Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain implant company, submitted applications to the United States Patent and Brands Office (USPTO) to possess the ‘Telephy’ and ‘Telekinesis’ names for future products.
Neuralink, co-founded by Musk in 2016, is developing a technology known as the brain-computer interface (BCI), a system that decodes brain activity to control an output device. Musk has said that the company’s first product will be called Telephy and will give people with paralysis the ability to control a computer or a phone just thinking about it. But Neuralink’s brand application suggests that the company ambitions that its technology allows telepathic communication not only with electronic devices, but also between human beings.
Communication mind with mind
The Neuralink interface consists of a brain implant that collects neuronal signals and a software that translates those signs into cursor movements on the screen of a computer. Until now, three people have received Neuralink’s experimental implant as part of an initial viability study. The first, Noland Arbaugh, underwent brain surgery in January 2024 to receive the device. In November, the company received permission to open a test center in Canada.
The company’s brand application for Telepathy, presented on March 3, describes the product as “an implantable brain-computer interface to facilitate communication and control of software and hardware” The affirmation of “facilitating communication” could mean that Telepathy is designed to help paralitics to communicate by typing in an external device, but it could also mean that it allows telepathic communication between individuals with Neuralink implants.
“The question is: what kind of communication? He warns that claims in brand requests can be speculative and excessively broad compared to patent applications, which must be more detailed on how an invention works and for what will be used. Telepatic communication would fit with the widest vision that Musk has from Neuralink.
Musk has been interested in the concept of allowing telepathy with a BCI for a long time. In a long illustrated explanation of 2017 in which he outlined the idea behind his then new Neuralink company, Musk advocated the communication of thought among people. “If I would communicate a concept, you would essentially participate in a consensual telepathy. You would not need to verbalize unless you would like to add a little style to the conversation or something, but the conversation would be a conceptual interaction at a level that is difficult to conceive right now,” Musk explained to blogger Tim Urban at that time.
Musk recently discussed his telepathic ambitions with Neuralink in the podcast from Lex Fridman in August 2024: “completely new ways of interacting with a computer could be unlocked … and with other humans. As long as they also have a neuralink”, referring to possible improvements in the speed and precision of the device.
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