this post was submitted on 25 May 2024
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[–] [email protected] 52 points 5 months ago (1 children)

"We managed to not kill the first subject, but we're hopeful to succeed in the future"...

[–] [email protected] -4 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Not killing patients is a success.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

A success does not include leaving a victim of failed experimental medicine with a non-functional implant. In contrast to how animal subjects are used as test subjects (often conducted with less oversight than there should be), using experimental medicine on volunteering patients should be done not just to collect better data than the chimps before them supplied, but with the genuine expectation that the product in question will benefit the patient beyond their usefulness as a test subject for continued product development.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Through software updates, they were able to alleviate the problem. They are a bit vague in the article but it's not a total loss and more than he had before the operation.

Tbh though, the real test is how his brain accommodates it over the years and if it starts getting complicated later.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

Also, this was the very first test implant into a human. At this point in testing "doesn't harm the patient" is a perfectly good result to call a success.

Honestly, people calling Neuralink a failure because the first patient didn't get up and start dancing are just showing themselves to be either ignorant of the process or ridiculously biased.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I've seen how they run their rocketry business. Success isn't always their goal.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

SpaceX has a 64% market share in the global commercial rocket launch market for sending satellites, scientific instruments, and other payloads into orbit. In the first six months of 2023, SpaceX handled 21 flights for outside customers, or 64% of the worldwide total. In the first half of 2023, SpaceX handled 88 percent of customer flights from U.S. launch sites.[1]

If success isn't their goal I'd be amazed at what they accomplished if the decided to try for it someday.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That's not analogous to the situation with the brain chips. We're in the testing phases, and the testing phases for SpaceX rockets involves so many unplanned explosions that they've been in multiple investigations.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You were the one who made the comparison.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago

Yes and it stands. I'm still comparing SpaceX to Neuralink in terms of unethical rushed testing and development, and it still stands. What I'm not referring to is the products that SpaceX ships, YOU were the one who brought that up.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The Falcon 9 is the safest rocket ever built, source.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Falcon 9 is unmanned, and the Soyuz still has better stats according to your own source.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Falcon 9 is definitely manned.

The capsule Crew dragon, developed by Spacex for NASA, that flies on the Falcon 9 is the currently the only human rated orbital spacecraft in the US

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

My apologies, looks like the first manned flight was on 16 November 2020 after about 9 years of delays. Weather forced them to abandon their goal of reaching the ISS.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago

I don't know where you found this number, the commercial crew contract was awarded by NASA in September 2014 to SpaceX and Boeing (Boeing getting twice the amount of money than SpaceX). It was expected that two crew capsule would be certified by NASA in 2017.

SpaceX only certified the capsule Crew Dragon with a crewed launch in 2020, so 3 years delay. In the mean time NASA is still waiting for Boeing to do its first crewed Starliner launch.

There is plenty of reason to hate Musk but people at SpaceX did accomplish great things.

Without SpaceX NASA would still be relying on Soyuz to send astronauts to the ISS.