Based Camp - An Insider's Take on Brain-Computer Interface (BCI)

00:00:00.000 And I was like, oh, brain-computer interface, that's the next big thing.

00:00:04.260 And I really invested my early career in brain-computer interface.

00:00:07.060 It's what I did my thesis on in college.

00:00:09.700 It's what my first job was.

00:00:11.420 It's, you know, I did a lot of stuff in the space.

00:00:13.360 People think you'll have this, like, super fast communication system that communicates

00:00:18.300 with your brain as easily as your brain can think.

00:00:21.780 And that is just not what you're going to get.

00:00:24.140 They are imagining, like, a computer feeding them facts in a way where they are aware that

00:00:28.400 the computer is feeding them facts, and they are asking for those facts.

00:00:31.360 That is not what's happening.

00:00:33.080 A computer is overriding your consciousness because your brain can't tell the difference

00:00:37.220 between what's coming from the computer and what's coming from, you know.

00:00:40.560 That's what's actually happening.

00:00:42.520 And you're not getting that much benefit from it when compared with just checking the internet

00:00:46.860 or something.

00:00:48.060 Would you like to know more?

00:00:49.620 Hello, Malcolm.

00:00:51.340 Hello, Simone. 0.69

00:00:52.340 I am excited for this topic because it involves my old job and my actual specialization.

00:00:59.960 So when I was younger and I was trying to chart out what would be the big technology, the future

00:01:05.180 that I should try to get on top of before everyone else, you know, I saw it like, okay, imagine

00:01:09.800 I saw computers coming down the pipeline and I want to become a computer scientist before

00:01:14.760 anyone's into computers.

00:01:16.080 That was how I saw the way I planned for my career, which seems like a very Malcolm thing 0.93

00:01:19.640 to do.

00:01:20.040 And I was like, oh, brain, computer, and interface.

00:01:22.540 That's the next big thing.

00:01:24.400 And I made a big mistake by over-investing my early career in this, but I really invested

00:01:28.620 my early career in brain, computer, and interface.

00:01:30.260 It's what I did my thesis on in college.

00:01:32.920 It's what my first job was.

00:01:34.600 It's, you know, I did a lot of stuff in the space.

00:01:36.560 I actually, I worked as the R&D marketing lead of the first commercially successful brain,

00:01:42.600 computer, and interface company, which was called Neurosky, which created these little

00:01:46.320 headsets.

00:01:46.720 So Nekamimi was one of our big projects, which was like a little headset and it would

00:01:49.860 control like cat ears on your head.

00:01:52.000 And then another, like a lot of people used it for various things that like went memetically

00:01:56.680 viral.

00:01:57.680 And essentially what it was, was a really, really simplistic EEG system that was using

00:02:03.400 capacitive sensors.

00:02:04.980 So EEG stands for an electrocephalograph.

00:02:07.800 It was really simple.

00:02:09.580 The things that was reading in your brain, just think of it like it's, it's, it's an

00:02:15.020 ear listening to the room of a party, trying to catch the general vibe of what's going

00:02:21.800 on.

00:02:22.280 Is this a fun party or a funeral?

00:02:24.600 Is this a, you know, but you can't really determine much more than that.

00:02:27.460 And the other thing is, is that whenever the sensor moved around, and so this is a big

00:02:30.780 problem with any of these sensors that are like actually wearable.

00:02:33.400 It would make a ton of noise.

00:02:37.140 So the electricity, like the static electricity that's generated by like your hair moving

00:02:43.140 or like a sensor moving just a little bit is so much louder than anything generated by

00:02:48.480 your brain.

00:02:49.160 But even louder than that, but just, if you, the, the electricity generated by muscles.

00:02:54.440 So if I like blink my eyes, that's like an explosion going off.

00:02:59.560 Oh, so this is an incredibly noisy system.

00:03:01.220 Like it's basically, you're saying it's picking up not just the sound of the party, but also

00:03:05.260 a bunch of instruction outside and a football game that's playing in the background and all

00:03:08.980 the commercials.

