Original subtitles

[light music]

[machinery beeping]

[light electronic music]

- [Bryan] We are about to enter into

the most consequential revolution

in the history of the human race.

Where we can take control of our cognitive evolution.

- [Sara] We're talking about technologies

that could radically alter the way we are as human beings.

[whirring]

- [Dr. Nicolelis] What we're seeing is that

technology is becoming part of us.

Because we're linking biological brains

directly to machines.

- [Nita] What if we could expand your capabilities beyond

what we as humans have never had before?

- [Ramez] There are a set of people who are going to say,

this is unnatural, this is inhuman,

we shouldn't allow this to happen.

- [Man] The fact is, is that, we are transforming

into a new species,

a technological species.

- [Bryan] You don't know what the outcome is going to be.

You don't know how it will be used.

- [Nita] But if we start tinkering with the brain,

if we start changing it...

Are we about to fundamentally change

what it means to be human?

And if so, are we okay with that?

[beeping]

- [Bill] Wake up. - [Computer] Wake up.

- [Bill] Drapes. - [Computer] Drapes.

- [Bill] One. - [Computer] One.

- [Bill] Open. - [Computer] Open.

[machinery whirring]

- [Bill] I was riding a bicycle in a charity event...

it was raining really badly,

and I was following a mail truck.

And then all of a sudden it stopped

and I didn't.

[machine beeping]

Drapes - [Computer] Drapes.

- Two. - [Computer] Two.

- Open. - [Computer] Open.

[machinery whirring]

- Head up. - [Computer] Head up.

- Do it. - [Computer] Head up.

- Do it. - [Computer] Head up.

- [Bill] Things are different now.

- [Danielle] Good morning Mr. Kochevar.

- [Bill] Hi, Danielle.

- [Danielle] I'm gonna go ahead

and get you up in the chair, okay?

[somber music]

- I'm a tetraplegic,

which means I can't move my arms or legs

and I only have feeling from my mid-chest up.

[machinery whirring]

It's okay that I can't feel anything but

sometimes I wish I could.

After my injury

I lived with my parents then

when my mother and father both passed away, I moved here.

- [Yvonne] Good morning Mr. Kochevar.

- [Bill] Morning Yvonne.

- [Yvonne] Well hello.

- [Bill] How are you this morning?

- [Yvonne] I am just lovely, Bill.

- [Robert] In people that have paralysis,

the nerves to their muscles are still intact,

but they're cut off from the brain.

- [Yvonne] Let's get you up on your side.

- [Robert] So they lose the ability to voluntarily

control their movements.

- [Yvonne] Got your glasses here.

- [Bolu] If we can understand the brain's

internal code of movement,

it would significantly assist us in

better treating a wide range of medical issues.

But we're not quite there.

[machinery whirring]

- [Announcer] Dr. Carradine, pick up at 2185.

- [Bill] People in my situation,

you know, they just never move again.

It's hard sometimes to think about that.

I always want to do more.

Like, I wanna move from this point

to that point without help.

[light music]

I don't know, probably eat something by myself.

If it ever happens.

You know, have somebody bring me a plate of something,

and then I'll say "Okay, you can go away,

"I'm gonna eat this.

"Come back in about half an hour."

But I don't think about it a lot

because I know there's a lot of research

yet to go before that happens.

- [Bryan] Everything we're trying to do,

everything we're trying to become,

everything we're trying to fix,

sits on the other side of the brain.

The brain is the single highest potential

area of focus we have in existence.

It is our best tool to do the things we want

to achieve in life,

it is also the biggest limiter we have.

- [Ramez] This three pounds, is our entire universe.

Our senses, our emotions.

- [Chantel] Love, hate, fear, jealousy,

- [Dustin] The way we move, the way we control our body.

- [Scientist 1] Our culture, our language,

- [Scientist 2] Our hopes, our dreams, our aspirations

- [Chantel] Motivation, pride, wonder.

- [Manuel] The brain defines what we are.

- [David] But because the brain runs so efficiently

behind the scenes,

it's typically only when something goes wrong

that we appreciate the magnitude

of what's actually happening there.

[birds chirping]

- [Anne] I'm not really sure what's happening in my brain.

Anxiety, insomnia, paralysis.

Parkinson's is different for everybody.

Just depends on what you get.

[Anne struggles]

- [Stan] That's a cardinal, right?

The one with that whistle, that one.

- [Anne] Yeah.

- [Stan] Anne and I have been married for 38 years.

- [Anne] Look, the hydrangeas, it hasn't bloomed.

- [Stan] I think Anne has one of the most gentle hearts on earth.

Things have gradually changed over the years.

She used to be an artist.

She was a hospice volunteer.

All that had to be left behind.

[somber music]

- [Anne] When I was diagnosed,

I think the biggest thing for me was that

I would become useless.

You know, I'll be a burden to my to my children,

and to my husband.

And a burden just in the world.

[beeping]

One of the Parkinson's symptoms

that I was always afraid of

was that you couldn't smile

and you smiled you had a stony expression.

It's hard to connect with people.

I'm just way too exhausted and way too disorganized mentally

to be with people the way I used to.

This illness, you know,

all you can do is accept it.

- [Bryan] There's nothing more dehumanizing

than watching someone you love slowly lose their humanhood

and yet if you look at the state of neuroscience right now,

we still have an incredibly long way to go.

- [Ramez] The brain has always been a black box to us.

In the past, we've had rudimentary ideas

of how it works.

- We know that there are circuits that control your vision,

your memory, your movement.

- But we still don't know the code.

We don't know the internal language.

That's because the brain is the most complicated object

we've ever encountered in nature.

