Did you know Neural is taking the stage this fall? Together with an amazing line-up of experts, we will explore the future of AI during TNW Conference 2021. Secure your online ticket now!
It’s tough out there for a supervillain. All the best talent goes to Google and Amazon, Elon Musk‘s hogging the spotlight, and everyone’s focused on modern evil stuff like cryptocurrency and NFTs – nobody cares about the classics anymore.
Well, Science Corp is here to change that with some good old-fashioned brain hacking.
Probably. Maybe. Who knows? Honest question: WTF is Science Corp?
Futurism’s Simon Spichak broke the news about the company earlier this week with the careful-not-to-spit-out-your-coffee-when-you-read-the-rest-of-this-sentence-news that Science Corp had already raised a massive $48 million funding (what?!?).
Here’s what we know so far:
- Neuralink co-founder Max Hodak and Mt Gox founder Jed Caleb appear to be heading up the company
- The job listings indicate the company‘s hiring experts in several high-level research areas including stem cells, CRISPR (gene-editing), optical engineering, and bioengineering.
- The company‘s also looking for vetrinarian techs, which means it’ll likely be performing animal trials
- It’s already secured substantial funding and has a grocery store-sized laboratory
And that’s about it. We reached out to the people associated with the company we could identify, but haven’t received a response from anyone yet.
[Related: A brief history of Mt. Gox, the $3B Bitcoin tragedy that just won’t end]
Despite the fact the company‘s being secretive, we can still glean a few potential insights.
Firstly, as Spichak points out in their article:
Though none of the former Neuralink employees would comment on the record, their research backgrounds and the company’s hiring page offer numerous clues that Science Corp is likely focusing on neuroscience tech that leverages gene-editing and optogenetics, a field of biology that uses light to interact with neurons, as the foundation for its work.
It’s possible this all adds up to a new non-invasive brain-computer-interface that sends light through the eyeball to interact with the brain.
It’s more likely, however, that the whole eyeball-science part of the endeavor is linked in with an invasive (read: drilling holes in your head) device similar to Neuralink’s… but with whatever upgrades Science Corp’s new ideas would add to the mix.
But here’s the thing: unless this company is taking Neuralink’s tech and running with it, we can’t expect a serious look at what it’s trying to accomplish for a year or more.
In fact, the Futurism article mentions that it was never really clear if Hodak left Neuralink in good graces or was fired due to “moving too slow on clinical trials.”
So we’re guessing that speed isn’t the name of the game here. But… what is?
It’s understandable when a new company doesn’t want to alert the general public to its presence until it has a full team in place. But when said company has already raised a gobsmacking $48 million and plans to do… something… with people’s brains, it raises some eyebrows.
The next question we have to ask is: who or what is overseeing these brain-hacking startups? Is there a government medical board or third-party science advisory committee making sure nobody’s trying to perform brain transplants with pigs and dogs or something?
Read Futurism’s whole article here.