00:03:09.920 And what I'm saying is it's imprecise.

00:03:11.820 It's actually doing what it says it's doing, but it is wildly imprecise.

00:03:16.900 But another thing to note here is it's functioning in a way that your brain is not really meant

00:03:21.360 to function.

00:03:22.760 So when you're communicating with an EEG using your brain, you are communicating with that

00:03:28.440 EEG in a way that's, I mean, that's just not the way your brain evolved to communicate

00:03:32.880 with things, right?

00:03:33.860 You're, you're, you're causing tons of neurons to fire at once in a way they weren't really

00:03:38.720 meant to fire at once.

00:03:40.040 And we don't know the effects of this really not long-term.

00:03:44.040 And, and that's a potential problem because, you know, fire together, wire together.

00:03:47.480 I, okay.

00:03:48.180 People might not know what I'm talking about.

00:03:49.220 So the way that your brain forms connections is when neurons fire at around the same time

00:03:56.160 or around the same region of the brain, they begin to wire together.

00:03:59.700 That's how like I do this.

00:04:01.380 The fundamentals of how the brain works.

00:04:03.420 It's way more complicated than that, but that's a broad scope of it.

00:04:06.960 Okay.

00:04:07.320 Right.

00:04:08.440 For reasons that the, like you're using your prefrontal cortex, which is like not at all

00:04:15.680 meant for external communication and firing it all at the same time.

00:04:20.480 I don't know.

00:04:20.920 I would, I don't want to say anything on record, but I'd say it's probably not the best, but

00:04:25.580 this actually becomes really interesting when you're then talking about the existing brain

00:04:31.160 computer interface systems, because a lot of people, they look at brain computer interface

00:04:34.980 technology and they think, oh, this is going to be like really, really, really transformative

00:04:40.920 in the way that we engage with technology.

00:04:43.660 And it might not be, and a lot of the systems we're using now might not be the systems that

00:04:50.680 end up becoming popular.

00:04:52.200 They might be like those, you know, I don't know people from our generations.

00:04:56.260 We had VR in our generations, but it was like ridiculous big machines that you would

00:05:01.120 go to at like Epcot or like at special centers.

00:05:03.660 And they don't function at all the way our existing VR works.

00:05:06.520 Or we had, you know, 3d movies, but you would wear like colored glasses.

00:05:10.200 It was functioning in an entirely different way than the current movies.

00:05:12.980 So I'll get into more what I mean with this, when I talk about the current field of brain

00:05:18.100 computer interface.

00:05:18.640 So first let's talk about why the field stalled.

00:05:21.320 So I was wrong.

00:05:22.580 I made a bad gamble at the beginning of my career.

00:05:24.980 It didn't take off.

00:05:26.040 And that's why I left the field.

00:05:27.400 And instead of doing a PhD, got a business degree instead and went into boring stuff and

00:05:32.460 philosophy and stuff like that.

00:05:33.520 Right.

00:05:33.700 Like writing books on section.

00:05:35.320 I mean, I've always stayed interested in neuroscience, but I realized pretty quickly that it was a

00:05:39.280 bad bet for the rest of my career because the field was moving slowly.

00:05:42.860 Why was the field moving slowly?

00:05:44.580 It was moving slowly due to astrocytic scar formation.

00:05:48.580 So an individual's immune system does not go into our brains because of the blood brain

00:05:54.400 barrier.

00:05:54.880 A lot of people know that, right?

00:05:56.160 They're like, oh yeah, so blood brain barrier protects the brain from bacteria and viruses.

00:05:59.940 This is why if you get like a bacteria or virus in your brain, it's really bad.

00:06:02.440 That doesn't mean your brain doesn't have cells to deal with that.

00:06:06.680 They're just modified neurons called glial cells.

00:06:10.700 And glial cells can have all sorts of support functions in your brain.

00:06:13.620 But one is something very similar to white blood cells where they like surround intruders

00:06:17.780 or build scar tissue or something like that.