- [Dr. Nicolelis] You know, think about it

we have in each human brain,

roughly a hundred billion neurons.

100 billion was the old estimate

of the number of galaxies in the universe.

- [David] Each neuron is as complicated

as the city of Los Angeles.

It's connecting to about 10,000 of its neighbors

so you have, 500 trillion connections.

- [Bobby] And these neurons they communicate with each other.

And they're firing electrical signals to each other

the same way our computers fire zeros and ones

inside of themselves.

- [Tracy] To think about those individual neurons firing,

at a speed that we can't even understand yet,

it's mind-boggling.

- [David] It's so unbelievably complicated and yet somehow it is us.

- [Bobby] The electrical firing of these little neurons

is who you are.

What is it saying?

What is it communicating?

- [Narrator] Jim drinks and hands the flask back to McCoy.

The shuttle rises among the mass of pipes

and fence in the shipyard

and arcs up into the sky.

[dramatic music]

- [Stephen] I was born with a condition

that didn't surface until later in life.

Everything's white.

It's blank.

It's like having a book, you know?

You've got a written page

and then you've got a blank page.

So I'm looking at a blank page.

I live on my own.

I have a cat.

Come on, Angie.

It's a second-hand cat.

Treat time.

Oh, look at that.

Her name originally was Angel.

And I said, "Nah, she's not an angel,"

so I gave her Angie.

Yeah, she's hiding somewhere.

[knocking]

When I lost my vision,

it's like the whole world collapsed.

And probably one of the most difficult thing to do

is to ask for help.

You want a coffee, Denise?

- [Denise] Yeah, that'd be great.

- [Stephen] Is Dark Roast fine?

- [Denise] That's good, sounds good.

- [Stephen] Good, cause that's all I got.

- [Denise] [laughs] As long as it's coffee.

- [Stephen] Okay let's see what else we have here.

- [Denise] We fight like brothers and sisters do.

But in the last couple years we've got very very close.

- [Stephen] Oh, that's a toaster Denise.

Yeah I got distracted. [laughing]

- [Denise] He's had relationships, he's had girlfriends.

But through the years he just sort of

pushed everybody away.

What time did you tell me tomorrow?

- [Stephen] 11?

It's really very difficult to have a conversation.

Because you can't see them, you can't see their expression.

You can only go by the tone of voice.

- [Denise] The last time Stephen saw me was probably

a year and a half to two years ago.

That's been a really sad thing.

- [Denise] Oops, careful. - [Stephen] I thought you're

gonna grab it.

- [Denise] Oop, I got it. - [Stephen] Okay, thanks.

- [Denise] I'm not as quick as you are. - [Stephen] You gotta be quick.

- [Denise] I know.

- [Stephen] I pretty well depend on her 100%

for emotional support and as an intervener.

And also to check my mail.

We love each other very much.

- [Clock] 4:06 p.m.

- [Stephen] But I just miss being independent.

- [Dr. Nicolelis] An estimated one billion people around the world

that suffer from some sort of brain disorder.

- [Maria Shriver] Every 66 seconds a new brain

in this country develops Alzheimer's.

- [Newscaster] Without a breakthrough right now

the dementia rate will double every 20 years.

- [John Oliver] An Estimated 43.8 million American adults

dealt with a mental illness

and an estimated 10 million of them suffer

from a serious mental illness.

- [Bryan] I think everybody has personal experience to some degree

with depression or anxiety, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's.

Whatever the condition is,

it's devastating to that person, to their loved ones,

and to society.

I experienced a decade of chronic depression

and I know what it's like to feel hopelessness at a depth.

Nothing is more important than addressing a broken brain.

To me, it's the most important conversation

in the entire world.

- [Man] We have a real treat for you today,

a great entrepreneur...

- [Podcast] Today's guest is the modern American

rags to riches story,

he started with nothing.

- [Man] Today Bryan Johnson is with us

who's investing in some of the most important areas

of biology and technology.

- [Bryan] Over the past couple of years

I built a neuroscience company

where I'm pursuing breakthrough discoveries in the brain.

- [Woman] Bryan Johnson invested $100 million dollars

in his own neuroscience company.

- [Man] With the belief that unlocking our brain

is the most significant opportunity in history.

- [Bryan] Morning everyone.

A lot of times when I talk to people about the future

they'll take what exists today and they...[trails off]

I basically spend every waking moment

trying to convince people that working on the brain

is the single most consequential thing

we could be doing as a species.

Today I would like to try and make the case

on why I think the brain is important.

We now have the tools to make attempts

at these breakthroughs.

We're one of the first generations in the world

that cannot see past 15-20 years

and so as a society, how do we become interested

in this radical cognitive evolution?

I've spoken at countless conferences.

I write an email newsletter, blog posts,

I'm writing a book,

because I am consumed with this discussion,

our situation, our potential.

Fortunately there are these fascinating developments

going on in neuroscience

where our technology is enabling possibilities

we never had before.

Possibilities that will undoubtedly

transform the human race.

But the first humans already walking down

this new evolutionary path

are not who most people expect.

[Anne grunting]

[phone beeping]

[phone ringing]

- [Stan] Oh hi, It's Stan Shabason speaking.

I'm just calling to confirm Anne's

appointment this Tuesday at three p.m.

- [Anne] Someone who I was seeing

through the movement disorder clinic

said there's this procedure called Deep Brain Stimulation

that I should be open to.

- [Stan] Great, thank you very much, we'll see you then.

She tried alternative therapies.

Everything from naturopath, osteopaths,

nothing seemed to help.

- [Dr. Lozano] In Parkinson's disease, the neurons

that produce dopamine in your brain are dying.

