Valve CEO Gabe Newell’s Neuralink competitor is expecting its first brain chip this year
Valve CEO Gabe Newell’s Neuralink competitor is expecting its first brain chip this year
Finally, Half-Life 3
So, to all the people freaking out and saying this is as bad as Musk and Neuralink:
There is here zero mention of things like 'being able to take a phone call' or 'bluetooth your brain directly into a keyboard or mouse or other people's brains' as Musk was saying.
This seems very much intended to be aimed at legitimate medical conditions.
They didn't steal the PhD work of an actual pioneer in the development of medical brain implants via poaching a number of grad students who worked with him (which is what happened with Neuralink, btw), they are instead partnering with basically a nonprofit cooperative of the world's foremost experts on nanoelectronics development, who have an established track record of developing various medical devices.
...
If news comes out about GabeN electrocuting monkeys and pigs to either death, or insanity/brain damage so extreme it causes them to kill themselves to escape the pain (again, this literally happened at Neuralink), then I will absolutely do a 180 heel pivot and condemn the fuck out of that.
Just to be clear here, a BCI is probably the very last thing I would ever be an early adopter of as some kind of commercial, general use product. Seems absolutely insane given the rampant cybersecurity problems just basically everywhere all the time, not to mention I just don't like the idea of an actual chip in my actual brain, permanent holes in my skull.
Valve and GabeN are not some paragons of virtue, they basically invented (and still widely use and encourage) half of the monetization and dark pattern bullshit that is now everywhere in the entire games industry.
... But to me at least, this seems nowhere near as openly, comically, real world supervillain levels of evil as Elon and Neuralink.
The picture in the post is unhinged
It's fairly on brand for Valve, one of their banners was a guy with pipe valve stuck to his head.
More than stuck on
The only condition under which I wouid ever consider getting a neural implant, is if the implant and its software is open source.
Any closed source thing you stick in your brain will ultimately doom you.
Besides that, there'd also actually have to be a purpose. As it stands now, cybernetics isn't advanced enough to turn me into a full cyborg, so probably never in my lifetime.
I don't think it's expected that the average person will be jumping at the opportunity to tinker with their neurons. The first line of people to get such implants will almost certainly be people with physical disabilities.
Regarding closed source ultimately being a net negative to your well being, I think you're absolutely right. Unfortunately with as niche as a product like this will be for some time, I worry any corporation willing to put forward the funding isn't going to be willing to open it up to such a degree.
While true regarding open source vs closed course. The risks are quite large for patients. For example, a few years ago there was a company called Second Sight that made artificial eyes so blind people could partially see again. Then the company discontinued the product and now they are stuck with an unsupported surgically implanted device that they rely heavily on but can break any time. It's pretty risky to have something implanted if you don't know if the company will be around in a decade or so.
All these brain chips will primarily, initially, be for crippled people. Maybe a controller chip to control prosthetic arms, or something to let a paraplegic person control a computer.
It's still fun to hear the man himself talking about a larger than life virtual reality.
The tech still scares me, I'm not even sure I'd be okay with EEG-like patches that work both ways (scifi, I know), not to mention brain surgery, for pure decadence. But the quality of life benefits really can be huge for many, and that really got my fantasy going, once I 'accepted' we figured out the limits and safeties of bodily autonomy.
A culture that obsoletes electronics every couple of years and enshittifies services every couple of other years cannot be seriously talking about MMIs/BCIs.
The fact that most people would obviously never want to get a brain chip implant, combined with the fact that multiple billionaires are developing brain chip implants, indicates that there are plans in some circles to incentivize or coerce people into getting a brain chip implant at some point in the future.
Medicine in the US is very expensive. There is a lot of money in helping with neurological conditions or paralysis.
It’s risk/reward. If brain chips made me twice as productive or intelligent, I’d probably tolerate a lot more risk than if it was just a way to check my Instagram notifications without pulling out my phone.
What if you were going to die but you could live indefinitely if you got the implant? Would an incentive like that interest you?
So like the black mirror episode Common People
Why would a brain implant allow me to live indefinitely?
They've existed for awhile for people with certain disabilities and further advancements in the field would be great for the people who actually need them, but outside of that niche most people would likely not want to risk a highly invasive surgery and I don't think they actually care about them.
If they could make them small / sensitive enough to make them subdermal, without the risky brainsurgery, that would be an absolute gamechanger and would increase acceptance by a lot. if the process would be like getting a few piercings under local anesthesia, it would make servicing the hardware much less of a life and death decision, and i wouldn't mind getting something like that - especially if it's on the hackability scale of a steam deck lol
I just need to open my work laptop and watch it utterly fail at even the most basic tasks for me to be convinced our level of technology is no where near where it needs to be to start sticking electronics in people's heads.
HL3 is going to be launched with Valve's brain chip.
They don't even have to make the game. The chip will convince you that you have already played the game and it's the best game ever.
HL3 is going to be launched with Valve’s brain chip.
The headcrabs feel like headcrabs!
had pass on all this bullshit.
This will be for paralyzed people
It will be used for paralyzed people to give it a soft spin, but the goal really is a super soldier or many other applications in the military industrial complex. If it's not for blowing up people, it's for killing people or controlling people. It's not that technology is evil. It's that our economic system and our mode of production and who benefits. That's the problem. The rich are just basically building our prison.
Yeah, maybe just leave all that for people born in 2030.
"Now, if you're part of Control Group Kepler-Seven, we implanted a tiny microchip about the size of a postcard into your skull. Most likely you've forgotten it's even there, but if it starts vibrating and beeping during this next test, let us know, because that means it's about to hit five hundred degrees, so we're gonna need to go ahead and get that out of you pretty fast." - Cave Johnson
Suddenly this makes way more sense
I can hear this picture
I think we all know where this is going.