00:06:20.120 It's very interesting.

00:06:21.600 Like our brains basically evolved like all of the support cells that the rest of the body

00:06:27.260 has, but they're modified neurons.

00:06:29.780 It's like independently evolved them.

00:06:32.700 Very interesting.

00:06:33.720 Anyway, back to glial cells.

00:06:35.860 So astrocytic scar formation is a type of scar formation that's created by glial cells,

00:06:41.260 astrocytes, when you insert something into the brain.

00:06:44.120 It's when there's a forward body in the brain, right?

00:06:47.060 And so these early neural interfaces, they'd go into the brain and it would incite an immune

00:06:53.040 response and astrocytic scar tissue would begin to build around the, you know, inserted

00:06:59.080 probe, right?

00:07:00.740 And this probe would become less and less good at what it was doing over time.

00:07:05.560 And therefore it would need to become louder and louder to communicate with the brain.

00:07:09.380 And the brain would have to become louder and louder to communicate with it, which of

00:07:12.160 course caused more and more astrocytic scar formation.

00:07:14.480 Yeah.

00:07:15.000 The way you would prevent this is with immunosuppressants.

00:07:18.180 Now, this is not something that you can do long-term, like how long it works in a human

00:07:22.820 is variable.

00:07:24.060 And we were in a chimpanzee where a lot of these studies were done is variable.

00:07:27.940 And do you really want to do that for some sort of recreational implant, right?

00:07:31.740 No, you don't.

00:07:32.460 You don't want to be taking immunosuppressants.

00:07:35.340 I don't know if I need to say that's a terrible idea to be on long-term immunosuppressants for

00:07:40.340 a recreational or productivity enhancing product.

00:07:43.420 Unless you want to be like a bubble boy.

00:07:45.060 Yeah, yeah. 0.99

00:07:46.080 So a lot of people will get these because look, people get dumb, you know, surgeries 0.73

00:07:51.160 for little like aesthetic things. 0.93

00:07:52.940 Of course they'll get surgeries for this, but they're not thinking about the cost.

00:07:56.000 Anyway, so all that's the case.

00:07:59.380 Now, the field has moved on from there.

00:08:01.720 If you look at what Neuralink is doing, they have found a way around the astrocytic scar

00:08:05.760 formation problem.

00:08:06.640 And so I was pointing out that I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about it, but they have

00:08:10.300 a way around it.

00:08:10.900 It's not a problem for them.

00:08:11.600 However, I have always thought that even if you were able to build this into a person's

00:08:17.420 brain, you are likely to not get all of the benefits that people think you're going to

00:08:22.920 get.

00:08:23.540 And the core reason is people think you'll have this like super fast communication system

00:08:28.780 that communicates with your brain as easily as your brain can think.

00:08:33.460 And that is just not what you're going to get.

00:08:35.980 So if you think of like transformer model, we've talked a lot about AIs and stuff like

00:08:40.360 that, imagine trying to communicate with an AI at random parts of the code instead of

00:08:46.380 the input output part of the code.

00:08:48.280 That's not going to work very well.

00:08:50.740 Your brain did not evolve to communicate using random parts of your brain.

00:08:55.040 It evolved to condense the information and send it out through very specific pathways.

00:09:01.900 Okay.

00:09:02.480 And these pathways are where your central nervous system is meeting your peripheral nervous

00:09:06.500 system, which means that you might actually be slower at communicating with your central

00:09:13.260 nervous system than your peripheral nervous system.

00:09:15.520 And you almost certainly won't be faster at communicating if you're plugging directly

00:09:20.280 into your central nervous system.

00:09:21.620 You may be able to passively, like a machine might be able to passively get ideas from a

00:09:25.300 person.

00:09:25.640 So this is what we've seen in some studies.

00:09:27.420 We're like fMRI data.

00:09:29.240 And this means that you can probably do this with an invasive system as well.