That causes tremor, rigidity, akinesia or inability to move.

[tense music]

So we implant electrodes inside the brain

to suppress this abnormal activity

that is causing the motor system to shut down.

And we use electrical stimulation 24 hours a day.

- [Stan] We were told this operation would offer her relief.

But Anne's very wary of any kind of dramatic procedure.

- [Dr. Lozano] Patients are worried, you know,

"Will I be the same, coming out, as I was going in?"

- [Anne] Someone's cutting into your brain.

You don't know what's going to happen.

- [Dr. Lozano] There's a tremendous amount of anxiety about

whether they are going to change in their outlook,

in their personality, in their motivation, in their drive.

You know, this is brain surgery.

It's invasive.

It is a scary thought.

- [Anne] They say my symptoms might improve.

But cutting your body open and putting things in your body,

I don't think I'm capable of risking that.

[tense music]

- [John] The idea of having electrodes that are in your brain,

that stimulate your brain,

is something that's a concern for people.

And it just puts the burden on being extremely careful

in the design of these electronics.

Here at the Wyss Center...

[machinery beeping]

...we develop implantable technology

and test it to show that it's safe,

to show that it's effective.

It's a very complex process

and it's a very expensive process.

First, we have to develop this brain electrode

[whirring]

- [Claude] This is a technically very difficult challenge.

We need to avoid dust, biological contamination,

ionic contamination.

[whirring]

And so this electrode consists of very special material.

[whirring, electronic noises]

We are touching a very sensitive part of the human body

so we can not fool around.

- [John] Anything that's powered gets warm,

so we use thermal imaging to understand

how hot does it get

and where does it get hot.

The next step is an extremely complicated surgical procedure

- [Claude] We need to pass the barrier of the scalp,

of the skull.

- [John] And implant the electrode into or onto the brain.

[light clicking]

Once inside, these electrodes can pick up

the tiny electrical impulses of the neurons

and convert them into a signal we can understand

like a digital code.

- [Ramez] It's a messy messy messy code.

There's a hundred billion neurons.

But once you're getting data out of the brain,

you have digital information.

You can do with it anything you can do

with digital information.

- [John÷} It's called a brain computer interface.

- [Claude] Brain computer interfaces

give us the ability to understand the brain,

to understand its electrical signals

in order to replace lost function.

- [Bobby] Brain science for the first time

is showing us how we can understand ourselves

at the level of the machine.

- [John] The spectrum of areas where you can help

in brain-computer interfaces is really tremendous.

- [Ramez] Could we solve mental illness?

Cure people who are sick?

Could we give sight to the blind,

restore hearing to the deaf?

Could we restore our unique human capabilities?

The capabilities that have been taken away?

- [Bill] When my doctor told me about it,

he said, "We have a research project

and it's a little Star Treky"

And I perked up and said,

"Oh, well this must be interesting."

It did seem like something out of science fiction.

So everything's gonna work today, right?

- [Robert] That's up to you, Bill.

[everyone laughing]

[Robert] I met Bill about, I would say a year

before we did the brain implant.

- [Man] Is that good?

- We said, "You know there's surgery involved,

and this is experimental.

It's a little bit on the edge

of what our colleagues are ready to accept."

- [Bill] They had been looking for a patient

for quite a while.

- [Man] How's that look?

- [Robert] Good.

- [Bill] And I couldn't understand why

somebody along the way wouldn't want to do this.

- [Man] Everything's looking good.

- [Bolu] We have two microelectrode arrays implanted

into Bill's primary motor cortex.

Four by four millimeters in size

and ninety-six recording electrodes.

Each electrode penetrates the cortical tissue,

1.5 millimeters in depth

and can record the activity of individual neurons.

So Bill one of the things we need to do

is we need to calibrate the decoder,

so watch and then also imagine

you're performing those same movements.

- We have them watch an animation of an arm,

imagine themselves as controlling those movements,

and we'll build this algorithm

decoding the movement intention.

Excellent.

- [Bolu] We then send that intention

to electrodes implanted in Bill's arm and hand.

And our goal is to restore movement.

[light electronic music]

- [Man] Okay Bill, I'm gonna go ahead

and connect you to that, all right?

- [Bill] Yes.

- [Man] Okay, it's on.

- [Bolu] If the electrical activity in Bill's brain

can stimulate in the right pattern,

you can get an arm to move, a hand to open, a hand to close.

- [Man] Connect that to the card.

- [Robert] Imagine reaching out, imagine reaching up.

- [Man] All right, here we go.

- [Bill] But it may not work.

The signals change in my brain,

so that's a task they struggle with a lot.

- [Bolu] We believe the potential is massive.

But there are some technical challenges

we are working towards overcoming.

[chair whirring]

- [Bryan] It's extraordinarily difficult

to make breakthroughs in neuroscience.

Scientists are tackling these really complicated problems,

trying to do things that other people

consider to be impossible.

And it makes it both an extremely exciting time

but also, it's daunting

because we don't know the best approach

to make progress.

[lightly tense music]

[Bryan] There's many reasons why neuroscience

is an extremely difficult field to build in.

You not only have the technological challenge

of getting good neural signal,

but then you have the scientific challenge

of figuring out how to decode that signal.

Optics, we're looking at geometries

in our design of the hardware.

Then you have intense capital requirements often times

in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Brandon, how are we doing on budget?

We need to get this done in that timeframe.

I know it's gonna be a lot.

And finally, you have important safety

and ethical considerations.

It's challenging, to say the least.

[Bryan] But I think it is absolutely essential

that we make breakthroughs in the brain.

If we can do that,

we can overcome our biological limitations.

