Within the next decade, we are likely to see a new kind of implant, designed for healthy people who want to merge with machines.
Schalk is a champion of the ECoG implant because, unlike other devices, it does not pierce brain tissue; instead it can ride on top of the brain-blood barrier, sensing the activity of populations of neurons and passing their chatter to the outside world, like a radio signal. Schalk says this is the brain implant most likely to evolve into a consumer product.
“The burr hole in the skull will be small,” Schalk told me enthusiastically, as if urging me to get one of the plugs.
(via The New York Times article “The Cyborg in Us All,” By Pagan Kennedy)
