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Music Technology

Elon Musk Says Neuralink Will Stream Music Straight Into Your Brain (futurism.com) 128

Elon Musk says Neuralink recipients will be able to stream music directly into their brains, with no headphones needed. Futurism reports: It's still entirely unclear if Neuralink's brain-computer interfaces will ever be able to bypass the ear, the cochlear nerves, and beam music magically to the auditory brain. But Musk has already set his sights on bigger things. When asked by another Twitter user if Neuralink's devices could also help "estimulate the release of oxytocin, serotonin, and other chemicals when needed," Musk replied with another "yes." To make that feature and more a reality, Neuralink is looking to add more, well, brains to its operations. "If you've solved hard problems with phones/ wearables (sealing, signal processing, inductive charging, power management, etc.), please consider working at [Neuralink]," Musk tweeted over the weekend. On August 28th, the mysterious computer-brain interface startup will release an update on its progress.
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Elon Musk Says Neuralink Will Stream Music Straight Into Your Brain

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  • Not me. You know It will mostly be used for advertising and porn.

    • But you could crank your tunes up without damaging your hearing.

      Imagine the possibilities for setting EQ too. You ain't never experienced bass like this!

      • by Mal-2 ( 675116 )

        As a matter of reason, if it can be used to reverse hearing loss, then it can be used to pump any sound, so I don't see why it's the least bit surprising you could pipe music over it. Whether it'll suffer from artifacts that are acceptable for speech, but not music -- that's a different question.

        • Why can't my cellphone do this
          or a hearing aid
          is there any crosstalk to other people nearby ?
          • by Mal-2 ( 675116 )

            Yes, it would be like you listening on (possibly really loud) earbuds.

          • by Mal-2 ( 675116 )

            (To my just submitted reply -- that's YOU with an amplifier pumping sound through your existing ears, NOT cochlear implants, and NOT Neuralink.)

      • "Imagine the possibilities for setting EQ too. You ain't never experienced bass like this'

        Except you are now pumping a signal into your brain that it was never evolved to handle because of the limitations of the human ear. How do you know you won't be lobotomized in an instant when attempting this?

        I wouldn't dare to be the first to try this out.

        Also, I wonder how the "cell phones give you cancer" folks would react to a system like this?

      • You ain't never experienced subconscious advertisment like thiPRAISE THE MUSK!

      • by Mal-2 ( 675116 )

        Also imagine being able to fill in defects in your hearing by bypassing the cochlea, but only the defects. Use your meat ears for the rest.

    • by vlad30 ( 44644 )
      Ad-blockers for advertising. bone conduction headphones for porn you will still hear your boss/mum coming down the hall
      • bone conduction headphones for porn you will still hear your boss/mum coming down the hall

        I don't think you could have possibly constructed a worse combination of thoughts.

        • by vlad30 ( 44644 )

          I don't think you could have possibly constructed a worse combination of thoughts.

          For That My Slashdot ID would need to be lower

    • by Mal-2 ( 675116 )

      This sounds like Wireheading, as depicted in Spider Robinson's "God Is An Iron".

    • by Jeremi ( 14640 )

      Not me. You know It will mostly be used for advertising and porn.

      There won't be any market for advertising when mind control is possible and yields much better results.

      If subliminal suggestion doesn't work, all you really need to do is program the implant to deliver a small hit of oxytocin whenever the subject hears your brand's name. By the end of the week, the subject will love your brand like it was his mother.

      • Subliminal suggestion WILL be advertising.
        Hell, it already is. Honstile and manipulative too.

        Frankly, I already think advertisement as it is, should be a crime. It should count as violent assault on your neurons and personality or a form of rape (though we should not dilute that term any further).

        • Yep. The issue is its perfection is mind control, no one thinks it works but they spend billions on it because it does work even in crude current forms, it effects decisions. At the extreme it would perfectly, directing the control of every thought neurally.

      • By the end of the week, the subject will love your brand like it was his mother.

        Might want to clarify whose mother you're talking about before making that promise.

    • Are you kidding? It's going to be used to torture people. Both by bad guys (because it torments the victims) and by the good guys (because it doesn't cause physical injury).
    • Oh, so it's a good idea.

    • look he is just hyping it up. I think it will just be a shitty bluetooth headset when revealed.

      he already managed to promise way more than technically feasible to deliver, like altering your mood and shit (promising digital drugs, in essense, to be just slapped on head).

    • by ET3D ( 1169851 )

      The moment you said 'porn', multitudes opened their pockets. This is now considered the most promising future technology.

    • There will be no need to play advertising in your head. A feature will simply reconfigure your brain to have a positive association to the product without wasting your time on ads.

    • by dbialac ( 320955 )

      Or finding out who Batman is. Hopefully we're not relying on Val Kilmer to stop him.