00:09:31.560 fMRI, by the way, probably the most brilliant machine ever invented.

00:09:35.240 So what it does is it like puts this strong magnetic field into your body.

00:09:40.140 And that means because all of your blood cells have iron in them and they're all magnetic

00:09:45.440 to an extent.

00:09:46.240 And when you put this magnetic field, they all align, right?

00:09:48.780 They're all facing the same direction because they're facing the same direction as a magnetic

00:09:51.680 field.

00:09:52.140 And then the magnetic field turns off.

00:09:54.160 And this is when you're in an ephemeral area, boom, boom, boom.

00:09:57.200 That's this magnetic field turning on and off.

00:09:59.040 And every time it turns off, they go back to their original positions, right?

00:10:02.980 Think of it like an elastic thing.

00:10:04.240 Like they've been forced into one position, but they're really naturally at another position.

00:10:07.260 When they do that, it releases a form of energy, which you can measure with the fMRI machine,

00:10:12.340 which allows us to see where blood is in a human.

00:10:15.180 And with more advanced MRIs, we can even tell where oxygenated versus deoxygenated blood

00:10:21.160 is.

00:10:21.660 So with the original fMRIs, you could tell where brain activity was happening because blood

00:10:26.120 would be sent to that area after a thought had happened because you would just use oxygen

00:10:30.060 in that blood and you needed to compensate for that.

00:10:31.860 But the modern fMRI machines, fMRI meaning functional magnetic resonance imaging, is doing

00:10:37.000 it real time.

00:10:37.920 MRIs are doing it like a picture. 1.00

00:10:39.320 Anyway, we can actually see the brain beginning to take the oxygen out, you know, as it's using

00:10:44.280 it to replenish the electromagnetic potential of action potentials in your brain.

00:10:50.220 I'm not going to get into that right now.

00:10:51.740 You don't need to know that.

00:10:52.560 But what you do need to know is that there isn't a strong reason.

00:10:57.000 So we can quickly tell now you can tell what song a person is thinking about or tell what

00:11:02.480 movie they're watching by combining AIs with the output from these MRI systems and analysis

00:11:09.740 of what's going on in the brain.

00:11:10.880 So you want to be able to tell really quickly what they're thinking as like an AI or using

00:11:15.160 this AI layer, but you're unable to be able to have this like bilateral communication.

00:11:20.840 Biolateral communication will almost always be done better by a peripheral nervous system

00:11:25.980 brain computer interface, which is interesting because those systems have been stable for

00:11:29.680 a really long time.

00:11:31.440 Communicating directly with my peripheral nervous system is actually much easier to do because

00:11:35.300 you're not dealing with that as much.

00:11:36.840 And we've been able to do this with stuff like amputees and their arms and stuff for a

00:11:41.940 while, like direct interfaces.

00:11:43.980 So I don't know the reason why those haven't taken off is because they're just not very

00:11:49.120 good, which again, at like fast communication, which again, leads me to believe we're just

00:11:55.180 not going to get that much of a benefit in terms of communication speed from these systems.

00:12:01.440 Now, there are ways we could be wrong about this.

00:12:04.260 So ECOG, which is like an EEG, EEG is the thing I was talking about that goes on the top

00:12:07.580 of your head, except it goes under your skull and over your dura matter, which means that

00:12:12.620 you're not getting the low pass filter that your skull is acting as.

00:12:15.140 So what's a low pass filter basically means only low frequency waves can get through it.

00:12:20.000 Low frequency waves are very imprecise.

00:12:21.760 And if you're talking about targeting.

00:12:23.520 So anyway, so I'm boring you.

00:12:25.600 What do you want to ask?

00:12:27.540 What does this mean functionally?

00:12:30.460 Like right now I'm reading things like now's the ultimate time to be in neuroscience, AI changes,

00:12:35.280 everything.

00:12:35.680 What do you expect we're going to see in the next 10 to 50 years in terms of what brain

00:12:42.960 computer interface will enable either from, I don't know, computers being able to see what

00:12:47.540 we're thinking to like us using this in therapeutic technologies to us using this for entertainment.

