Elon lied about the monkeys — and he shouldn't be trusted to put his Neuralink chips in human brains.

"They are claiming they are going to put a safe device on the market, and that's why you should invest," Ryan Merkley at the Physicians Committee, told Wired. "And we see his lie as a way to whitewash what happened in these exploratory studies."

Really heartbreaking reading what happened to the monkeys.

People quite rightly think of Elizabeth Holmes as a fraud for making false medical claims about what the Theranos machines could do. So why aren't Elon's claims at Neuralink being held to the same level of scrutiny?

https://futurism.com/neoscope/terrible-things-monkeys-neuralink-implants

@technology #Elon #Neuralink #ElonMusk

top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 200 points 3 years ago (13 children)

anyone letting elon put a chip in their brain is a moron.

  • source
  • hideshow 13 child comments
  • [–] 72 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Or desperate. Forget the investors, Elon lied to those who saw it as a last ditch effort to beat their diseases.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 23 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Ah damn I didn't think of that. I feel for them, but elon is the last person they should trust for that. I don't honestly know who they should trust these days. But techbros aren't one of them.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 26 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    Yup. You have to be a special kind of trusting to allow a company to modify your brain.

    Banal attempts at mind control, crude as they are, are bad enough already.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 15 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago)

    Honestly, interface chips in our brains would be a logical step at some point in the future. But hell would need to freeze, then thaw, then freeze over again before I trust anything of elons being inserted in my brain.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (3 replies)
  • load more comments (4 replies)
    [–] 151 points 3 years ago (14 children)

    Let's not pretend Musk has fucking clue what's going on or the science behind it.

    He isn't down in trenches making discoveries. That's just the image he presents.

    He buys companies and lets the actually competent people do the work while claiming credit.

    He's been doing it since PayPal.

    He's not a genius, he just has enough money to get actual geniuses to work for him.

  • source
  • hideshow 14 child comments
  • [–] 77 points 3 years ago* (3 children)

    Someone put it well, if insensitively, about Sam Bankman Fried (FTX etc):

    Not actually smart but just LARP-ing the “Aspy genius” persona.

    However accurate that take is or offensive, I think it captures something about how nerd culture has gone mainstream and how it’s perceived.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 29 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    'nerd' has disappeared as an insult now that we're all on the computer all the time

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 17 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    He buys companies and lets the actually competent people do the work while claiming credit.

    No he doesn't. He meddles and interferes constantly and convinces himself that he's adding value by doing so. That's why Neuralink is dangerous. Meta or Alphabet or Microsoft or whoever can be trusted to let the scientists and the legal team ensure there's very little risk of everything blowing up in their face horribly. Elon's little empire is constantly on the verge of an absolute disaster. I would not be remotely surprised if Neuralink messes everything up so much that it sets back brain implants and BCI's in general by decades. Purely because Elon can't just supply the people at his businesses with the tools they need then get out of their way.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • load more comments (7 replies)
    [–] 68 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Remember that time Elon said he totally was not going to ban a single specific person when he bought Twitter and then turned around and did exactly that just a few days later?

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 66 points 3 years ago* (5 children)

    @ajsadauskas @technology
    I was astounded to read Neuralink is to be permitted to experiment on humans. Instead they should have any animal experiment licences revoked.

  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • load more comments (5 replies)
    [–] 59 points 3 years ago (5 children)

    Headline:

    TERRIBLE THINGS HAPPENED TO MONKEYS AFTER GETTING NEURALINK IMPLANTS, ACCORDING TO VETERINARY RECORDS

    What are these terrible things?

    Up to a dozen monkeys suffered grisly fates after receiving a Neuralink implant, including brain swelling and partial paralysis.

    First is the case of the monkey "Animal 20." In December 2019, an internal part of the brain implant being inserted into the primate "broke off" during surgery. Later that night, the monkey scratched at the implant site, drawing blood, and yanked on the implant, partially dislodging it. Follow-up surgery discovered that the wound was infected, but that the placement of the implant prevented treatment. The monkey was euthanized the next month.

    Before that, a female monkey designated "Animal 15" began to press her head against the ground after receiving the brain implant, pick at the site until it bled, and eventually lost coordination, shivering when personnel entered the room. Scientists discovered she had brain bleeding, and in March 2019, she too was euthanized.

    The following year, a primate called "Animal 22" was put down in March 2020 after its brain implant became so loose that the screws attaching it to the skull "could easily be lifted out," according to a necropsy report.

    "The failure of this implant can be considered purely mechanical and not exacerbated by infection," the necropsy states.

    As Wired notes, that statement alone seemingly contradicts Musk's claims that no monkeys directly died from Neuralink brain implants.

    And so would the account of an ex-Neuralink employee, who told Wired that Musk's claims that the monkeys were already terminally ill are "ridiculous," even a "straight-up fabrication."

    "We had these monkeys for a year or so before any surgery was performed," the ex-employee said.

    The testimony of an anonymous scientist conducting research at CNPRC seems to corroborate the ex-employee's allegations.

    "These are pretty young monkeys," they told the magazine. "It's hard to imagine these monkeys, who were not adults, were terminal for some reason."

  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 49 points 3 years ago (5 children)

    Elon fanboys should be lining up to try this, right?

  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • load more comments (3 replies)
    [–] 37 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    Whenever I see these Musk posts, I always think the title can usually be reduced to 3 or 4 words. In this case, "Elon shouldn't be trusted".

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [+] 31 points 3 years ago (5 children)
    load more comments (5 replies)
    [–] 29 points 3 years ago

    I think Elmo should just volunteer himself.

  • source
  • [–] 26 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    I feel like this is all a given. How they're legally able to proceed with human testing is just baffling to me.

  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • load more comments (4 replies)
    [–] 24 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    Elon is already dreaming up ways to blame his human test subjects for his failures after they die horrifically from infections, brain bleeds, seizures, and psychosis.

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • load more comments (3 replies)
    [–] 24 points 3 years ago

    Rather than admit his crappy submarine wouldn't work after an expert diver told him, he called them a pedophile.

    You'd be insane to listen to a guy who publicly refuses to listen to advice

  • source
  • [–] 22 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Doesnt that guy lie about everything?

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 20 points 3 years ago

    @ajsadauskas @technology

    Elon has a history of lying that's as rich as he was before he bought Twitter.

  • source
  • [–] 18 points 3 years ago (8 children)

    What's going on with all these @ tags

  • source
  • hideshow 8 child comments
  • [+] 18 points 3 years ago
    [–] 16 points 3 years ago (8 children)

    @ajsadauskas @technology I was just going to ask the Theranos/Holmes question.

  • source
  • hideshow 8 child comments
  • [–] 16 points 3 years ago

    He's a lying piece of shit. Full stop.

  • source
  • [–] 14 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    Chip Elon and put him through what he put the monkeys through. Same conditions.

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 13 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    I say let him do that and then let congress legislate this once the grim details of how the human subjects died creates a scandal and political unity across the aisle. It's the American Way®

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 11 points 3 years ago

    @ajsadauskas @technology
    We should have stopped Dr Evil before he got his phony doctorate.

  • source
  • [–] 11 points 3 years ago

    @ajsadauskas @autolycos @technology Because he has the most money. Because any who should hold him accountable have their hand in his pocket. Because he has government contracts with every single one of his businesses. He is a monster created by those who are supposed to protect us from the monsters. It is not remotely possible to control him. He is the worst case scenario.

  • source
  • [–] 8 points 3 years ago

    This is literally Ryujin Industries.

  • source
  • load more comments
    view more: next ›