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This essay is based on a transcript of a conversation with Noland Arbaugh, the first human patient to receive a Neuralink brain chip implant. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
When I had the surgery in January to have my Neuralink implant inserted, I wasn’t scared.
I felt at peace with it all, and it had a lot to do with my faith in God. I felt really secure because I knew that everything that was going to happen was part of His plan for my life.
I also had complete confidence in the team involved in this work, including the surgical staff and nurses, all of whom are excellent in their fields and answered all my questions very well.
There were a lot of risks, especially being a first-time patient. My concern was getting brain damage. That was the only thing that made me a little hesitant beforehand. I told my parents that if I became mentally disabled, I didn’t want them to take care of me anymore, I wanted them in a care home. That was probably the hardest thing I had to prepare for.
It was really hard to give up the implants.
About a month after getting the device, some of the wires/threads from the device retracted from my brain. This is not Neuralink’s fault. There isn’t a lot of literature or research on this or how much the brain moves when it’s pulsing.
The team talked to many brain surgeons and came to the conclusion that the brain moves about one millimeter. They then implanted the implant in my brain and found that it moved three millimeters, three times the amount they had expected. The parts and threads they made were not designed to withstand that kind of load, so it retracted a little bit.
When I found out what had happened, my first reaction was to ask if I wanted to operate and remove it and insert a new one, but they said they weren’t considering that at that time. They wanted to see if they could work around what happened with the software, so they ended up doing that instead of fixing it with another surgery. They handled it really well.
It wasn’t physically painful or dangerous. But it was hard on me mentally because I thought I would never be able to use the device again. I was devastated for a few days, but I can take a beating. It took me a few days, but I bounced back.
I use my implant to interact with people on social media
I use it to message people on X, use Instagram, respond to emails, play fantasy sports, read manga online, access the site I’m using to learn Japanese, and I even used it to book a hotel when I visited Neuralink’s headquarters.
Once I fell asleep while using it and the cursor was still moving and I could still click while I was asleep. I was asleep for about 5 minutes and woke up to about 10 applications open on my computer. If I turn off the cursor this doesn’t happen but I didn’t this time.
The device connects to a computer using Bluetooth, and there’s a Neuralink app that gives the implant access to your computer so you can connect and disconnect at will.
Sometimes I start my day at 7am and work on my implants until 11pm. I know it’s a long day but it doesn’t feel like work to me because it’s fun.
I meet with the Maryland brain-computer interface team for 4-8 hours a day to learn more, and I also have scheduled sessions where I set aside personal time to use the device.
This allows researchers to learn things that they would not normally notice, such as the various ways in which something does not work as intended, for example bugs in the software that need to be addressed, which helps improve the software.
It helped make my life a little better.
It has helped me reconnect with the world, my friends and my family. It has improved my ability to text and interact with people on social media and more.
One of the biggest problems with being a quadriplegic is how powerless you feel, so I wanted to regain as much control as I could.
After my accident in 2016 that left me with spinal cord injuries, there were days when I just didn’t want to do anything, I just felt sad and terrible. For months, I didn’t know what I was doing and I felt very unproductive.
But I’ve always been the type of person to accept the situation and find a way to move forward, and that’s exactly what I did. Instead of getting down, I looked forward and said, “How can I make my life better? How can I make my life a little better today?” And that helped me a lot. It gives me motivation and purpose.
Two years after the accident was pretty tough. They say that after two years you never regain movement or feeling and that’s basically what you’ll have for the rest of your life. It was tough for a day or two, but then I moved on.
The implant definitely gives me a greater sense of purpose when I wake up, and I feel like I’m doing meaningful work. I feel like what I do every day will impact people for the rest of my life. That’s enough to keep me going.
Since having my Neuralink implant inserted in January, my quality of life has improved significantly. Since my accident, it’s been a challenge to find different ways to stay productive. This device has finally allowed me to be independent.