Elon Musk's Latest Brain Chip Announcement Had Social Media Seeing 'Black Mirror' All Over

By Michael Hein

Of all of Elon Musk's business ventures, non sounds more fantastical or more dangerous than Neuralink. The company is developing technology that would allow a human brain to interface directly with a computer, though up until now the project has been essentially theoretical. This week's reports that the company was nearing the human testing phase did not sit well with social media.

Last month, Musk told The Wall Street Journal that he and the Neuralink team are hoping to begin human testing in 2022, and Bloomberg just reported that those trials are inching closer. Additionally, Neuralink just posted a job offer looking for someone with an "understanding of the Clinical Trial process" and "experience and ability to work in the operating room environment." All of this had commenters in various levels of distress this week.

As commenters were quick to point out, Musk's tech companies do not have a great track record for thorough testing before launch. The entrepreneur is behind Tesla, which has had various recalls, issues with fires and crashes due to its autopilot system as well as SpaceX, which has had two catastrophic explosions.

Aside from that, many commenters simply didn't have the desire for this technology that Musk seems to assume everyone has. Many called the technology creepy and unnecessary, comparing it to science fiction shows like Black Mirror. Here's a look at what people are saying about Neuralink.

Living It

Some joked that the Neuralink project is evidence that the real world is a simulation of some kind, and that we are all living in one of the dystopias we love to watch on TV.

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Learned Nothing

Others made the more straightforward comment that Musk must not have learned anything from the science fiction stories he claims to love.

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Track Record

Users were also quick to throw Musk's track record of predictions back in his face – particularly his claim that the COVID-19 pandemic would be over by the end of April 2020.

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Hiring

Users were very put off by the job posting at Neuralink. Some wondered why Musk has posted the job publicly instead of going directly to the most qualified people. They feared for the person who ultimately got the job.

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Hesitancy

Commenters marveled at the fact that some of Musk's fans were eager to try out the brain chips. They found it shocking that these people could exist in the same world as anti-vaxxers – and perhaps in some cases, be anti-vaxxers themselves.

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Monetize

Users joked about the ways Musk could monetize a direct brain-to-computer interface.

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Reaction

Finally, as always Twitter marveled at its own collective reaction to the news and how fast it played out.

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