脑机互联有望实现【经济学人精讲】第342期
文章导读
本文选自《经济学人》2019年7月20日文章。埃隆马斯克发布了一种新型脑机接口，他的目标是通过这种接口可以实现大脑与机器相连，人的想法可以直接呈现在设备上。他想创造一种“神经丝带”，这是一种由超薄电极组成的网状结构，可以从大脑中捕捉尽可能多的信息，并且实现无线传输。神经连接在老鼠和猴子身上已经测试成功，马斯克的公司希望该技术能在人类志愿者身上测试。该技术可用于克服人类的眼盲、瘫痪等疾病。
由于篇幅较长，本文节选原文标题和全文重点段落进行精讲，
选文精讲
Brain-machine interfaces 脑机互联
Elon Musk wants to link brains directly to machines
埃隆·马斯克希望将大脑直接与机器连接起来
A device worn behind the ear might send your thoughts to your devices
戴在耳朵后面的设备可能会把你的想法发送到你的设备上
Jul 18th 2019 | SAN FRANCISCO
ELON MUSK, perhaps the world’s most famous entrepreneur, is sometimes referred to as “the Trump of technology”—not for political reasons, but because of his habit of making, at short notice, spectacular pronouncements that stretch the bounds of credibility. On July 16th he was at it again, unveiling a new type of brain-machine interface (BMI). If human beings do not enter a symbiosis with artificial intelligence (AI), he declared, they are sure to be left behind. And he, the announcement implied, was going to be the man who stopped that happening.
at short notice: 在短时间内、提前很短的试讲
symbiosis: 共生关系
埃隆·马斯克或许是世界上最著名的企业家，有时被称为“技术界的特朗普”——这并非出于政治原因，而是因为他习惯于在临场前不久发表引人注目的声明，这声明又超出了可信度的界限。7月16日，他又这样做了，发布了一种新型的脑机接口。他宣称，如果人类不与人工智能建立共生关系，他们肯定会被甩在后面。声明暗示，他将是阻止这一切发生的人。
Connecting brains directly to machines is a long-standing aspiration. And it is already happening, albeit in a crude way. In deep-brain stimulation, for example, neurosurgeons implant a few electrodes into a patient’s brain in order to treat Parkinson’s disease. Utah arrays, collections of 100 conductive silicon needles, are now employed experimentally to record brain waves. A team at the University of Washington has built a “brain-to-brain network” that allows people to play games with each other using just their thoughts. And researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, have captured neural signals from people as they talk, and have then turned that information, via a computer, into intelligible speech.
neurosurgeon: 神经外科医生
conductive: 导电的
将大脑直接连接到机器上是一个长期的愿望。这已经在发生了，尽管是以一种粗糙的方式。例如，在大脑深部刺激中，神经外科医生会在病人的大脑中植入几个电极来治疗帕金森氏症。犹他阵列由100根导电硅针组成，目前已被用于记录脑电波的实验。华盛顿大学的一个研究小组建立了一个“大脑对大脑的网络”，人们可以用自己的思维来玩游戏。加州大学旧金山分校的研究人员，捕捉到人们说话时的神经信号，然后通过电脑将这些信息转换成可理解的语言。
As with all things Musk-related, Neuralink is much more ambitious. The firm does not just want to develop a better BMI. Its aim is to create a “neural lace”, a mesh of ultra-thin electrodes that capture as much information from the brain as possible. Unsurprisingly, hurdles abound. The electrodes needed to do this must be flexible, so that they do not damage brain tissue and will also last for a long time. They have to number at least in the thousands, to provide sufficient bandwidth. And to make the implantation of so many electrodes safe, painless and effective, the process has to be automated, much like LASIK surgery, which uses lasers to correct eyesight.
mesh: 网眼、网络
与所有与马斯克有关的东西一样，神经链接的野心要大得多。该公司不仅仅是想发展一个更好的脑机互联，它的目标是创造一种“神经丝带”，一种由超薄电极组成的网状结构，可以从大脑中捕捉尽可能多的信息。不出所料,障碍比比皆是。这样做所需要的电极必须是柔软的，这样它们就不会损伤脑组织，而且也能持续很长时间。为了提供足够的带宽，它们必须至少以数千计。为了使植入如此多的电极安全、无痛、有效，这个过程必须自动化，就像LASIK手术一样，使用激光矫正视力。