We can reject the things that stop us from moving forward.

[tense music]

- [Announcer] Dr. Ford, please dial 114.

- [Stephen] This procedure was purely by accident.

- [Denise] Stephen had been to his eye specialist.

He said, "I know a doctor who is doing some amazing things."

- [Stephen] It's called the Argus procedure.

They've done between eight and ten patients already.

They implant a chip underneath the eye,

and electrodes are hooked up to the brain.

- [Dr.Devenyi] Hi, Stephen, it's Dr. Devenyi, how are you?

This procedure, it's for sure the most complicated

operation we do.

This won't be bad. - [Stephen] Sure.

I cleared my schedule today

just for this occasion. - [Dr. Devenyi] Good.

And it's a significant intrusion into the eye.

Basically there's a band that goes around the eye.

Far back, we don't see it.

And that has the receiving and transmitting electrodes.

And then there's a portion from that...

- [Stephen] It's a new technology,

so I'm not like I got a brochure.

It's not a hundred percent, so

something could go wrong.

- [Dr. Devenyi] I'll see you soon.

- We'll get this done. - [Stephen] Thank you very much.

- [Dr. Devenyi] Okay, take care.

- [Stephen] But you reach a point when you're 55 years old,

you're blind.

Where do you go from there?

So I said, yeah sure, why not?

I got lots of time.

- [Anne] If you could do this list,

we have to remember to tell the doctor tomorrow.

- [Stan] Okay.

So half hour before your meds.

- [Anne] Everything slows down.

That writhing of my leg...

- [Stan] It's been several months.

And this decision for the surgery,

it's been very difficult for her of course

and challenging for me.

But my kids and I

are encouraging her more and more to consider it.

Both legs are cramping or just your right leg?

- [Anne] No just my right leg.

- [Stan] Right foot and leg cramping.

[somber music]

Right foot over your left knee.

Let's switch.

Her symptoms are growing worse and worse.

Come over to the left.

Pull your right leg in,

- [Anne] My husband's been incredible.

But the thing that I'm concerned about is that

not only do I have the illness,

he has the illness.

My family has the illness.

- [Stan] Last time that we were sleeping in the same bed

it's been at least a few years, I can't remember anymore.

[somber music]

- [Anne] I don't want to be a masochist

because of my insistence on one way being the right way.

But when it affects so many people,

I think you also have a duty

to try what's reasonable.

So...

I've decided to do it.

[music crescendos, machine beeping]

- [Stephen] I don't expect a miracle.

I don't expect to be boarding a plane

and going to Turkey.

But I would like to move about on my own freely,

within reason.

- [Bill] Drapes. - [Computer] Drapes.

- [Bill] Open. - [Computer] Open.

[whirring]

- [Bill] After my accident,

- [Computer] Head up.

- [Bill] They gave me the diagnosis and told me

"You'll probably be a tetraplegic

for the rest of your life."

- [Computer] Head up.

- [Bill] But who knows what breakthroughs will happen?

- [Anne] Before, there didn't seem to be any other solution

to break out of this except to make peace with it.

But I'm not so interested in making peace with it anymore.

- [Stephen] I would like to be able to live independently

and travel independently.

- [Anne] I would love to be doing artwork again.

You know, just being able to express myself artistically.

- [Bill] Maybe I'll be able

to move around in my chair,

pick something up, eat something.

Yeah I'm hoping for that day.

- [Anne] I don't need a perfect life.

I don't need the best of anything.

I just want to feel human again.

[tense music]

- [Dr. Lozano] The first thing we do is bolt a frame

onto their skull.

What are the measurements please?

And they have to be awake.

Anne, how are you doing?

[tools hissing]

We then drill two holes in their head.

Okay, let's go.

[drill whirring]

We then place electrodes within trouble-making areas

in the brain.

This is a game where you have to be within one millimeter.

What are the measurements please?

That one millimeter means a difference

between success and failure.

We're gonna go down to zero.

We put it about there.

Alright, so we're in.

So we should start recording neurons.

[clicking]

Anne?

We're starting to hear some of the neurons

in your brain now.

Once we're inside,

we get the patient to move their arm or their leg,

and we see whether those neurons are activated.

So this neurons is involved with moving the shoulder.

- [Woman] Cleaned?

- [Nurse] Yes.

[beeping, music transition]

[Dr. Devenyi] Forceps?

- Steven's procedure is truly the most remarkable

development that I've witnessed in my career

and truly something I didn't think any of us

would see in our lifetimes.

[Dr. Devenyi] Ready for the implants.

- It essentially is a coalescence

of machine and man

in a way that is really quite hard to fathom.

- We're good.

Calipers please?

- [Dr. Lozano] Anne?

We're now gonna start to put some electricity

through your electrode.

- [Dr. Nicolelis] What we're seeing is that technology's

becoming part of us.

- [Dr. Lozano] When I see three tell me

if you feel anything, ready?

- [Dr. Nicolelis] Because we are linking biological brains

directly to machines.

- [Dr. Lozano] Look at her face carefully,

there was a contraction in her lip.

1, 2, 3.

So four is definitely moving her face.

- [Dustin] If you look at machines,

they're capable, right?

- [Dr. Lozano] Still there.

- [Dustin] They're bigger, they're faster, they're stronger,

all that stuff.

- [Dr. Devenyi] Go ahead with the vitrectomy now.

- [Dustin] The human's a fragile beast,

but it's creative and it's smart and it can push beyond.

[Dr. Devenyi] Electrodes are functioning?

[Nurse] Yes.

- [Dustin] Bring 'em together in symbiosis,

[Dr. Devenyi] Focus on.

That's good.