00:12:52.660 Like, where do you think this is going to end up?

00:12:54.480 Are humans going to get chipped?

00:12:55.660 Are we going to be able to just think?

00:12:57.380 And then, okay.

00:12:58.080 So tell me.

00:12:58.740 What do you see?

00:12:59.380 Right.

00:12:59.540 People are just way, so people in the industry.

00:13:02.920 So I'm one of the few people that has no stake in the industry, but actually understands all

00:13:08.060 the technology.

00:13:09.500 And, and so most people in the industry, they need to tell you for their sake of their job

00:13:13.700 that we can do this.

00:13:15.120 Yeah.

00:13:15.340 But I just, I don't think that it's doable and I don't think it'll give us that much of

00:13:19.720 an advantage.

00:13:20.140 And I don't think that we're going in that direction as a species.

00:13:22.760 I think you could genetically modify human brains to be more compatible with these systems.

00:13:28.240 That's interesting.

00:13:28.920 Like there was some great stuff that was done that showed that we could use bioluminescence

00:13:33.700 and actually create neurons that release bioluminescence when they have an action potential,

00:13:38.500 which would allow them to communicate with these systems even better than existing neurons.

00:13:42.760 So you can modify, genetically modify future humans to better integrate with these systems,

00:13:47.920 which is something I guess we could do with our kids if we were going to CRISPR them

00:13:50.960 with like jellyfish DNA.

00:13:52.020 But again, the, the efficiency gains are just, I don't think that high.

00:13:59.920 I think that max, you may be able to communicate with a computer 50% faster than you could type,

00:14:05.720 but not much more than that.

00:14:09.340 And I do think that a computer might be able to get a faster shot of what you're thinking,

00:14:14.440 but you are not going to be able to intentionally communicate with the computer much faster.

00:14:18.720 And this is the big problem.

00:14:19.880 Do you really want your computer to have a better understanding of what you're thinking,

00:14:23.620 like an advanced AI, but not what you want the computer to know you're thinking?

00:14:27.800 Well, so, but isn't this cool?

00:14:29.040 Because couldn't this mean that instead of being tortured, people will just be scammed

00:14:33.240 for information?

00:14:35.820 Yeah, it could be.

00:14:36.300 Well, and another thing to remember, and this is really important,

00:14:38.580 and we talk about this in our You're Probably Not Sentient video,

00:14:41.020 which I'd strongly suggest you watch.

00:14:42.440 It's one of my favorite videos I've ever made.

00:14:44.780 Really high, high, high praise for this video.

00:14:47.300 Is that humans essentially will pretend,

00:14:53.840 their brain is very good at pretending that it consciously came up with any idea,

00:14:58.180 whether or not they consciously came up with it.

00:14:59.980 Right.

00:15:00.120 So you can induce an idea to people by doing these experiments where,

00:15:03.160 you know, you are like, oh, which girl do you find most attractive?

00:15:06.740 And then you're like, oh, you do a little sight of hand.

00:15:09.340 You go, why did you find this girl most attractive?

00:15:10.860 But it wasn't the girl they picked.

00:15:12.260 And like a big portion of them will be like, oh, I found her most attractive

00:15:14.500 for these complicated set of reasons.

00:15:16.520 Or if you look at brain patients, you know,

00:15:18.460 you can talk to one part of their brain without talking to the other.

00:15:20.340 And you can tell one part of their brain by covering one of their eyes,

00:15:23.500 which only communicates with one side.

00:15:25.540 It's as if the corp and callosum has a sever in it.

00:15:28.800 And so you're talking with the other side of their brain and you're saying,

00:15:31.700 you know, pick up a Rubik's cube.

00:15:35.180 So they'll pick it up.

00:15:35.720 And then you ask the other side, but why did you do that?

00:15:37.600 And they're like, oh, I've always wanted to try to solve one of these.

00:15:41.360 They don't know why they did.

