Hello, SFIA audio listeners. In this month's Nebula exclusive, big alien theory,

we're asking the reason alien civilizations might be rare is because most aliens are huge.

To hear it and every episode early and ad-free, plus hours of bonus content, check out

go.nebola.tv slash Isaac Arthur and use my code, Isaac Arthur. This episode is sponsored by Brilliant.

The capacity to link our minds directly to machines offers us the possibility of rapidly

processing data and controlling those machines, but such a control interface might be a two-way

street.

So today we'll be looking at mind-machine interfaces, often called MMIs, ways to link our brains

more directly to a machine, emphasis on more directly because we already have mind machine interfaces

and that's a point that will be important for this topic.

To some degree, we are going to be talking about how we can jam wires into your skull,

what we call invasive MMI, and why that might be a good thing, but we also want to look

at non-invasive methods, and those we already have and can extend on. You've probably

heard of mind machine interfaces before, though possibly by other names, brain machine interface,

brain computer interface, neural control interface, and many others, including Neurrelink, Elon Musk's

new company that's gotten a lot of attention and press for attempting

to develop an MMI, and we'll discuss some of the methods they're using and challenges they'll

need to overcome. What we want to do today is look at those methods and challenges, along

with the potential advantages each might offer in both the near term and far ahead as the technology

improves, as well as some of the dangers involved. Make no mistake though, this is near-term

technology, not the distant future or stuff just for a lab. I'd be surprised if we didn't

start seeing some mainstream commercial applications in the

...