    • Facebook and Google are already tweaking their targeted marketing ads as we speak. Imagine political ads you cant skip.

      Hi, Im Amy McGrath. When Im not blatantly lying about carrying an M16 during my career as an AVIATOR and an Administer, Im taking money from huge doners from other states all the while blasting foreign influence in our elections. Pay no attention to the $500/plate fundraisers I ran in Hollywood.

  • NO NO NO!

    NO!

    The geek in me says YES!

    But NO! I don't want ANYTHING directly affecting my neurochemicals in my brain! (aside from a good belt of scotch!)

    • using Slashdot does though, so does listening to music. And I won't even say what else watching good porn will do to your systems

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday July 21, 2020 @08:50PM (#60317245)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Re:NO! (Score:5, Informative)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @03:32AM (#60317959) Homepage Journal

        Musk is still saying robotaxis this year, so that means in the next 5 months they are going to release full level 4 self driving vehicles, despite not having been able to demonstrate anything close to that capability yet.

        It's such a poor lie I actually pity the people who believe it. I think a lot of them bought his cars and have been waiting years for the self-driving update so are willing to believe anything rather than admit they were conned.

    • But NO! I don't want ANYTHING directly affecting my neurochemicals in my brain! (aside from a good belt of scotch!)

      Indeed we have this huge ongoing War on Drugs specifically to prevent people from altering their neurotransmitters in ways government deems bad (which is most of them). Can't see them sanctioning this, unless they have the controls, and I don't even want to think about where that leads.

  • Elon Musk says (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday July 21, 2020 @08:36PM (#60317175)
    something that is complete and utter bullshit but which gets him in the press.
  • It will beam these important messages from our sponsors directly into your brain.
  • riaa wants this and they can bill per person

  • Welcome to the City of Light!
  • Elon Musk looking to take over the "drug trade" by stimulating oxytocin / serotonin and dopamine release electronically... neat LOL
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • The App you'll have to run to get your hit will charge you per hit, and of course it will be taxed up the yin-yang.

        Cops will connect to your implant wirelessly and charge you if your logs show you are driving within the prohibited time-frame since your last hit.

        If you resist arrest they'll just remotely pump you full of something that will calm you down.

        You don't even want to know what the hackers will do.

        Calm you down ? Why do that you when they can stimulate all the pain receptors and claim your resisting arrest when the spasms and seizure hits.

    • If it works and is safe, it could save lives, stop crime, and stop arrests of people who shouldn't be in jail.
      • It;s not going to be safe and it will destroy lives. We see this even in people who just sit around in a casino and pull a lever all night.

        Addiction gets worse and worse and worse, as the current level they are at does not create enough dopamine for the addict., so they ramp it up and take bigger risks.

        This would only end badly, and with the body constantly being pumped up with dopamine with no downtime, it will become fatal.

        • It;s not going to be safe and it will destroy lives.

          You know a lot about a technology that doesn't exist yet.

          • I know a lot about human behavior to know how addiction works. This won't be any different.

            "Nuke" (to use a Robocop example) can be the hot new hard street drug in 5 years. I don't know how it works, but it does not take a rocket scientist to know what is going to happen.

            • I know a lot about human behavior to know how addiction works. This won't be any different. "Nuke" (to use a Robocop example)

              Oh that's great, you're an "expert" and your source of information is Robocop.

              • I never said I was an "expert". However I have read about and personally witnessed enough addicts in the throes of their addiction to know what happens when it comes to addiction.

                Bottom line: An addict gets into drug use ("drug" will be an umbrella term I will use here that includes liquor, gambling, level grinding, kleptomania, and all other focuses of one's addiction). They get that dopamine rush and they feel high and on top of the world- for a while. Then their brain/body becomes accustomed to it, and t

      • Brave New World?

    • And like any of that sort of thing, the body will adapt, go numb for it, making normal experiences feel bland and empty. And then it will make everything feel bad *unless* you got the artificial source (or went cold turkey, and possibly died from it, like is possible with Heroin withdrawal).
      And after your brain has fully adapted, and even the device will not make you feel anything but "meh" anymore unless youh up the dosage, and upping the dosage even more would kill you, and you realize you can only ever f

  • by logicnazi ( 169418 ) <gerdes&invariant,org> on Tuesday July 21, 2020 @09:01PM (#60317273) Homepage

    Why would you stream music directly into the brain if you had a direct brain interface? Surely you could do better than just replicating physical perceptions. I'd want totally new forms of music and sensation that don't correspond to any form of physical input.

    If you just want to listen to music you can wear headphones with a lot less trouble.

    • It was just a random person on twitter who asked him if it were possible. Of course that turns into the press saying it is coming real soon now.
    • That is not how the brain works.
      There is by definition nothing, that does not correspond to anything.

