OPINION:
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Elon Musk has become an improbable pro-freedom voice with his open opposition to unchecked borders and exposing militant COVID-19 censorship and misinformation. He’s even said the quiet part out loud about electric vehicles needing massive increases in power generation that the U.S. grid is not prepared to produce.
Heralding the first chip implanted in a human brain as a great leap forward for technology might temper some of that conservative enthusiasm.
Neuralink is a long-lead project for Mr. Musk, as medical and pharmaceutical processes generally are, before being made broadly available for human use. The procedure raises serious concerns about a host of issues affecting bioethics and our freedom.
Mr. Musk and other developers interested in cybernetic implants must be open to strict regulation of this technology, even if it means it won’t be profitable or stunts its advance. Failure to address those in law and public policy could eviscerate society as we know it.
The first version of Neuralink, called Telepathy, allegedly enables people to control their phone, computer, or almost any device, just by thinking. Mr. Musk, posting on X, said: “Initial users will be those who have lost the use of their limbs. … Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal.”
But the road to perdition is paved with good intentions. We’re just not mature enough as a species to be even remotely ready for this, and we won’t be in five or 10 years, either.
The ability to control devices with our thoughts sounds cool, but like the Borg in “Star Trek,” such technology could also be used to manipulate and monitor people, or to create a hive mindset. Considering that tech companies already manipulate what users see and hear while selling your data, which they can’t keep secure from cyber criminals, the risks associated with implants are obvious.
The goal of achieving some form of symbiosis with artificial intelligence is a threat to free will and participatory government. It’s the kind of technology that communists and authoritarians would love to exploit to control their populations and attack their enemies.
Mr. Musk isn’t alone in advancing technology that could lead to a dystopian future for Americans and billions around the world.
After all the psychological damage done by social media, increased screen time, and online pornography, substantiated by hard scientific data and anecdotal evidence, Apple and Meta are throwing out the science with new ways to sap the soul out of living.
Leftist Mark Zuckerberg, who once asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to name his unborn child, is dumping billions into the creation of his metaverse and his Quest 3 goggles. He may be apologizing for the damage done to young people by social media, but he’s not done yet.
This immersive experience will have significant mental health impacts by ultimately allowing users to divorce themselves from reality through the creation of virtual lives and communities.
The first version of the metaverse hasn’t exactly taken off, but Mr. Zuckerberg is still investing heavily into the program, improving its clunky feel. Expect that it will eventually be much more realistic. That will mean, as psychologists have already warned, more disassociation, anti-social behavior, heightened negative emotion, addiction and anxiety.
Expect clever marketing that downplays the risks and damage of the metaverse to make the misinformation campaigns of the marijuana peddlers look like little white lies.
Apple’s Tim Cook is now pushing Apple Vision Pro. These wearable screens create a physical barrier with the real world. Mr. Cook and Apple are joined at the hip with China as well.
Sure, they will tell you that it’s all in fun, or it will have great utility to make life more efficient, transport people to far-flung places or help take education to a whole new level.
But like any drug that affects brain function, this will lead to dependency and an overall deadening of the human spirit.
We were meant to live in a three-dimensional world, our spirits fed by interactions with each other’s physical presence.
The Old and New testaments reference the importance of our eyes, what we choose to see, and how they express our emotions. They are windows to the soul.
Americans should consider that Apple and Meta are too close with China to trust that these burgeoning technologies will not lead to a further weakening of the nation and free will.
We live in a world where we are already dumbing down society. We have to tell people that coffee is hot and that they should not eat Tide Pods.
Our politicians can’t agree on banning TikTok, an app controlled by China, but they need to take action now on these technologies.
Tech titans will accuse elected officials of regulating so-called progress, but this isn’t building a taller building, a faster car or bigger supercomputer. These technologies reach into the very core of the mind. They challenge the soul and can strip away the essence of living.
To think otherwise is to be as ignorant of reality, as these technologies could one day make all of us.
• Tom Basile is the host of “America Right Now” on Newsmax TV and a columnist with The Washington Times.
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