00:15:42.000 They're making up.

00:15:42.840 Like their consciousness will take credit for things that we know it didn't do.

00:15:47.800 During open brain surgery, if you stimulate a part of the brain,

00:15:50.300 you can get a person to like raise a hand.

00:15:51.540 And you're like, why do you do that?

00:15:52.400 And they're like, oh, I felt like doing it.

00:15:53.860 They won't say that like they were forced to do it.

00:15:56.360 Well, this means that if you integrated an AI directly with a person's,

00:16:00.320 you know, prefrontal cortex, for example,

00:16:02.520 they are going to believe that everything that the AI is telling them

00:16:06.000 is something that they are thinking.

00:16:07.280 And their brain will just naturally believe that they came up with all these ideas.

00:16:11.640 So if the AI is feeding them ideas, or if the AI is, you know, drawing for them,

00:16:15.900 if you plug the person into like Dolly,

00:16:17.660 they would think that they had created that art.

00:16:19.480 100% believe it.

00:16:21.360 And this is any human, you know, this is just the way our brains function

00:16:24.340 because our brains have to synthesize a lot of pretty distinct,

00:16:27.940 like we are not actually like singular entities.

00:16:30.600 We're actually a bunch of distinct systems in the brains,

00:16:33.240 which are then conflated to be a single entity by this system

00:16:36.260 that essentially has to lie to us to create what we perceive as our consciousness.

00:16:40.620 Again, the sentience video will go into this in a lot more detail.

00:16:43.600 But other questions, Simone?

00:16:46.000 So basically, you just think that nothing interesting is going to happen

00:16:48.700 with brain-computer interface.

00:16:50.580 And something interesting will eventually happen,

00:16:53.140 but it will be at a level of technology that is far above where we are today.

00:16:56.680 And I think that the really interesting work now,

00:16:58.600 the real work that's going to change the future of humanity is the genetics work.

00:17:02.480 Is genetics and AI are the most important?

00:17:04.240 I mean, eventually we're going to need to get brain-computer interface good.

00:17:07.600 So I'm glad that people like Elon are working on it.

00:17:09.540 Why do we need to get it good?

00:17:10.780 Because AI is continuing to develop.

00:17:12.780 And if we can't figure out a way to integrate with AI,

00:17:15.880 to create entities that are both biological and synthetic,

00:17:20.040 then we are almost intrinsically antagonistic towards AI.

00:17:24.300 And we might end up in a future where only the synthetic

00:17:27.080 or only the biological exists.

00:17:28.720 And both of those futures are going to be pretty horrifying if we continue advancing.

00:17:33.580 But I guess the combined future is pretty horrifying to some as well.

00:17:37.280 But it's less horrifying because at least humanity continues to survive

00:17:41.280 or something that looks broadly like a descendant of current humanity survives.

00:17:47.320 In the culture series that I love by Ian Banks,

00:17:53.260 there's this technology called a neural lace,

00:17:56.000 which is what it sounds like.

00:17:58.020 Basically, it's something that starts really, really small.

00:18:00.720 I guess like a piece of aesthetic material that goes into your brain,

00:18:05.640 goes past the blood-brain barrier,

00:18:07.140 and grows into your brain and integrates with it.

00:18:09.740 And then over time, creates a backup of your consciousness

00:18:14.820 because it's just being really possible.

00:18:17.400 Yeah.

00:18:17.700 So like keeping an eye on everything that's possible.

00:18:19.620 I think it's really interesting because Ian Banks wrote about all this stuff

00:18:23.160 like well before the technology was there,

00:18:25.160 well before people had even gotten close to developing technologies like this.

00:18:29.920 And I find it really interesting that that exists.

00:18:33.820 But yeah, once it grows to its full size in this science fiction universe,

00:18:38.260 it's thousands of years in the future.

00:18:40.780 The theoretical future that I like love and want to live in so bad.

