Musk predicts smartphones will vanish, replaced by brain chips

Musk announces the end of the smartphone and the brain chip that replaces it

Elon Musk argues that mobile phones will soon be obsolete, replaced by his company's brain implants. Neuralink has already conducted tests in animals and humans; its first patient, Noland Arbaugh, controls a computer with his thoughts. The chip is 23 millimeters in diameter and 8 millimeters thick, antiestéticaturing 1,024 electrodes inserted by a surgical robot. It converts electrical signals from the brain into wireless digital commands. The promise is a direct connection between mind and machine, eliminating screens and external interfaces.

What is Neuralink and how does the implant work?

The technology Musk presents as the successor to the smartphone is not a cordless phone, but a medical device implanted in the skull. The Neuralink chip detects electrical signals generated by the brain when imagining movement and translates them into orders transmitted wirelessly to computers, tablets, or consoles. According to data released by the company, the first human patient, Noland Arbaugh, has managed to write, browse the internet, and play video games using only his thoughts.

However, the leap from laboratory to mass use is enormous. Human trials are recent, and the company itself acknowledges remaining technical and ethical challenges. Musk promises that within a few years, implants will be safe and advanced enough for widespread adoption. No date has been set.

Why many distrust the announcement

Suspicion is the most common reaction. Some argue that the real goal is not for users to control machines, but for machines to control users. Comparisons to the series Black Mirror appear repeatedly, not just as jokes: critics argue the chip could allow closing accounts, making transfers, or driving cars, but also accusing or punishing dissidents with a single button press. In this scenario, privacy disappears.

Another line of criticism targets the business model. Critics note that the same industry now promising brain chips pushed forced digitization during the pandemic, repeating a pattern: first normalize technological dependence, then make it a requirement for working, traveling, or entering establishments. Those without an implant, they say, will be excluded from the system.

Technical problems the announcement doesn't solve

Enthusiasm clashes with physics. A brain implant needs energy, and energy is the bottleneck. Calculations circulating in the debate are stark: the brain generates a few millivolts, while an experimental glucose battery produces about 300 microwatts, whereas a mobile phone consumes watts—thousands of times more. That power cannot even run a watch in power-saving mode. The alternative would be a lithium battery attached to the body, with the associated risks.

The interface is also questioned. Currently, there is no data bus capable of exchanging information between a chip and neurons, nor does the brain have the capacity to receive wireless waves. The solution would require an external device glued to the skull and a hole to connect the electrodes. None of this is resolved, and some label it directly as vaporware.

Social control as a business

The debate shifts toward the political use of the invention. It is argued that mass manipulation already works without chips, remotely and through screens, and that the implant would only add another layer of control. The lingering question is who controls whom. The most repeated answer is that the chip will not serve for users to handle machines, but for machines to handle users.

In parallel, some recall that the technology has already been tested on animals for much more modest purposes: a low-cost device can turn a cockroach into a cyborg controlled remotely for about $173. This anecdote illustrates that the brain-machine interface is not science fiction, but also that its first commercial use will likely not be noble.

Human evolution and the antiestéticar of losing control

Not everything is rejection. Part of the analysis defends that humans have been cyborgs since the first stick used to make a hole. Fire, weapons, and tools expanded our capabilities, and the chip would be one more step in this natural evolution. What is debated is not the technology, but who directs it: species evolution and the interests of a few rarely coincide.

The most shared conclusion is that the implant will arrive, but not as a smartphone substitute, rather as another obligation. Just as today one cannot work without a phone, tomorrow one may not be able to work without a chip. And then, as now, the majority will accept it without asking. The disconcerting fact is that the first patient already controls a computer with his mind, and the chip making it possible measures 23 millimeters.