Somehow, we've got to the part of history where billionaires are talking about maybe recreating films if they have the time. Max Hodak, business partner to Elon Musk, has said on Twitter that "we" could make a real Jurassic Park if "we" wanted to. Hodak, I respect you're probably a very clever guy but you know there's an entire film franchise about why we shouldn't do that right? You are obviously familiar with the idea of Jurassic Park because you just talked about it, but maybe you should watch at least one of the follow-up films like Jurassic World too, so you understand the danger.
Spotted by IGN, Hodak didn't talk about recreating dinosaurs thankfully, but he did talk about making a park that would contain genetically modified exotic specimens. The tweet says, "we could probably build Jurassic Park if we wanted to. Wouldn't be genetically authentic dinosaurs but *shrugs*. Maybe 15 years of breeding and engineering to get super exotic novel species".
And I mean, yes that would be sort of cool, but if that ever happens, I'd keep an eye on your security systems, right? But Max Hodak isn't exactly currently in the business of making exotic species, he's actually the president of Neuralink - and a progress update has just shown us that the nanobiotechnology company has allowed monkeys to play Pong with their mind.
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In a video uploaded to YouTube, a voice explains what we're watching is a Macaque called Pager using a joystick to move a cursor over orange blocks. The monkey is incentivised to play through getting a banana smoothie through a straw while they keep putting the cursor on new orange squares on the screen.
This process is actually a calibration tool, while someone is recording neural activity coming from implants in Pager's head. Eventually, you can unplug the joystick Pager has been using to control the cursor and the cursor moves just through the power of the mind. And this tech doesn't just extend to this specific test, but the Macaque actually happens to be great at mind Pong. They're easily able to move the 'bat' up and down to hit the ball back at AI.
So what's the point? Well, it's tech that eventually will transition to humans, more specifically humans with movement disabilities. People who may struggle with using tech because of physical attributes will no longer have that issue if they can interact with computers just by using their mind.
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So how is Elon Musk involved? Well Neuralink, though it has Max as the president, was founded by him, Musk, Tim Hanson, and a long list of other tech names. According to Golden, Hodak was originally skeptical about the technology that the company would aim to create but eventually, Musk convinced him to join. And with this new monkey video, it seems worth it huh?
Featured Image Credit: Universal