- [Dustin] Where you can keep the pieces

that make us human,

but use the advantages of the machine

in ways we haven't been able to do before.

[Dr. Devenyi] Marking pen please.

- By this combination of electronics

and the human body,

Is the infusion on?

- I would hazard to say it's one of the most amazing

achievements in all of medicine.

Forceps.

- To be able to give back abilities

to people that otherwise had no options whatsoever,

Load the tac.

Secure.

- It's really quite remarkable.

[Dr. Lozano] Anne?

You're going to go to sleep.

And after that we're going to put the battery in your chest.

Okay.

We are just seeing the very beginnings of this technology.

So we're gonna leave an electrode here.

Where there will be a blurring of the boundary

between machine and biology

and the two will, one day, merge.

We're done.

- [VOICE] The fact is is that we are transforming

into a new species, a technological species.

- [Dustin] It's really crossing the skin into

the holy grail, the brain, and all these things

that people associate with being who we are

that people are somewhat uncomfortable with.

- [Ramez] If we can change what our brains can do,

what does that mean?

- [Sara] As we're trying to intervene in the brain,

we need to be very conscious of the ripple effects.

- [Voice] We don't know what the outcome is going to be.

- [Man] For some people, it's a sci-fi step too far.

- [Bryan] There's a few hundred thousand people in the world

who currently have implanted technology in their brain,

and not many people know that.

And knowing that of course

I think changes people's perspectives

that this has happened....

[Man] Okay we're gonna put your forearm in a splint.

- [Bryan] It's happening.

[Man] All right, here we go.

- [Bryan] And it's now moving at a speed

that is much faster than before.

- [Man] That's good.

Try it again.

- [Bryan] But the reality is

implantable technology is intimidating.

It's expensive, invasive,

and only recommended for people

with severe disease and dysfunction.

But what if that wasn't the case?

What if we had brain technology that was broadly accessible?

And what if...

it didn't require surgery?

[tense music]

Fortunately we are reaching a point

where these possibilities are emerging.

Imagine you had a brain interface

you could just put on your head,

no surgeries required and you could see

all of your brain activity.

Not just what you're aware of,

but all of your brain activity.

All of your thoughts, concerns,

it was just out in front of you.

So for example if you struggle with anxiety,

you'd see in your brain activity

that you've had this thought 94 times today

and it's probably not necessary.

Could this help you

so you don't have that thought 94 times?

Or can you see in this thought process

that you were limiting your ability to do something

because you didn't believe you could do it?

But that's a limiting belief.

You really can do it.

And if we have the technology that gives us the ability

to improve how our brains function,

can we rethink the things that have always held us back?

As someone who's building these tools

to interface with the brain,

my hope is that we get to a point

in technological advancements

where we are not limited by our technology,

we're empowered by it, so it is a matter of choice

of what we want to become.

- [Nita] We're at the moment where there are a lot

of very rapidly emerging technologies.

Brain computer interfaces are starting to become part

of mainstream society.

There already is technology that can pick up simple,

electrical activity from your brain

through these things, like consumer EEG devices.

- [Woman] The Emotiv Insight is a portable,

wearable device that allows you to

capture what's going on in your brain in real time.

- [Nita] If I wear one of these devices I can start to decode

whether or not I'm drowsy or awake,

whether or not paying attention or I'm unfocused,

angry or experiencing some other kind of emotional state.

- [Woman 2] So this is my brain right now?

- [Woman] This is your brain right now.

- [Woman 2] Oh my gosh. - [Woman] In real time.

- [Woman 2] This is wild.

- [Nita] There are also a number of people using headsets

to focus and perform better.

- [Man] You can buy a TDCS device online

or you can go to youtube and build one yourself.

- [YouTuber] I have been experimenting in an effort

to hopefully see some really awesome cognitive enhancement.

- [Dr. Nicolelis] The future of brain interfaces is probably

the most fascinating unknown

because we are at the infancy of this.

- [Ramez] As we crack the code of the brain,

we're handing the reins of our own lives,

of our own minds to us.

We get to choose how we think, who we are.

- [David] As we get better and better as a society

at building brain interfaces,

these can be applied to every aspect

of our biological existence.

[Birds chirping]

- [Ramez] Could we teach you a new skill?

Could we help you communicate the emotion

you're feeling to a loved one?

What can and can't we do?

- [Justin] Alright then Preston.

The experiment will begin shortly.

Once you are asked a question, look on the left hand side

if the answer to that question is yes.

Look on the right hand side if the answer

to that question is no.

Does that make sense to you?

- [Preston] Yes.

- [Justin] Wonderful.

Are you comfortable?

- [Preston] Mm.

- [Man] Subject number one is wearing an EEG cap

to record electrical fluctuations

from their brain.

Subject number two is receiving the information

through a magnetic pulse to the back of the brain.

- [Chantel] In the current experiment,

we have two subjects in two different rooms,

playing a game of 20 questions.

The big difference is that the two people asking

and answering questions are doing so using only signals

from their brains.

- [Steven] TMS is armed.

- [Computer] The category is animals.

There are eight possible answers.

- [Justin] Data is looking good.

Let's go ahead.

- [Steven] You can send the first question.

- [Woman] The answer is yes.

- [Justin] Excellent.

- [Chantel] It doesn't matter if they're in the same room

or on the other side of the world.

We can extract the information from one brain,

transmit it to a device that can encode

information into another brain.

- [Woman] No.

- [Chantel] Ultimately, the goal of this technology

is to improve the human experience.

To offer up the possibility of sharing

the contents of my mind, my emotional state

into somebody else, without words.

- [Ramez] When we can understand someone

without the barrier of different languages,

we could start to blur the boundaries between us.