00:18:45.000 You know, the thing if you like incinerate a human,

00:18:47.920 like you could hold this really fine like netting, this lace in your hand, 0.70

00:18:52.100 you know, and it's just about the size of a brain.

00:18:55.020 And I think that's a, yeah, that seems doable.

00:18:57.440 But I guess what you're saying is that until we develop technology

00:19:00.640 that can literally grow into a brain and then transmit.

00:19:03.840 Even when we develop that technology,

00:19:05.360 yes, we'll be able to do things like back up the brain,

00:19:07.580 but the core promise that people have right now

00:19:10.140 is seamless integration with the brain

00:19:13.240 in a way that we can consciously control.

00:19:16.000 And that is not possible with near future technology.

00:19:19.180 They are imagining like a computer feeding them facts

00:19:22.020 in a way where they are aware that the computer is feeding them facts

00:19:24.720 and they are asking for those facts.

00:19:26.440 That is not what's happening.

00:19:28.180 A computer is overriding your consciousness

00:19:30.380 because your brain can't tell the difference

00:19:32.320 between what's coming from the computer

00:19:33.600 and what's coming from, you know.

00:19:34.980 Ugh, that's what's actually happening.

00:19:37.640 And you're not getting that much benefit from it

00:19:40.420 when compared with just checking the internet or something.

00:19:42.940 Right, right, yeah.

00:19:44.440 Because your brain evolved to deal with like optic information,

00:19:48.660 auditory information,

00:19:49.700 and you could create a brain that's optimized

00:19:52.120 for this type of interface,

00:19:53.640 but that would likely require genetic manipulation.

00:19:56.120 So what I really hear you saying then

00:19:57.620 is that this is a lot like the flying cars issue

00:20:00.220 where like forever, you know, people were told,

00:20:02.880 were promised, they like to say,

00:20:05.080 that they would have flying cars

00:20:06.660 and it would be so amazing and so cool, blah, blah, blah.

00:20:10.380 And that we actually can make flying cars.

00:20:13.300 There is a flying car company out there,

00:20:15.020 but just like from a practicality standpoint,

00:20:18.080 like flying cars aren't terribly energy efficient.

00:20:21.380 We don't exactly have infrastructure

00:20:22.660 that accommodates their landing and takeoff.

00:20:25.200 You know, just they'd be really expensive.

00:20:26.980 So, okay, no one has flying cars

00:20:28.740 because there's just no reason for that.

00:20:31.340 They're not that good.

00:20:32.160 They're not that affordable.

00:20:33.320 There's no reason to have flying cars

00:20:34.560 when we already have good enough technology

00:20:36.340 that does everything else.

00:20:37.440 We basically, we have Uber instead.

00:20:38.920 Like we got Uber instead of flying cars.

00:20:40.740 So you're saying that this is roughly the same,

00:20:42.640 but I mean, theoretically we could do it,

00:20:44.740 but it's actual utility

00:20:46.480 given what we're going to be able to achieve

00:20:49.580 and given the cost is going to be pretty limited, right?

00:20:53.740 And it's just going to be another flying car.

00:20:54.980 Eventually it'll be an important part

00:20:56.900 of where our species goes.

00:20:58.260 Crucial part.

00:20:59.040 It's just not one of the technologies

00:21:00.520 to be watching right now.

00:21:02.180 And I really like,

00:21:04.320 eventually humans will primarily travel in flying vehicles.

00:21:08.760 I absolutely believe that to be the case

00:21:10.960 when we are like an interstellar species, right?

00:21:13.580 And when human cities may look different

00:21:15.280 and stuff like that, right?

00:21:16.100 Yeah.

00:21:16.380 But there's no reason for us to do it

00:21:18.580 with current levels of technology.

00:21:20.500 And yeah, I really appreciate how smart you are

00:21:23.040 and how good you are at communicating this stuff.

00:21:24.980 I'm not the one who just explained in great detail

00:21:27.800 the problems of neuroscience.

00:21:30.360 So let's put that back to you.

