发表时间：2023.11.13     作者：Bloomberg     来源：ShoelessCai     阅读：212

本篇为彭博 Bloomberg 推送，主要也是分析用户喜好，会酌情依据用户喜欢锚定合适的方向。百度翻译完成翻译工作。

01 译文

欢迎收看 Bw Reads，这是我们的周末时事通讯，它将彭博商业周刊的一篇富有洞察力的杂志故事完整地免费带到您的收件箱。今天，为了配合《商业周刊》的新播客“Elon，股份有限公司”，我们将发布 Ashlee 的最新封面故事，她令人难以置信地接触到了当今科技界最有趣的业务之一：Elon Musk's Neuralink。它有可能改变许多人的生活——但科学已经完全成熟了吗？

词组和单词

in its entirety 作为一个整体
for free 义务地
coincide with 和…一致
subscribe to 定义、定期存款；
cover story 封面故事
these days,... 那些天
clinical trial 医学实验

埃隆·马斯克正在为他职业生涯中最重要的一次启动做准备。但这不是火箭科学，而是脑部手术。马斯克的公司 Neuralink Corp. 正在为其首次临床试验寻找一名志愿者，这意味着该公司正在寻找一名愿意由外科医生切除一大块头骨的人，这样一个大型机器人就可以 将一系列电极和超薄电线插入他们的大脑 。当机器人完成时，丢失的头骨将被一台四分之一大小的计算机取代，该计算机将在那里呆上几年。它的工作是读取和分析人的大脑活动，然后将信息无线传输到附近的笔记本电脑或平板电脑。

就试验而言，理想的候选人是四肢瘫痪的 40 岁以下成年人。这样的患者可能会将 Neuralink 的植入物插入他们运动前皮层的手把手区域，该区域控制着手、手腕和前臂。目标是表明。

所有这些担忧都是合理的。然而，Neuralink 的审判也令人兴奋。该公司似乎在这个缓慢而稳定的领域取得了长足的进步，现在已经制造出了世界上最强大、最优雅的大脑植入物。如果该产品按预期工作，后期的迭代可以以奇迹般的方式改善数百万患有瘫痪、中风、卢·格里格病以及听力和视力丧失的人的生活。与此同时，它的高调已经吸引了投资者寻找下一个 Neuralink。马斯克再一次重塑了整个行业，这可能是最具变革性的一次。

几家公司和研究团队已经创建了植入物，可以帮助患者用自己的想法执行基本任务，例如用光标点击屏幕上的对象。Neuralink 以马斯克熟悉的方式，做出了更加大胆的承诺。在过去的四年里，从该公司的首次公开演示开始，他就让人觉得很快就会有无处不在的诊所，任何人都可以在那里进行15分钟的机器人手术，并推出人机混合。这些半机械人将能够像基努·里维斯在《黑客帝国》中那样下载知识，或者将他们的想法上传到存储器中，甚至上传到其他大脑中。马斯克在 2019 年的第一次演示中表示：“这听起来很奇怪，但最终我们将与人工智能实现共生。” 当时该公司表示，人体试验可能在 2020 年开始。

symbiosis with artificial intelligence 与 AI 共生
ubiquitous 无处不在的
robosurgery 机器人手术

彭博商业周刊，2023年11月13日。摄影师：彭博商业周刊 Damien Maloney 不切实际的时间表是马斯克最喜欢的管理技巧之一。值得称赞的是，他终于实现了几个不可思议的梦想。尽管火箭和汽车是严肃的业务，但神经植入需要在另一个层面上做到完美。人们不会急于将大脑植入物推向市场，并抱着最好的希望。

另外两家公司 Synchron 和 Onward 在脑植入物和相关技术的人体试验方面领先一年多。然而，Neuralink 比之前几十年的增量、主要是学术研究得到了更多的关注，而且并不总是值得称赞。一些神经科学家说 Neuralink 在炒作这项技术。动物权利组织指责该公司虐待猴子、猪和其他哺乳动物，迄今为止，该公司已对其进行了植入试验。主线是马斯克，他日益狂躁和反动的网络形象几乎没有表明他是大规模生产精神控制设备的理想人选。

hyping the technology 炒作技术
mass-produce mind-control devices 大量生产控制大脑的设备

所有这些担忧都是合理的。然而，Neuralink 的审判也令人兴奋。该公司似乎在这个缓慢而稳定的领域取得了长足的进步，现在已经制造出了世界上最强大、最优雅的大脑植入物。如果该产品按预期工作，后期的迭代可以以奇迹般的方式改善数百万患有瘫痪、中风、卢·格里格病以及听力和视力丧失的人的生活。与此同时，它的高调已经吸引了投资者寻找下一个 Neuralink。马斯克再一次重塑了整个行业，这可能是最具变革性的一次。