We could start to see the whole world

as members of our tribe

and have more empathy and compassion for them.

- [Nita] It's always really hard in advance to know

when you're at a turning point in society,

when technology is gonna be so transformative

that everything will change.

And the question is, are we there right now?

Are we about to fundamentally change

what it means to be human?

And if so,

are we okay with that?

- [Woman] Safety test.

- [Dr. Devenyi] Stephen's implant is a brilliant device

that essentially has two components.

A band that's sewn around the eye

with 60 electrodes on it that stimulate the retina.

- [Woman] Glasses on.

- [Dr. Devenyi] And a pair of glasses

with a video camera on it

that sends images wirelessly

to the electrodes on the surface of the eyeball.

- [Woman] Beginning.

- [Devenyi] Those images then travel along

the natural pathway of the optic nerve to the brain.

- [Woman] Electrodes activated.

- [Woman] You have good connection.

We're gonna activate your device.

Light off.

Big light on please.

Respond yes or no as to whether

you're able to perceive something or not

using the game controller.

- [Stephen] Okay.

- [Woman] So we wanna see how much stimulation

each of your electrodes needs.

- [Stephen] Right.

- [Woman] Sending stimulation.

[beeping]

- [Stephen] I see something flashing.

- [Woman] Got it, okay.

[beeping]

- [Stephen] Another flash.

- [Woman] Okay.

Does it seem any brighter?

- [Stephen] Too bright.

- [Woman] Reset.

- [Woman] Okay then I'm just gonna tweak

some settings a little bit.

Go ahead and respond to this last electrode.

- [Stephen] Oh.

Very faintly, I can see a bit of the hand, yeah.

- [Woman] That's good.

[somber music]

Go ahead and scan and see

what you are able to perceive.

- You know, to the left, to the right.

There's nothing there.

Yeah I'm not picking up anything.

- [Woman] Doing some adjustments right now.

- Setting stimulation.

[pensive music]

- [Stephen] Oh!

I see something there.

- [Woman] Okay.

- I see, I mean, I've got the silhouette right there.

- [Woman] Okay.

- [Woman] Trigger.

- [Woman] Continue responding.

- [Stephen] I see you.

Am I right?

- It's been a long time, Stephen.

- Denise?

- [Denise] Yes.

You're looking right at me.

- Sorry.

- [Woman] That's huge, Stephen.

- [Stephen] It's a nice feeling.

- That's great.

- [Woman] Read that.

- Okay.

I see something there.

- [Denise] I think he'll get out more, he'll do more,

he'll meet people.

- Okay I see her right in front of me.

- [Denise] It'll open up a whole new world.

- [Stephen] It's her.

- [Woman] Exactly.

- [Stephen] My, Denise, how you've grown.

[chuckling]

[light electronic music]

- [Dr. Devenyi] The hope is our patients see edges of objects,

empty seats on subways, the outlines of people.

Even fireworks.

But as the technology's been improving,

they see more and more.

There's no limit to how much you could

crank up the magnification

and what sort of details we could potentially see.

- [Ramez] Right now, the prosthetic eyes that we have

are not anywhere near as good as human eyes,

but eventually they'll be better.

And why couldn't we add infrared vision to them,

or UV vision to them?

- [Man] So one of the latest experiments

that we've been working on is

using an infrared camera instead of the regular camera

so patients could actually see in the dark.

- [David] Our technology right now is about helping people

with diseases or deficits of some sort

but it's this exact same technology

that will allow us to expand ourselves.

Expand our reality, expand our senses,

expand what we can do with our bodies.

- [Dr. Munoz] The left side.

About 130 hertz, 60 microseconds.

Let me check your baseline.

So this is...

Relax.

- [Anne] It was an extreme procedure.

I mean they sliced my head open,

they stuck tubes in.

It's not for the faint of heart.

- [Dr. Lozano] Deep Brain Stimulation

is a two part surgical procedure.

The electrodes are implanted in the brain

and then connected to a pacemaker in their chest.

[Dr. Munoz] 3.5 volts.

- [Dr. Lozano] With a remote control, we are able to adjust

how much current is delivered to the brain.

Almost no rigidity.

Very much like you would control the volume

or change the channels on your television set.

[Dr. Munoz] I will build up the voltage by .5 volts every step.

In between steps I will check your rigidity.

And the symptoms.

[beeping]

Did you feel anything?

- Not yet, no.

[Dr. Munoz] - So I'll go a little higher.

1.5 here and here 1.5.

3.5 volts, 80%.

- Well this, whoa,

my toes are really pulling on my left foot.

They're going way up like that.

- [Dr. Munoz] It's a good sign.

- I feel my left side. - Left side?

- Yeah, tingling on the bottom of my feet.

- [Dr. Lozano] By using electrical stimulation,

not only can we suppress the symptoms

but we're able to discover new areas

and new functions of the brain

where no man has ever gone before.

- Ugh, my tongue is getting bigger and bigger.

Feels like, uh, down my throat.

- [Dr. Munoz] Tell me when it gets better.

- [Dr. Lozano] We're also realizing that this technique

could be used to treat other disorders

like Alzheimer's Disease, like depression,

maybe even obesity.

- Oh my goodness, I can't describe it.

- Is it better now?

Improving?

- It's improving. - Yeah.

Okay, all right.

[Dr. Munoz] Let's just walk to that corner back and forth.

Very good.

Let's see, so we'll pick contact three.

- [Dr. Lozano] I am convinced that in the future,

I don't know if it'll be 10, 20, 30 years from now,

if you said I really would like to be smarter,

to be happier, I'd like to have more drive, more ambition.