00:21:32.500 And I just-

00:21:33.200 No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

00:21:34.720 I'm sure you could explain something to me.

00:21:36.900 What did you get your degree in?

00:21:39.600 Business and technology policy.

00:21:42.660 That, you know, it's not that-

00:21:44.720 Why did I allow that?

00:21:46.840 I'm joking.

00:21:47.560 You know, I harass her at undergrad in business. 0.95

00:21:56.300 I'm like, that is not a big brain thing to do.

00:21:59.540 That was my point of shame.

00:22:01.140 Yeah, but I think that you also-

00:22:02.380 Hey, but I screwed up too.

00:22:03.380 I got a pointless degree, but it makes me look smart.

00:22:06.000 It helps with this sort of narrative

00:22:07.220 of Malcolm's a smart guy, even if he doesn't-

00:22:09.220 Yeah, you had told me that, like,

00:22:11.640 what are the-

00:22:12.920 List the top degrees that are often taken

00:22:15.320 by, like, high-class students at universities.

00:22:19.520 When it was, like, philosophy and neuroscience.

00:22:22.660 No, it is true.

00:22:24.000 Students from, yeah, the higher socioeconomic backgrounds,

00:22:27.440 they disproportionately take this job.

00:22:28.580 That you noticed that at university,

00:22:30.100 that, like, of the students that were getting those degrees,

00:22:33.140 like, a lot of-

00:22:33.700 Well, because they're seen as high-status degrees

00:22:36.200 was in certain groups.

00:22:37.860 It wasn't philosophy.

00:22:38.560 It was actually, specifically,

00:22:40.620 you would get a degree in classics.

00:22:42.660 Oh, of course.

00:22:42.940 That was one that drew a lot, right?

00:22:44.720 Which was almost a flex because of how pointless it was.

00:22:47.780 Yeah.

00:22:48.240 Or art history, which was also a flex

00:22:49.940 because of how pointless it was.

00:22:51.400 Yeah.

00:22:51.820 Or if they went into the biological fields,

00:22:54.760 it was typically neuroscience or genetics.

00:22:56.820 And that was, like, a flex

00:22:58.100 because of how technically difficult it was.

00:23:00.240 Oh, but genetics is what we'd actually be thrilled

00:23:02.560 that our kids got into, for sure.

00:23:04.720 Yeah.

00:23:06.320 So-

00:23:06.760 Well, I love you, Simone.

00:23:08.080 So let's make these kids high-status individuals.

00:23:12.640 Yeah, yeah.

00:23:13.960 Well, status in the future is going to be super interesting.

00:23:16.420 So-

00:23:16.680 Well, this is also an interesting thing

00:23:17.900 about neuroscience degrees.

00:23:19.240 And this is something I noticed in my department,

00:23:21.000 which I tell people to go look at.

00:23:22.760 They were disproportionately the most attractive people

00:23:25.660 in the biology or psychology schools.

00:23:28.060 So if you're looking for someone that's hot,

00:23:30.340 go onto LinkedIn, check,

00:23:32.400 has a graduate degree in neuroscience.

00:23:34.460 And then you don't even need to look at their picture.

00:23:36.040 You're like, no need.

00:23:36.480 Yeah, women with degrees in neuroscience. 1.00

00:23:38.160 Now, this might be because of attractiveness

00:23:39.620 correlates with intelligence.

00:23:41.260 And so that's what's causing it.

00:23:43.140 But I don't know.

00:23:43.780 But yeah, if you were to look around,

00:23:45.420 like, our biology or psychology classes,

00:23:47.400 and you're like, okay,

00:23:48.120 who are the top 10 hottest women? 1.00

00:23:49.540 They were almost all in the neuroscience class.

00:23:51.500 Good night.

00:23:53.100 Well, I love it.

00:23:54.420 And I love you.

00:23:54.900 Anyway, have a fun one.

00:23:57.000 You too, Malcolm.

Based Camp - August 25, 2023

An Insider's Take on Brain-Computer Interface (BCI)

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