
- until it becomes the new mobile phone, and anyone who doesnt have the Chip™ is an outlier. i dont think this is likely, but it is most definitely possible
  
  I've thought about it and I've decided that I can live with that. Besides, I don't think it will make it to that level of popularity before "the incident" that shocks everyone and triggers a senate inquiry.
  Either there will be horrific side effects or Musk will cut quality or make an 'executive decision' that beams ads into everyone's head. I don't know the final implementation, but I think they won't resist the temptation to make the firmware up-gradable remotely, and once they have that, they won't resist the temptation to meddle.

Go easy on your EBE's

Can't wait for evil megacorporations to sell my toughts

What? Why WOULDN'T everybody let the guy whose latest genius idea in a stunning sequence of brilliant business decisions was squeezing every twitter user for money in a service they previously got for free implant hardware into their brain? It'll be just like a tesla: automated driving available next year since like 2010 or so (assuming it doesn't fall apart, run over the elderly or burst into flames) in a hyperloop near you!

Yea, "companies" shouldn't. But I want a computer in my head eventually, so I can be a cyborg.

Seems really good for prostatics.

Why is art as a reference point for some new technology a bad thing? We can't all get a history degree to understand ancient Egypt, so does everyone need a degree in medicine and computer science to understand neuralink?
I don't really get the meme. Even if the person is too "stupid" to imagine a technology without Black Mirror to do the heavy lifting, it's still a useful metaphor to articulate reasons why.
- Because art is made up and people keep quoting things from it as if they were factual things that have happened.
  
  Philosophy is made up to, so I guess everyone should just stop thinking?
- i see your point but have you considered: its a joke
  
  But I don't get it.

Zero issues with the concept of a chip in my head. None.
Not going to do it anytime soon though.

New thing bad!!1!
This is the same argument people use against vaccines.
- New thing could become mandatory in a future and give governments direct access to our eyes, thoughts, hearing...
  Smart phone tracking would become a joke in comparison.
  
  Do you always take things way further then they'll ever go? It's pretty much blatant flanderazation at this point.
  
  We could also all be living under a social credit score system like in China, but most of us aren't. Just because something could become our reality, doesn't mean we should avoid all progress in that field.
- The thing is, vaccines work pretty well, but letting some already corrupt asf corporation (or any entity) implant a microchip in your brain is obviously a bad idea. Please do a favor for yourself and the human race by sitting down for a few minutes and asking yourself: "what could go wrong?".
- Seems like young adults are becoming old men, calling the new gimmicky tech thing that hit the market that’s supposedly evil.