|
Elon
Musk’s announcement of the first human implant of a wireless
brain chip by his neurotech company, Neuralink, has got people
dreaming of a world they can control with their minds alone.
But for lots of reasons, research carried out at the
University of Texas’s HuthLab is potentially a bigger
deal.
Combining
the latest brain imaging technology with artificial
intelligence, these brainy neuroscientists have translated the
thoughts of people unable to communicate with the outside
world into continuous natural language – without needing to
implant anything. This is the closest we’ve yet come to
reading someone’s mind.
Our
latest Insights long read tells
the story of how we got to this point, from the dodgy days
of phrenology, via patients Tan and Walter K. And our authors
explore what a brain-controlled future might really look like,
not just for locked-in patients but for all of us (hint: it’s
not all good news).
Senegal
was once considered West Africa’s most stable democracy. Since
independence from France, it has had three peaceful elections
in which power went from the ruling party to the opposition.
But all of that now appears to be threatened. President Macky
Sall has postponed presidential elections that were due to
take place later this month. Douglas Yates points
out that none of Sall’s predecessors were able to stay in
power beyond the constitutional limit – though they
tried. | 
