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Neuralink 'Participant 1' says his life has changed

fortune.com

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Re: Neuralink 'Participant 1' says his life has changed

#151

[flagged]

He's the most famous rich person on the planet, he was in an Iron Man movie, the president picked him to destroy the government, the list goes on. Of course he gets press coverage. Tesla doesn't even have a PR department.

I mean, let's be real - Telsa almost definitely has at least a whole PR department's worth of people who do PR kind of things, I'd bet they just don't call them PR or have a dedicated department for that PR so he can keep saying that...

Or who knows, maybe they actually just do have a PR department - plenty of stuff Musk has said has just been plain untrue, like when he promised that like his money was first in to Telsa, it would be "the last out" [1] (he has since sold billions in shares now).

1. https://x.com/elonmusk/status/342107352041922560

Re: Neuralink 'Participant 1' says his life has changed

#152
post #140

I'll let other blind people go first, but I'm definitely some one that would love, love, love to be able to see. Driving, knowing body language, playing any and every video game out there, shoot yeah!

> I'll let other desperate people go first FTFY.

Calling them desperate seems rude. Why judge the participants? Not everyone has access to other SOTA solutions and if this is the next best thing for them, why not.

Re: Neuralink 'Participant 1' says his life has changed

#153

[flagged]

Well your father can't buy a Waymo. Even if he could it wouldn't go very far, wouldn't work everywhere and would cost at least 2x a model 3 or Y. So there are at least several leads Tesla has. It's a horrible comparison. Why do people keep making it? This isn't Lyft vs Uber. A better comparison to Tesla FSD would be blue cruise, super cruise, drive pilot, god's eye, and every other consumer level 2 ADAS.

I was comparing Robotaxis with Waymo in Texas.

If you want to compare Teslas with consumer cars, the best metric we have is the fatality rate per mile. Tesla is #1.

Re: Neuralink 'Participant 1' says his life has changed

#154
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is "education"? Is it degrees? There are a lot of problems with this. It's hardly a sign that someone "thinks critically". A lot mediocre students I knew in school stayed on to do more school because they were not able to do something else. A lot of degrees and classes are frankly bullshit and this problem has gotten worse since the 60s - the details matter. Time wasted studying pseudo-intellectual nonsense does…

> So it's not that I dispute the data that there's a lefty bias in universities (there obviously is), I dispute what that actually means. The issue at hand isn't perceived bias in universities, it's voting tendencies of people who have higher education. PS, this conversation is a waste of both of our times. I won't be continuing it. Because there is no good faith either side. I'm certainly not going to display any an…

> The issue at hand isn't perceived bias in universities, it's voting tendencies of people who have higher education.

Arguably they go hand in hand, take young people and immerse them in a political/ideological monoculture for four formative years and it's not surprising many come out saying the same things and voting the same way all of their professors did, there's a lack of viewpoint diversity. Most people are mimetic, exposure to the best arguments from an intellectually diverse curriculum would be great but that's not what universities (broadly) are today. It's very hard to think for yourself, even harder when immersed in a place where ideological conformity is rigidly enforced.

FWIW I thought your comment was in good faith, we just don't agree.

Re: Neuralink 'Participant 1' says his life has changed

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's the most famous rich person on the planet, he was in an Iron Man movie, the president picked him to destroy the government, the list goes on. Of course he gets press coverage. Tesla doesn't even have a PR department.

I mean, let's be real - Telsa almost definitely has at least a whole PR department's worth of people who do PR kind of things, I'd bet they just don't call them PR or have a dedicated department for that PR so he can keep saying that... Or who knows, maybe they actually just do have a PR department - plenty of stuff Musk has said has just been plain untrue, like when he promised that like his money was first in to Te…

PR means "public relations." Such as talking to the press. Are they still sending journalists poop emojis or did they start talking to them again?

Re: Neuralink 'Participant 1' says his life has changed

#156

[flagged]

Classic HN middlebrow dismissal, only upvoted because people dislike Musk. Word error rate of 25% is unusable. Also it needs extensive retraining every few days. They used four fixed electrode arrays, like pushing a miniature bed of nails into your brain, which is far more invasive and less advanced than Neuralink's one device with threads individually implanted by robot. Neuralink is not exclusively for speech, focusing more on general computer use. This is mostly about where the device is implanted, not the device's capabilities.

As for FSD, it leads by far for systems you can own, and while it is not as good as Waymo it is much cheaper and still rapidly improving. It is too early to say which approach will ultimately win.

Re: Neuralink 'Participant 1' says his life has changed

#157

[flagged]

Classic HN middlebrow dismissal, only upvoted because people dislike Musk. Word error rate of 25% is unusable. Also it needs extensive retraining every few days. They used four fixed electrode arrays, like pushing a miniature bed of nails into your brain, which is far more invasive and less advanced than Neuralink's one device with threads individually implanted by robot. Neuralink is not exclusively for speech, focu…

The 25% error rate is for 100k+ vocabulary, it drops under 10% for smaller vocab. Meaningful bits per minute would be a better metric indeed.

I appreciate comments like yours that actually contribute to the debate. We need critical thinking and data. Not one-sided puff pieces out of context.

Re: Neuralink 'Participant 1' says his life has changed

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classic HN middlebrow dismissal, only upvoted because people dislike Musk. Word error rate of 25% is unusable. Also it needs extensive retraining every few days. They used four fixed electrode arrays, like pushing a miniature bed of nails into your brain, which is far more invasive and less advanced than Neuralink's one device with threads individually implanted by robot. Neuralink is not exclusively for speech, focu…

The 25% error rate is for 100k+ vocabulary, it drops under 10% for smaller vocab. Meaningful bits per minute would be a better metric indeed. I appreciate comments like yours that actually contribute to the debate. We need critical thinking and data. Not one-sided puff pieces out of context.

9.1% word error rate on a 50-word vocabulary is not that great either.

Re: Neuralink 'Participant 1' says his life has changed

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well your father can't buy a Waymo. Even if he could it wouldn't go very far, wouldn't work everywhere and would cost at least 2x a model 3 or Y. So there are at least several leads Tesla has. It's a horrible comparison. Why do people keep making it? This isn't Lyft vs Uber. A better comparison to Tesla FSD would be blue cruise, super cruise, drive pilot, god's eye, and every other consumer level 2 ADAS.

I was comparing Robotaxis with Waymo in Texas. If you want to compare Teslas with consumer cars, the best metric we have is the fatality rate per mile. Tesla is #1.

This metric says nothing about self driving capabilities. In fact, I'd argue that FSD supervising the driver (and doing things like limiting speed before corners) would make their cars safer.

To me this metric shows that their cars are very high performing, and for most drivers they're probably the fastest accelerating cars they've ever driven. Tesla should probably default them to 'chill' mode and provide a warning about how fast the car is when you switch out of that mode.

Re: Neuralink 'Participant 1' says his life has changed

#160

I'll let other blind people go first, but I'm definitely some one that would love, love, love to be able to see. Driving, knowing body language, playing any and every video game out there, shoot yeah!

Why would you not go first? If you are blind it cannot be worse (well it can, but there are always risks). My wife went through semi-expetimental therapy (at that time) for her MS. It was tough but ultimately a net benefit. It all depends on what is at stake - I would consider Ozempic for some weight loss but prefer, for now , go for no sugar and moderate portions. This is not life changing for me so I indeed prefer…

I guess I don't have a similar thought process as someone who thinks going no sugar is the right way to achieve weight loss.

The reason you might think twice about going first is for that exact reason, there are risks. Plenty of blind people would prefer to stay as they are than be left worse off to a greater degree after undergoing the implant.

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