#55 Brain-Computer-Interfaces as a Future Scenario
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Hello friends and welcome back to the future of UX podcast, your number one resource about the future of technology, design to yeah, that really helps you to keep up to date with everything that's going on in the tech and in the design world.

In this episode, I want to talk about a super interesting and important topic. I want to talk about brain user interfaces. Imagine controlling your smartphone just with your thoughts. This concept once confined to the rear of science fiction.

But now it's getting closer to reality with the advancements in brain-computer interfaces, especially through the efforts of companies like Neuralink. Maybe you have heard some of the recent updates and I want to shed some light into this topic and also have a look at what this means for us as designers.

So in this podcast episode, we will talk about what is a brain-computer interface? What is newling? We will also talk about the recent milestones. And at the end, we will also discuss the different perspectives and what this really means for us as designers, for UX in general. And yeah, have a look at some conclusions. First of all, what is a computer or brain-computer interface? What is a brain-computer interface?

It's basically an interface that creates a direct pathway between a brain and an external device. This brain-computer interface can read signals and translate them into commands, enabling control over computers, prosthetics, or other devices purely through thoughts. This is usually a device that has been...

implanted into the human's brain, like a little chip, something like that. And there is this super famous company called Neuralink. This is a company founded by Elon Musk. He is at the forefront of the brain-computer interface technology.

And the mission of Neuralink is to develop implants that connect the human brain directly to computers with a little chip that's implanted into the human's brain. Neuralink's work focuses on especially medical applications, such as helping individuals with paralysis regain mobility or communication. But its vision extends to enhancing human cognition.

And Neuralink did its first studies with animals and there is a super famous video of an ape in 2021 where the ape got the Neuralink implant and then was able to play a game just with its thoughts. It's super impressive. I'm going to link the video in the show notes. Please check it out if that's interesting for you.

And in September 2023, last year, Neuralink got finally green lights from the US authorities to experiment or to do research with humans. And the recent milestone is that the first human

got an implant or received a Neuralink implant, this really marks a significant milestone because this implant, roughly the size of five stacked coins, is designed to help people with nerve disorders or paralysis. And I already mentioned, it's a combination of years of research and development, including successful experiment, you know, with different animals, monkeys, etc.,

And this Neuralink chip contains 1024 electrodes. It's implanted into the brain by a robot using a super super super fine needle. And these electrodes detect the neural activity associated with intended movements or commands. First of all, you also train this chip.

And then you really enable the user to control devices like computers or smartphones through thoughts. I'm also really curious, what are your thoughts about this technology? Please vote in the poll in the description box. Would you be willing to try this out or do you think, wow, never, I could never, never do that?

For me, it's super important to differentiate between two different topics here. First of all, really help people who are sick, who need the support. For those, the Neuralink, or there are also other companies who are doing research on it and experimenting with it. For those people, this actually might become an amazing solution. Let's see, right?

And then there's, of course, also maybe the future where we are heading in an era where everyone can implant this chip into their brain and become like half human, half robot. No, I'm just kidding, right? But like really use that strategically for working very smartly. And these integrations of...

brain-computer interfaces like Neuralink into really everyday devices presents a radical shift in user experience design. So when you think that you could basically create interfaces that can be controlled just by your thoughts, it opens up a lot of interesting questions. Like, how do these interfaces really need to look like? How do I control my own thoughts? Like, what do I really want to do?

What happens when I think like, should I click this button or really clicking on it? Like, how do I actually decide what to do? And I think for designers, it means a super interesting topic, right? Because they, of course, need to consider design.

interfaces that are navigated not by the touch or screen swipe or voice command, but through cognitive intention. At the moment when we are talking about accessibility and accessible design, will brain-computer interfaces or thoughts as an input method also become part of this accessibility movement?

This tradition demands a reimagination of interaction paradigms, focusing on accessibility as especially intuitiveness and also privacy. So I think super interesting. Now, currently, this was just the first human who received this implant. We don't have any information besides what Elon Musk shared. He said he shared that he's

Well, everything worked out fine, but now they will do different studies for the next six years. So I think it will stay super, super interesting for all of us. But I think there are also some critical perspective and limitations. When I think there is a lot of potential to really revolutionize also accessibility and enhance human capabilities, this technology also rises ethical and also suicidal levels

questions, right? The line between technology and biology and science brews as we consider implants and offer basically continuously connect new link clinical study, you know, already mentioned, set to run for six years will not only test the technology's efficiency, but also its implications for society. We at the

forefront I would say or we are in the very beginning of this new era in human-computer interactions and thought control technology could definitely redefine what's possible in design and user experience although I think it's super interesting because a lot of people at the moment are very skeptical when it comes to this technology and I can totally understand

But I think just from a UX perspective, it's really fascinating to see or to prepare for a future where our work extends into the neural pathways of the human brain, creating experiences that are as seamless as thought itself. So please let me know what you think about this technology. I'm also going to link a few resources in the show notes. You can check it out, learn a little bit more about it.

And if you haven't subscribed to my newsletter, the UX newsletter yet, feel free to do that. I am sharing updates, resources, all kinds of information about technology. So feel free to sign up. It's free. You don't need to pay for it. And yeah, you can just find it in the description box.

I would say this is such an exciting time to be at the intersection of innovation, ethics and user experience design. When we think about the future, there is so much to do, especially for UX designers. There's so many areas that we are going to explore where we can't really think about right now. So cheers to an exciting future. And thank you so much for listening. Hear you in the future.

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