There are a lot of ethical issues surrounding Neuralink and how it would be used. It might be good for certain medical stuff but I can see how it can be abused.
Mean people already do these things. Other people are already trying to use AI to decode your brainwaves and thoughts. There's no evidence Neuralink is doing anything unethical.
Neuralink has various potentials. One of them is that it becomes obligatory or even mandatory... If you don't get it, you'll be accused of being a luddite. It will probably start as a medical tool and progress to there.
The problem is that you are giving away access to your mind, one of the last private spaces. That means your thoughts can be stolen (think AI scraping but worse), or advertising put in your dreams. Perhaps even used to reprogram your mind etc.
When I was using Zortech C++ in the ‘80s, I never imagined I’d be talking to the author nearly half a century later about his support for a fascist Nazi near-trillionaire.
> I wouldn't support Musk if he was a fascist nazi.
That's not how that works.
Musk is, by many definitions well across the line distinguishing the 'fascist nazi's' from the rest of us.
Normalization of deviance slowly shifts the window to the point where his behavior is excused. Some people think it is acceptable because of all of the (potential) good a person could do or has already done. That's roughly the equivalent of 'Hitler was a vegetarian, and liked animals, how bad could he be?'. But The country that spawned the movement (so I think they get to make the call) thinks he is. And Musk's support for the German AfD (which is a thin layer of veneer over a despicable group) speaks volumes, yes, let's 'Make Germany Great Again' ffs. Even the Neo Nazi's think he is a Nazi. Elon has made Twitter (sorry, 'X') into a safe haven for the alt-right and various hate groups.
If it quacks like a Nazi and moves like a Nazi it probably is a Nazi. Whether you support him or not changes nothing about Elon but it does say something about you that you continue to support him despite everything he has already undeniably done and I'm disappointed, to put it mildly.
I think we can agree that Musk is strongly motivated. He works insanely hard and takes huge personal risks with his fortune.
He says why he does it - over and over - to save humanity by spreading it out into space.
> desperate for approval and accolades. From anyone.
If true, it is rather common behavior, not deeply unwell. Politicians 100% fall into that category. So do movie stars. So does every Olympic athlete. So what.
If he wants to save humanity, he certainly doesn't show it. Most of what he's done in life so far has harmed or taken more lives than the vast majority of individuals in history. His actions in "DOGE" vis-a-vis USAID may put him on the very top of that list, in the long run.
> If true, it is rather common behavior.
Wanting approval is normal. Most people would not support nazis for approval.
I think if you materially support the nazis, you are a nazi, regardless of what might be your internal justification. This is a distinction without a difference.
I think the distinction is important in this case specifically because it shows us that he has no strong conviction towards doing so. He knows it's wrong and does it anyways, it's worse.
