"Elon Musk says his Neuralink startup has implanted a chip in its first human brain" - is it really the first one?

Elon Musk’s controversial startup Neuralink has implanted a chip in a human brain for the first time, the billionaire said in a post on his X platform late Monday.

In this day and age, we still have people denying nanotechnology and microchip implants. They need to do some more research. I remember how people reacted when we warned them of the self assembly nanotechnology and microchips in the shots. Or the MAC address phenomenon, or WBAN. It was all conspiracy!

This week the first official neuralink brain chip from Elon Musk was implanted into a human and most people are cheering for the benefit of mankind. Yes, it is wonderful to have solutions for quadriplegic patients, but concerns are also worth looking at. There exists much evidence that this is not the first time someone has been implanted. In fact we know it is not the first time. Here is the article:

The operation took place on Sunday and the patient was recovering well, he added. Musk’s announcement could mark an important milestone for Neuralink’s efforts to usher potentially life-transforming technology out of the lab and into the real world. But he offered few details, and it’s unclear from Musk’s post how significant of a scientific advancement the implantation represents. The company had received approval to study the safety and functionality of its chip implant and surgical tools. “Initial results show promising neuron spike detection,” the world’s richest man and Neuralink founder said on X, the social media platform he owns.

Neuralink’s first product would be called Telepathy, he said in another post, adding that its initial users will be people who have lost the use of their limbs. “Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal,” he wrote. Neuralink has been working toward using implants to connect the human brain to a computer for half a decade, but the company faced scrutiny after a monkey died in 2022 during an attempt to get the animal to play Pong, one of the first video games. In December 2022, employees told Reuters that the company was rushing to market, resulting in careless animal deaths and a federal investigation. In May last year, Neuralink received FDA clearance for human clinical trials, and a few months later, the startup began recruiting patients with quadriplegia caused by cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The trial is part of what Neuralink is calling its “PRIME Study,” short for “Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface,” which aims to study the safety of its implant and surgical robot, and to test the functionality of its device, the company said in a September blog post about recruiting trial participants. Trial patients will have a chip surgically placed in the part of the brain that controls the intention to move. The chip, installed by a robot, will then record and send brain signals to an app, with the initial goal being “to grant people the ability to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts alone,” the company wrote in September. Neuralink did not respond to CNN’s request for further details. Before Neuralink’s brain implants hit the broader market, they’ll need regulatory approval. The FDA put out a paper in 2021 mapping out the agency’s initial thoughts on brain-computer interface devices, noting the field is “progressing rapidly.”

While Neuralink and Musk have received significant attention for their attempts at a brain-computer interface, a number of other companies have also been working in this space, including a company called Synchron, the first company to gain FDA clearance to test a device in humans in 2021. Synchon has since been enrolling and implanting patients in a trial. “The idea of brain-nervous system interfaces has great potential to help people with neurological disorders in future,” Tara Spires-Jones, president of the British Neuroscience Association, told the UK-based Science Media Center Tuesday. “However, most of these interfaces require invasive neurosurgery and are still in experimental stages thus it will likely be many years before they are commonly available.”

DHS studies of invasive devices for modulation of the brain have been already under way.

I have posted previous analysis of implanted brain chips from 2011 here - this was found in a meningioma:

You can read more about illegal implants here: Implants

Here is a verichip implant removed in 2010 which also created a cancerous lesion:

Here is a criminal case filed for illegal implantation against the NIH

Microchips have been deployed in the workspace:

A Wisconsin company is to become the first in the US to microchip employees.

Three Square Market is offering to implant the tiny radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip into workers' hands for free - and says everyone will soon be doing it. The rice grain-sized $300 (£230) chip will allow them to open doors, log in to computers and even purchase food. And so far, 50 employees have signed up for the chance to become half-human, half-walking credit card.

Want to gain entry to your office, get on a bus, or perhaps buy a sandwich? We're all getting used to swiping a card to do all these things. But at Epicenter, a new hi-tech office block in Sweden, they are trying a different approach - a chip under the skin.

Felicio de Costa, whose company is one of the tenants, arrives at the front door and holds his hand against it to gain entry. Inside he does the same thing to get into the office space he rents, and he can also wave his hand to operate the photocopier.

That's all because he has a tiny RFID (radio-frequency identification) chip, about the size of a grain of rice, implanted in his hand. Soon, others among the 700 people expected to occupy the complex will also be offered the chance to be chipped. Along with access to doors and photocopiers, they're promised further services in the longer run, including the ability to pay in the cafe with a touch of a hand.

Finding methods that could identify such microchips merits investigation, because the illegal implantation of humans has been shown to have happened. For those dismissing the megaphone suggestion, it is evident they did not even read any further which states, verification with further methods, including ultrasound, is indicated.