🧠 Broadband for your brain

Hi, and happy Tuesday.

Elon Musk says: "Using your voice or hands is like using a 56k modem."

Your brain thinks in gigabit broadband, but your output - speech, typing - is bottlenecked like early dial-up, over-the-telephone internet.

The solution?

Installing fiber-optic cable directly into your skull.

Last week, Neuralink declared they’d met all the milestones they’d previously laid out.

The result?

For Brad Smith - a man paralyzed with ALS who had lost his ability to speak or move - every interaction once depended on an eye-tracking computer that only worked indoors. 

Neuralink has changed everything for him.

Now, using only his thoughts, Brad is able to move a cursor, draw, play video games, talk and -  perhaps most meaningfully - is able to go outside with his family. 

No wires. No speech. Just brain to machine.

Other Neuralink participants are also doing incredible things:

• One participant drew with a robotic arm - and later beat his uncle in rock-paper-scissors using only thought

• Another played Mario Kart with 4 other Neuralink users - no controllers needed

• Neuralink participants are working, learning languages, writing, designing - with no keyboard or hands

But empowering the disabled is just the starting point.

Neuralink wants to super-power all humans - including you and me.

In the coming years, Neuralink’s roadmap includes: 

🗓 2026 – Launching “Blindsight” to restore vision to the blind

🗓 2027 – Supporting multiple brain implants (motion + speech + sight at once)

🗓 2028 – Bridging spinal cord injuries to let paralyzed people walk again

In short, Neuralink participants will go from using their minds for clicking to speaking to seeing and walking, all powered by neural signals.

But, what will this look like for the rest of us?

Think about your phone.

It’s your digital twin.

It remembers your calendar, your passwords, your friends.

But it’s slow. You tap. You swipe. You ask. You wait.

It knows your schedule, your friends, your habits. Right now, it’s your digital shadow.

Now imagine if that digital twin could listen to your thoughts instantly.

You want directions. It’s already got them.

You want to message someone. The message is forming as you think.

That’s what Neuralink is building: a real-time link between your thoughts and your digital world.

Elon Musk envisions a future where :

• You could tele-operate robots like Tesla’s Optimus with your mind

• You might store thoughts and memories like files

• You may - with just a thought - tap into AI as true co-intelligence

• You may even inhabit a new body if yours no longer works

Will this lead to immortality? Not yet.

But it’s not crazy to imagine that - in a few decades - you could keep your mind alive, active, and connected - perhaps even inside a robot - when the rest of your body dies

It’s not just Neuralink.

Mark Zuckerberg is betting on a wrist-worn “neural interface” - rather than one that “jacks into your brain”.

Supporting Meta’s AR/VR ambitions, this wrist band is packed with tiny sensors measuring electric pulses from your brain.

The wrist band can turn an almost-invisible twitch to “move your index finger”  into a mouse-click, a scroll wheel, or a game button.

Other player include:

• Synchron, building minimally invasive brain implants that are already FDA-approved for limited use, and backed by Microsoft, Amazon and Apple.

• Apple’s own in-house R&D to “let users control devices with thought”.

• Verily (Google / Alphabet), Samsung and Sony have filed patents and are active in this space.

What does this mean for you and your organization?

Neuralink and their competitors are working on a future that is years - not decades - away.

At PreScouter, we’ve been helping the world’s leading organization navigate emerging technologies - from CRISPR to AI - for over a decade and a half.

Based on our experience, it’s time to start thinking about:

• Scenario Planning: Including neural interface adoption in long-term strategic planning (e.g., by 2030), especially for business models that rely on human interaction, control, or perception.

• IP and Competitive Positioning: Exploring patent landscapes and defendable tech advantages in neural interface adjacent fields (e.g. biofeedback, gesture recognition, neuro-safe coatings).

• New Markets: Getting ready to supply emerging needs for materials, applicable treatment pathways and other needs.

• Workforce Enhancement: Reimagining jobs for workers with limited mobility or cognitive superpowers via neural interface.

• Experiential Marketing: Ads controlled by neural signals could shape emotional resonance and brand attachment in immersive environments.

Ready to have a “prepared mind”? 😉

Ping your PreScouter contact or reply to this email to start a discussion on this topic. 

Until next time.

Best,

Dino