Neuralink: Can We Control A Computer Through Our Thoughts?

Yes. People can already control a computer through thought alone using a brain implant like Neuralink. Since the first human surgery in January 2024, around a dozen participants with paralysis or ALS have used the N1 chip to move a cursor, type, and play games hands-free. The goal is to restore independence and, in time, a symbiosis between humans and artificial intelligence.

Computers have become the new backbone of humanity. Our economies, businesses, infrastructure, and markets are dependent on the paradigm of global interconnectedness. This isn’t seen on the macro level alone; it is also true for individuals. How often do you find yourself mindlessly scrolling through your Instagram feed? How often do you negotiate extra time with yourself so you can read one final Reddit thread? Personally, I find myself using my phone on and off for the better part of the day; it has truly become a critical part of our lived experience.

Computers of varying sizes have become the extension through which we offload much of our cognitive function and they have enabled us to extend far beyond our biological limitations. In a sense, we have already become cyborgs.

Our phones and computers act as a tertiary layer to our brain (the limbic system and neocortex being the primary and secondary layers, respectively). It is only a matter of time before these devices become invisible and are integrated into our biology.

Elon Musk’s company Neuralink aims to bridge this gap, providing the ability to interface with computers without physically interacting with them. This has been tried before, but most of the devices don’t offer high bandwidth (i.e., they have a slow rate of data transfer).

Before jumping into the details of this burgeoning technology, we first need to ask, is the ability to control computers with our brain actually required?

Why Do We Need To Control Computers With Our Brain?

At first glance, this may seem like an unnecessary venture, just another feature in our ever-upgrading technological dependence. However, this piece of tech could have a life-changing effect, as the potential benefits outlined below clearly show.

Computer Control For People With Severe Motor Impairment

Being a paraplegic and needing assistance to work with a computer leads to even more frustration and feelings of isolation. A direct cognitive interface with computers would be a godsend for patients suffering from partial or total paralysis, making them increasingly independent (almost every household chore/errand can be done online these days) and giving them an extended community through the internet. This is not just a boon for communication; these chips could eventually help patients with spine-related injuries by restoring their movement!

It could even assist in the treatment of debilitating neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Understanding The Brain

Our brain is probably the most complex machine we have encountered in this universe. It is a 3-pound piece of matter sitting inside our skull that is simultaneously managing thousands of biological functions.

Given that complexity, there remain several unanswered questions about the brain, such as how are memories stored and retrieved? What is consciousness? These interfaces could shed light on several age-old questions.

Combating The Looming Artificial Intelligence (AI) Threat To Humanity

How Artificial Intelligence develops in the coming century will determine the ultimate state of humanity, and our chances of survival. If the premise of the Singularity is to be believed and computers reach the intelligence level of an average human (known as Artificial General Intelligence), then it is only a matter of time before computers surpass us and become Artificial Super Intelligent.

We could then be at the mercy of a super-intelligent overlord; for whom we would be what ants presently are to us. The future could be a grim dystopia or an era of unfathomable prosperity, depending on our ability to tame this tech. One way to do this would be to somehow create a symbiosis with AI through brain-machine interfaces.

Neuralink’s Leap

As you may know, the brain forms a large network of neurons through synapses. Neurons communicate at these junction points using chemical signals called neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters are released as a response from a neuron when it receives an electrical signal called an ‘action potential’. A chain reaction is triggered, causing an action potential to fire when a cell receives the right kind of neurotransmitter input; this makes the neurons relay messages to the synapses.

The clinical N1 implant reads these action potentials through 1,024 electrodes spread across 64 ultra-thin, flexible threads, each finer than a human hair. A surgical robot stitches the threads into the motor cortex, the strip of brain that plans movement. For comparison, a deep brain stimulator (the FDA-approved implant used to treat Parkinson's disease) carries only a handful of contacts on each lead, typically 4 to 8. That is the leap: the N1 listens to the brain through roughly a hundred times as many channels, and it does so wirelessly, with no plugs poking through the skin.

From The Lab To Real Patients

When this article was first written, all of this was still a promise. That changed on 28 January 2024, when surgeons at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona placed the first N1 implant into a human brain. The patient, Noland Arbaugh, had been paralyzed from the shoulders down after a diving accident in 2016. Within weeks he was moving a cursor, playing online chess, and beating friends at video games using nothing but his thoughts. He has described getting back a real measure of independence after years of needing help for almost everything.

The trial is no longer a one-off. By early 2026, around a dozen people across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom were living with the implant, and together they had logged more than 15,000 hours of use. Participants in Neuralink's PRIME study, all of whom have quadriplegia or ALS, have used the chip to type, browse the web, and even build 3D models in computer-aided design software, all hands-free.

It hasn't been flawless. In Arbaugh's case, a number of the hair-thin threads pulled loose from the brain tissue in the first weeks, cutting the signal. Rather than operate again, the team rewrote the software to squeeze more out of the electrodes that stayed put, and his performance recovered. That episode is a useful reminder that this is still early, experimental technology, and that keeping the threads anchored in living, pulsing brain tissue is one of the hard problems Neuralink is racing to solve.

Key Takeaways

This technology could prove to be a massive boon for patients who have been diagnosed with neurological diseases, and it may one day help restore movement in people with spinal cord injuries. It could further enhance our relationship with computers and usher in completely new ways of interacting, not just with machines, but also with other people!

The question is no longer whether a person can move a cursor with their mind. A dozen people are already doing it every day. The open questions now are the harder ones: how long the implant stays reliable inside a living brain, how widely it can be made safe enough to offer, and whether it will ever do the bigger things Elon Musk talks about, like restoring movement or knitting our minds together with AI.

Only time will tell.