There's no reason why, at least in theory,

you couldn't go to these areas and adjust the activity.

- [Doctor] For emergencies, you need to turn it off,

this shuts it off.

- [Anne] Okay.

- [Ramez] Imagine you have a set of dials

and you can say, "Oh, I want to be more extroverted,

more empathetic and harder working."

Imagine you could just do that on-demand

by pushing a button.

- [Doctor] Just like that.

- [Dr. Devenyi] It's very interesting to contemplate

where will technology take us.

And as humans will it be able to make us

better than we currently are?

- [Woman's Voice] Welcome, class.

Today's lecture is about neuroethics.

We are on the cusp of being able to truly unlock

the secrets of the human brain.

[Nita] But more than that,

more than being able to understand

what's happening in the brain,

now we're able to make a lot of very precise changes to it.

How many of you feel like your sense of self

is in your brain?

Many of you, right?

Many of you identify your brain as the place

that you recognize your sense of self identity.

The place that you sort of think of you as being located.

And if you change that,

if you start to add machines to it,

if you start to implant electrodes to it

at what point does that start to become problematic?

There is great benefit to these technologies,

but there are risks.

For example who has access to those devices?

Who gets to drive and change those devices?

Whether it's hackers, corporations,

governments, other people,

what protections if any exist within society today?

It's arriving.

And unless we start deciding today

what kinds of protections you want for your brain,

it may be too late.

Does that make you uncomfortable?

Because that's where we're going.

[crowd applauding]

- [Zuckerberg] The work that we're doing in

direct brain interfaces

that are gonna eventually one day

let you communicate using only your mind.

- [Ramez] In just the last few years, there's been

this sudden rush to fund more aggressive,

more radical work in interfacing to the brain.

- [Newscaster] Elon Musk is creating a big stir

on social media this morning.

- [Newscaster] Elon Musk has launched Neuralink.

- They will aim to connect the human brain with computers.

- [Elon Musk] That will enable anyone who wants

to have super human cognition.

- [Joe Rogan] But billions of people

with enhanced cognitive ability?

Radically enhanced? - [Elon] Yes, yes.

- [Joe] Pass that whiskey.

This is getting ridiculous.

- [Ramez] What's happening in the brain is unprecedented.

It's moving faster now than ever before.

- [Regina] Together we have a goal of typing,

five times faster

than you can type on your phone,

straight from your brain.

And we're just getting started.

- [Bobby] If you understand the brain,

you get a tremendous amount of power to leverage.

- [Anderson Cooper] Some programmers call it brain hacking

and the tech world would probably prefer

you didn't hear about it.

- [Tristan] We can't underestimate the incredible

unchecked power that Google, Apple, Facebook have

over what two billion people are thinking every day.

That's more than the number of followers of Christianity.

These are like private superpowers

whose goals are not the same as our goals.

- [Chris Hardwick] Last week Facebook revealed

that they are working

on technology to read people's minds.

Ah, yeah, we're in [beep]ing hell you guys,

I don't know what to say.

[laughter]

- [Nita] People are far more likely to give up information

about their brain to what they think are,

these faceless corporations

but they're really people who are driving that.

- [Bobby] One of the best algorithms that we have

for mapping the brain comes from Google.

- [Congressman] Google is able to collect

an amount of information about its users

that would even make the NSA blush.

- [Bobby] Do I want my brain data

ultimately owned by Google?

I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that just yet.

- [Eric Schmidt] The Google policy

about a lot of these things

is to get right up to the creepy line but not cross it.

Implanting things in your brain

is beyond the creepy line

at least for the moment.

[laughing]

- [Tristan] Whether we're just using phones

or we have brain implants,

history is littered with good intentions.

Who's to say where we should go?

Who's to say what's best for people?

- [Anchor] Is it going to be chancing corporations,

is it going to be panicking governments,

an ill informed public, over this thing?

Somebody's got to keep close watch on this.

Who's going to do that?

- [Woman] The risk is we don't know what the future holds.

Should we even attempt to introduce technology

like this on a mass large scale?

- [Bryan] That's right.

These are tricky questions

that have all kind of implications.

The technology is transitioning from the medical domain

into the mainstream.

And as it does, the opportunities and challenges

that this creates for us, we can't even begin

to get our heads around.

I'm very concerned about who makes

breakthroughs in neuroscience.

In the behaviors of people who've built

the technology companies over the past decade,

their decision making processes matter a lot

and they influence society dramatically.

- [Man] I think everybody that started social media

had the best intention

and I don't think anybody foresaw

the levels of depression and anxiety and addiction

that it's caused.

- [Man 2] Most of us use social networks.

Our opinions are being manipulated in

ways that we don't even understand.

- [Man] How do we try to mitigate for all

of the potential things that could go wrong on a mass scale

that we can't even predict?

- [Bryan] As a society it's important we be ready for this.

So I'm trying to figure out how to talk about these topics

in a way that doesn't threaten people,

that enables them to explore them with me.

We are about to enter into the most consequential

revolution in the history of the human race.

Where we can take control of our cognitive evolution.

It's a very big challenge

because people are considering what they're going to lose.

Who's going to do bad things?

But I think one of the greatest limiters

to progress is fear.

Imagine if I had a tool to interface with my brain,

where I could walk a mile in someone else's shoes.

What if I could feel what it was like to be you?

What if I could understand your contextual framework?

What if I understood your memories and your emotions?

Would that change the way we deal with each other?

The way we cooperate, the way we make decisions?

Would that change our creative ability?

It's gonna be on our front doorsteps in 15-20 years

on a scale we've never seen before.

So how might we be thoughtful

in building these technologies?

