It’s long been established that there’s a link between exercise and mental health. It’s also long been established that motivation plays an important role in fitness. In particular, it’s long been established that psychology can play a huge role in success at competitive sports. Is it possible that the brain could be programmed to deliver maximum health to the body? Is fitness really all in the mind?
Understanding the mind
Neuroscience is the study of the brain. In terms of public visibility, it has long been overshadowed by its (fairly) close relative, artificial intelligence. Behind the scenes, however, neuroscientists have been working on developments which could have major benefits for humanity, especially with regards to health.
At present, most neuroscientists are working in academia and their work is not, yet, mature enough for mainstream commercialisation. This, however, could soon be about to change, at least if Elon Musk has his way.
Fitbit in the brain
Musk is probably best known as the man behind Tesla, but he’s also heavily involved in other science-based projects which either are or are intended to be, commercialised. These include space travel and neuroscience.
He recently gave a demonstration of his “Neuralink” project by implanting a pig (called Gertrude) with what he called a “Fitbit in your skull”. This recorded her neural activity and allowed it to be linked to behaviours. For example, when her snout was activated she was looking for food.
The long-term aim of the project is to be able to “hack” the human brain so that it can be reprogrammed. If this sounds alarming, that’s understandable. It is, however, worth noting that, to some extent at least, brain-hacking happens already and can be entirely ethical. For example, hypnotherapy programs to help people stop smoking (or deal with other issues) are essentially an example of the ethical use of brain-hacking.
Musk’s aim is essentially to take this a huge step further and use brain hacking to deal with medical conditions such as Parkinson’s disease. It could, potentially, allow sufferers to regain movement, or at least to be able to control devices which move for them, just with the power of thought. This may sound fanciful, but the idea is grounded in established science.
Of course, the fact that this is Musk’s aim does not necessarily mean that this is what would happen. To put it bluntly, technologies developed with the best of intentions can be appropriated for darker purposes. As an example, aggressive sales strategies often use at least some element of brain hacking. For example, they’ll try to provoke a sense of need where none existed or create a sense of fear in what might happen if you do not buy.
Will a “Fitbit in your skull” ever become mainstream?
At this point, it’s important to note that the idea of a “Fitbit in your skull” may never make it into reality. While it’s true that a lot of science fiction has become science fact, it’s also true that a lot of it hasn’t, at least not yet. Admittedly that may change in the future, but if that future ever happens, it is probably far distant.
That said, the idea of recording and interpreting brain patterns is nothing particularly new. It’s the brain-hacking part which is the technical challenge. In principle, therefore, Musk could feasibly bring out a “brain monitor” device to be used in much the same way as the heart monitors which are already standard tech in the fitness world. Sales of this product might then be used to finance the science needed to develop the technology for brain-hacking.
The key question would be whether or not people would be prepared to sign up for such a device. That’s a question everyone will need to answer for themselves.