      All you will get, is it corresponding to something you would consider involuntary. Like suddenly feeling love for The Musk, or your limbs dancing like a circus monkey with no control left to turn it off.
      Or just something as mundane as making you remember that day where you and your girk ran naked through a windy French poppy field with those storm clouds brewing above you.

      The key problem is, that the locatio

    • There's always the Flanagan Neurophone, invented back in 1958, which can feed audio directly to the brain (proven to work with both deaf and nerve-deaf people), eliminating the need for some invasive DNI hardware. Unfortunately, the neurophone has been realigned as a tool for meditation, mood management, stress relief, and 'attainment of higher consciousness', which has fairly effectively pulled it out of the mainstream of technology.
    • Why stream to the brain? Well, because Apple and Samsung removed the headphone jacks from their phones!

  • And yet.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Z80a ( 971949 ) on Tuesday July 21, 2020 @09:11PM (#60317299)

    Audiophiles will still find a way to complain about the sound not being pure enough"

  • Don't want this tech. Shove it, Elon!
  • Neuralink will also help me build me a human slave army.

  • Put a hotspot inside every Neuralink, and Starlink won't need so many satellites to provide Internet service. :)

  • Are evidence that Musk is just a guy with a lot of money and not some sort of genius.
    • He's definitely no genius. He is however a hell of an entrepreneur, and is doing wonders for every industry he touches... so hey, if he wants to take a stab at brain-computer interfaces? fucking go for it.
    • Nope, it's evidence that he has vision and the genius is that he pours money and effort into that vision. The reason he has money is that sometimes this pays off. The reason he's a genius is that he is able to capitalise on it while every numpty from the peanut gallery just dismisses anything new out of hand.

    • Most people with tons of money are a bit out there if you ever get a chance to talk with them one on one. The filters that keep us normal riff-raff from saying whatever stupid bullshit pops into our heads in our day to day life aren't in place for them because when they say the crazy, they're considered eccentric, while we're considered batshit.

      Most of the other people with tons of money learn to keep their public statements closely guarded by filtering anything for the general public through a publicity a

      • He seems on average more productive than most of the Richie's but when he says stuff like this it just sounds like he sat through a pitch meeting and ate a lot of bullshit. The whole relationship he has with neuralink is reminiscent of an idle rich touring some factory they own... If he had Trump's speech patterns he'd be saying, "It's a beautiful thing. So beautiful. You won't believe how, one day you're gonna see, it's all the things, the things, so beautiful. It's amazing."
  • by Malays2 bowman ( 6656916 ) on Tuesday July 21, 2020 @11:48PM (#60317609)

    Because you know this will be weaponized and used to induce a new level of torture the world has never seen before.

  • Get away with that creepy ass shit.
    Nobody wants Elon Musk in their brain!
    Open source, self-made, self-controlled, yeah.
    Controlling by some creepy ass dude from deep inside the uncanny valley... hell no!

    There, I said what everybody was thinking.

  • A voice that one can hear in their head, bypassing the ears?
    How interesting!

    The above was supposed to be all caps (get it!) but the lame lame filter does not allow me to post. Killjoys!

    • Mr Poopie Pants who lives in the alley does not even need one of these devices to hear all of the government thought waves being beamed into his head.

        His daily diet of hard liquor and crystal meth seems to allow him to select what he wants to hear, namely the channels that our Reptillian overlords use to communicate their diabolical plans that Mr. Pants was not supposed to recieve. :O)

  • Apply directly to brain.

  • John Spartan, you have been fined 1 credit for a violation of the verbal morality statute.

  • Currently tested by my psyche is streaming music (often stuff I don't want but ad-free) 24/7 into my brain. In a desperate bid to save civilization, I'm not selling it.

  • It plays random tunes in my head. :P

  • I am skeptical though. Probably due to my ignorance. Biologists are encourage to correct me...

    I was under the impression that we have not figured out how sound is (post)processed to such a degree that we can hack into the system directly. Where would they "inject" the sound? Eventually the system generates electrical signals, I guess, that are further processed. Do we know everything about this process, so we can simulate it and interface with the brain feeding it the electrical pattern? Somehow I fell that

  • But will I still hear the music in stereo?

  • Kind of gives ne meaning to "Blue Screen of Death".
  • Musk is a snake oil salesman. Never going to happen. Somebody lock him up.
    • by Briareos ( 21163 )

      I think you meant [ v a p o r w a v e ] ...

    • They can't lock someone up unless they can prove that person is 100% without a doubt a danger to themselves or others, and even then the authorities do everything they can to not have to handle the person (this is shit I have witnessed from time to time, unfortunately)

      Also, being a kook frothing off at the mouth about mental ray guns won't get you locked up at all. Sorry

  • You'd have to be mental to connect your brain directly to the internet.
  • by mcswell ( 1102107 )

    Surprised no one has mentioned H+: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

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