The impact is going to be substantial.

And to acknowledge that that is the case,

and reconcile what that means

will allow us to have productive conversations

of how we might explore this, develop this, deal with this.

Thank you.

The reality is it's up to us.

The key to our continued thriving,

the key to everything we want

is to open up

and consider this new set of possibilities

that we've never considered before.

[birds chirping]

- [Anne] Before the operation,

I went in hoping everything would be fine.

That I would be a new person.

But I was forced to accept the unknown

and open myself up to something

a little bit different.

I can't really explain it.

But when I try to see what it would be like

if I didn't have the device on.

[somber music]

I wait a few seconds and all the symptoms

of Parkinson's are back.

My toes are all curling under and I'm starting to sway.

I get stiff.

And I can't walk.

My tongue gets even thicker.

And it feels like I can't speak at all.

And then when the device is turned on again,

my movements become more fluid.

It's as if this machine is motivating me

to get it right.

[light music]

It's been almost a year since the surgery.

I used to come down here and stare

at my boxes of paper and wonder

how in the world I was gonna make something.

But now it's as if my motivation and creative ability

has just clicked in.

There's a connection that my brain is making to my hands

that it never made before,

and anything I want to do, I can do.

Hi, Tootsie!

We had our first grandchild about three months ago.

- [Man] Let's go Mr. Jellybean.

- [Woman] The neurostimulator's stopping you

from shaking your legs so now you can't jostle him.

[laughing]

- [Stan] Her anxiety, which was horrible, has disappeared.

Now we can go to the city, take in a concert,

take in a play.

- [Anne] It all comes together the same way it used to.

- [Stan] Anne and I started taking dance lessons together.

- [Woman] Oh, you did?

- [Stan and Anne] Yep.

- [Stan] The procedure didn't stop

the disease from progressing.

But we bought a lot of time.

- [Anne] I get teary because

you can see just

that the things you did were worth doing.

It's an amazing feeling

that I can trust,

I don't know how to even say this.

but I can trust my brain to work better now.

[pensive music]

- [Stephen] When I lost my vision,

the hardest part was trying to figure out

how to ask for help.

Fortunately, I had my sister.

- [Denise] Right by Roy Thomson Hall again.

- [Stephen] Okay.

- [Denise] We're walking into the sunset.

- [Stephen] Why don't we go in there

and get tickets to do something?

At least it'll be warm.

- I'm hoping that over time I'll see

outline of objects.

Tables and doors.

And when I'm crossing the street,

I can distinguish,

oh ok this is a car and it's coming right for me,

[chuckling] get out of the way.

I had to learn to retrain my mind

and have a new perspective of my future.

- [Denise] I think his independence will come back.

He's definitely got the motivation and the drive.

I'm very excited for him.

[pensive music]

- [Bill] Before my accident,

I didn't really think about medical research.

- [Bill's Friend] You the star.

- [Bill] I was just a pee-on too.

- [Bill's Friend] You was a pee-on?

[Bill] Yeah, I was nobody.

[Bill's Friend] You were nobody.

[Bill] But now I'm somebody.

[Bill's Friend] But now you're somebody.

[Bill] But somebody has to do research

or no breakthroughs are gonna happen.

And even if I don't get any benefit out of this,

eventually somebody's gonna benefit from what I'm doing

and that makes me feel special.

- [Man] Right, Bill, you ready?

This time it'll be you with no assistance.

So it'll just be all you here.

- [Bill] I'm ready.

- [Man] All right, here we go.

[beeping] - [Computer] Open.

[beeping] Open.

[beeping] Open.

- [Man] Try it again.

See if you can open your hand.

- [Bolu] Bill, focus.

- [Computer] Out.

- [Man] Just checking triceps.

- [Computer] Up.

[beeping] Close.

- [Man] Close your hand.

Reach in.

[uplifting music]

[beeping] - [Computer] Down.

[beeping]

[beeping] Out.

- [Man] Biceps.

Just checking.

[beeping]

[beeping] - [Computer] In.

- [Bolu] It's amazing.

[beeping] - [Computer] Out.

- [Man] Ready for some mashed potatoes?

- [Bill] Yes I am.

Like most people, you know,

I thought quadriplegics all were, you know

stuck in bed, they didn't do anything, didn't move around.

- [Man] Bring your arm down.

- [Bolu] He seems to have a very strong elbow movements.

- [Bill] But now....

- [Man] Raise up again.

- [Bill] I'm learning

that's not really true.

Mashed Potatoes. [chuckling]

I love it.

To be able to eat something with a fork.

It's wonderful.

- [Bolu] Good, good good.

This is groundbreaking work.

Bill Kochevar, is the first person to our knowledge

to use an implanted brain computer interface

to control both reaching and grasping

just by thinking.

- [Man] Mashed potatoes now, steak next?

[laughing]

- [Bolu] He is a pioneer.

[laughing]

- [Man] You ready?

- [Bill] Yes I am!

- [Bolu] Bill is always asking us what is the next step.

My hope is that it will eventually become available

outside of a laboratory setting,

invisible to the outside user,

and give persons with spinal cord injury

the ability to perform tasks on their own,

to increase their independence,

to increase their quality of life.

I believe that we can harness the power of the brain

and harness the power of computers

to overcome some of the most critical limitations we face.

- [Bryan] We are walking down this path

of merging with our technology.

The insights we make with the brain

will invite all of us to ask questions of ourselves

that challenge our deepest held beliefs

on identity and purpose.

So what does it mean to be human?

To me, it means we can become anything we want.

- [Bill] Sleep.

- [Computer] Sleep.

[deep pensive music]

[light music]