Critique on Brain-computer interface
Neuralink is an excellent topic for this project.
Their aim to create a surgically embedded brain-computer interface is a perfect example to target and critique.
I think its interesting that they pitch the possible health applications or the cognitive benefits of helping humans to keep pace with increasingly powerful AI (it seems to me this is to encourage people to think about the upsides from a user/consumer perspective, ways to empower the individual). But to my mind the bigger picture (and the more dangerous implications) involves designing interfaces with improved/frictionless access to and control over individual users. Why invite a computer, or a company, to have direct access to your brain? Will this circumvent your will or conscious decision making? What will flow in and what will flow out? Will our brains now belong to Neuralink, become an extension of their proprietary software/AI? What happens when we need an update, will we be obliged to service our bodies only through their corporate monopoly? Beyond that, the other danger is if they are later able to join up each individual link into a larger system/mainframethe entire world as a single neural network with human and technical parts–who will benefit from this well-aligned future?
I wouldn’t spend too much time doing further research. The questions I wrote here should be enough and you could read this article https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/8/28/21404802/elon-musk-neuralink-brain-machine-interface-research. Otherwise, I’d focus your remaining time on putting together your critique and counter-campaign. A ppt is a fine approach, or a short essay, but it doesn’t have to be a long academic essay with a range of sources. Brevity and journalistic style are the aim here. You can take a short quote or tagline to show what Musk is promising, then craft 3- 5 paragraphs to lay out the main points of your critique as concisely as possible. (Check out the op-ed guidelines I put in the Opinion Instruction PDF; they map out a practical method for constructing a 5 parag opinion)