在过去的三年里，我已经10次参观了 Neuralink 在硅谷的工厂及其在奥斯汀不断发展的业务。伴随着马斯克不耐烦的要求，我看到他的团队深刻地推进了他们的技术和雄心。在他们为审判做准备的时候，成功的压力是马斯克以前从未见过的。毕竟，股份有限公司花了很多年时间才大规模生产汽车，太空探索技术公司的前三枚火箭爆炸了。 Neuralink 的特别项目主管 Shivon Zilis 说，说到大脑，“我们不能炸毁前三个。”。“这不是一个选择。”

In tandem with 与…同时

03 原文

Elon Musk is preparing for the most consequential launch of his career. But this one isn't rocket science—it's brain surgery. Musk's company Neuralink Corp. is seeking a volunteer for its first clinical trial, meaning it's looking for someone willing to have a chunk of their skull removed by a surgeon so a large robot can insert a series of electrodes and superthin wires into their brain. When the robot finishes, the missing piece of skull will have been replaced with a computer the size of a quarter that's meant to stay there for years. Its job will be to read and analyze the person's brain activity, then relay that information wirelessly to a nearby laptop or tablet.

For the purposes of the trial, an ideal candidate would be an adult under age 40 whose four limbs are paralyzed. Such a patient would likely have Neuralink's implant inserted into what's known as the hand knob area of their premotor cortex, which governs the hands, wrists and forearms. The goal is to show that device can safely collect useful data from that part of the patient's brain, a key step in Neuralink's efforts to convert a person's thoughts into a range of commands a computer can understand.

Several companies and research teams have already created implants that can help patients perform basic tasks with their thoughts, such as clicking objects on a screen with a cursor. Neuralink, in familiar Musk fashion, has issued far wilder promises. For the past four years, starting with the company's first public demonstration, he has made it sound as if there would soon be ubiquitous clinics where anyone could go in for a 15-minute robosurgery and come out a human-machine hybrid. These cyborgs would be able to download knowledge the way Keanu Reeves does in The Matrix or upload their thoughts into storage, even to other brains. “This is going to sound pretty weird, but ultimately we will achieve symbiosis with artificial intelligence,” Musk said at that first demo in 2019, when the company said human trials could begin in 2020.

Featured in Bloomberg Businessweek, Nov. 13, 2023. Photographer: Damien Maloney for Bloomberg Businessweek Unrealistic timetables are one of Musk's favorite management techniques. To his credit, he's made several improbable dreams come true—eventually. But while rockets and cars are serious business, neural implants require perfection on a whole other level. One does not rush a brain implant to market and hope for the best.

Two other companies, Synchron and Onward, have more than a year's head start on human trials with brain implants and related technology. Neuralink has, however, gotten dramatically more attention than the decades of incremental, largely academic research that preceded it, and not always to its credit. Some neuroscientists have said Neuralink is hyping the technology. Animal-rights groups have accused it of cruelty to the monkeys, pigs and other mammals it's tested implants on so far. The through-line is Musk, whose increasingly manic and reactionary online persona has done little to suggest he stands as the ideal candidate to mass-produce mind-control devices.

All these concerns are valid. Yet Neuralink's trial is exciting, too. The company appears to have turbocharged progress in this slow-and-steady field, and it's now built the world's most powerful and elegant brain implant. If the product works as intended, later iterations could improve, in miraculous ways, the life of millions of people suffering from paralysis, stroke, Lou Gehrig's disease, and hearing and vision loss. In the meantime, its high profile already has investors hunting for the next Neuralink. Once again, Musk has reshaped an entire industry, and this one could be the most transformative of all.

In the past three years, I've made 10 trips to Neuralink's facilities in Silicon Valley and its growing operations in Austin. In tandem with Musk's impatient demands, I've seen his team profoundly advance their technology and ambitions. As they prepare for the trial, the pressure to succeed is something even Musk hasn't seen before. Tesla Inc., after all, took many years to mass-produce its cars, and SpaceX's first three rockets exploded. When it comes to brains, “We can't blow up the first three,” says Shivon Zilis, Neuralink's director of special projects. “That's not an option here.”

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