Brain Technology and How Silicon Valley Companies Are Getting Into Our Brains

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Guest Post By Kelsey Rausch.

Silicon Valley is trying to get into your head.

In today’s world, it seems that there is not much left unsaid when it comes to social media. Gone are the days where verbal conversations were our only form of communication, and in are the times where anything can be posted online with the simple press of a button.

Four Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are taking advantage of this fact and are going even deeper into the different methods of communication — they’re creating devices that will know what you want to say before you even say it.

But how will they do this? The answer is simple: by creating machines that can read a person’s thoughts before they can even be typed down or spoken aloud.

These ambitious undertakings require some creativity, circuit boards and the versatility that comes with them including different means of production and printing, and extreme amounts of capital. Silicon Valley professionals have all of this, and more.

Currently, there are four different projects emerging in the field of brain technology. Here are the neurotech ideas that have the potential to change the world of thinking as we know it.

Openwater’s Wearable Technology

Meant as a portable way for doctors to look inside the human body, these small devices are able to produce images that are comparable to larger, expensive MRI scans. They can be used in the realm of medical imaging to detect things such as blood clots, clogged arteries, and tumors, but what is really spectacular is the fact they can take high-resolution brain scans to interpret the pattern of activities that correlate to a person’s thought pattern. In other words, if developed properly, this device could make telepathy come alive.

Facebook’s Typing by Brain Project

Even though court reporters are fast, having to type at 225 words per minute, Facebook is trying out a new concept that would allow people to type even faster. In a statement from earlier this year, Mark Zuckerberg announced: “We’re working on a system that will let you type straight from your brain about 5 times faster than you can type on your phone today,” IEEE Spectrum reports. To do this, Facebook is currently developing a noninvasive wearable technology that can look for a person’s intended speech patterns and translate these thoughts into a text.

Kernel Brain Prosthesis 

Bryan Johnson, the creator of now eBay-owned Braintree, has established Kernel as a startup that deals with brain implants. The idea is to help people with memory problems, especially patients with Alzheimer’s. This prosthetic will be able to record signals from thousands of neurons at the same time.

Neuralink’s Brain Implant 

Elon Musk is at it again with his new business Neuralink creating a brain implant that will help people increase their cognitive abilities. He is focusing on working with patients with severe brain injuries, such as Traumatic Brain Injuries, stroke, tumors, and congenital defects.

With these projects, it looks like within the next decade or so, Silicon Valley may be more like Cognitive Valley.

Kelsey Rausch is a writer and an avid world traveler. When she’s not writing or listening to 80s music, you can find her exploring different countries, taking selfies with her dog Lady, and in constant search for the perfect brownie recipe.