Yeah, no, I’m not putting anything in my brain that isn’t open-source from end to end. And even then probably nah.
Why so pessimistic? With any luck brainchips will mean the end of annoying adverts once and for all. You'll just feel an unexpected desire to acquire certain products. And maybe crippling headaches or a nauseating feeling of unease if you ignore these urges
the only way, and I mean the ONLY way I'll put hardware in my brain is if I have resurrection level support like in Altered Carbon.
the fear of losing my outward identity over the ability to live forever is worth losing.
I wonder how often you have to back up in case you need a reboot.
You still won't be able to live forever.
The Brainchip is trendy in Silicon Valley but doesn’t do much yet.
These guys would beg to differ:
https://thedebrief.org/neuralinks-first-human-trials-mark-one-year-of-control-through-telepathy/
Last time I checked, the "brain implants" from Valve looked like this:
All you had to do was nothing.
All you had to do was NOTHING, Gabe!
Karen Sandler did a great talk on closed source software medical devices many years ago.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qW1h1s_ojpM
This even more the case if it's your brain! It probably won't work for decades, but we should get house in order long before it does.
Like https://spectrum.ieee.org/bionic-eye-obsolete shown or https://www.vox.com/unexplainable/411102/neuroscience-technology-consumer-products-safety-maintenance more recently or the older 2010 paper "Predictors of Assistive Technology Abandonment" https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10400435.1993.10132205 ?
Don't be negative, it's all good! /s
Right to repair, and openness, is absolute must for devices being put into peoples bodies. The fight seams to not even started yet. Most people are completely asleep to issues right now.
Will we also get a control valve back on our heads?
Yes, but it belongs to Gaben. Don't touch it.
He’ll only be able to make the first prototype, and then a second. He will never make it to 3.
By then he should be able to pass the tech off to a smaller, independent contractor like Gearbox (please don't; I don't want Randy in my brain) or Obsidian.
He’ll make a few versions:
Will never make it to 3 though.
I didn't know they were doing brainchips. I trust Gabe with it way more than fElon, for sure.
Oh no. You either die the hero, or...
You live long enough to help paraplegics game?
Right? Is anyone else grateful knowing that we're building medical devices that can help us connect with fully disabled people like they're humans again?
Thumbnail is lit af
Dan did it first!
Not advocating for our against but 2 thoughts here:
1: Gabe isn't Musk. Yes money etc but don't immediately jump there without other malfeasance please. Caution absolutely but don't ascribe one rich assholes shit to another.
2: He probably has hard data on accessibility... Possibly more than nearly anyone else. There's a HUGE portion of the population that can't use "traditional" controllers or other input devices. And that's not even going into the medical realm.
Could game Gabe be starting his villain phase? Sure! But until more negative details come out I'm just hoping this is investments he'd use toward a new steam controller.
You don't get to be a billionaire without some malfeasance.
And even if you don't assume actively malicious intent like you should with Musk, there's a lot of potential danger with technology like this, and if you don't stand a lot to gain, and have reasonable controls against things going wrong, it's probably not a good idea to be an early adopter. It's just like a pacemaker, there are a narrow segment of people who should want to test a new model/concept for them.
Absolutely agree at every part.
My desire would be strong regulation via a real agency (not current US), or alternatively ONLY work via non-intrusive means on the scalp.
let's not circlejerk and have a soft spot for a billionaire just because you like video games. why give gaben the benefit of the doubt just because you think steam is a good product? if they're a billionaire doing this, we can assume this is a money making venture.
if you're a billionaire, you're already way into your villain phase. he's not musk, but he's one of them. you don't make a billion dollars. you take a billion dollars.
So, you are reading things I didn't write. I'm not defending him about steam games etc... The only good will here about any of it is the work toward better Linux life.
I agree billionaires shouldn't exist.
I don't like steam.
I don't really do much gaming... And it's worth stuff from GOG.
Chill out. I'm not the fanboi you are looking for.
I'm only saying perhaps he sees $$$ in a venture that is rife with much worse people doing far worse to vulnerable people.
On the off chance better access comes about from rich assholes eating each other, I'm game to at least watch.
Billionaires either inherit their money or get it by being an asshole. Being nice doesn’t make people billionaires.
I know the internet lives the guy but no. Just no.
Some people are starting to wake up to the fact that the guy is just another libertarian billionaire, he just happens to be in charge of a company that made a product people love enough to give them monopolistic powers.
Edit: these people aren't in this thread
Edit 2: first edit was from when the votes on that comment were at -8, happy to see that for once one of my comments on this subject ends up in the positives
You’re not wrong, the downvoters are just sad because you are right. Just takes one personality shift from Gabe to turn him from beloved figurehead to shitty billionaire and being reminded of that sucks.
It's been known for quite a while now. Even reddit gets annoyed with the guy.
I'm not even sure if it's love. When something is all you've known, you just view everything else as strange and inferior. When you have so many games and have had so many experiences on Steam, the cognitive dissonance of accepting that Valve is quite problematic could be hard to bear. Knowing that everybody around you praises Steam, with many turning to rage or even harassment when they see competitors like Epic, the fear of being ostracized and ending up in the same position as those competitors is also a strong factor at play.
As someone losing control of their hands and enjoys playing video games, I very much look forward to this technology not only being available via Elon Musk.
The use of the fingers is covered under our monthly plan of $49.99
If you would like thumbs included, that is covered under our premium plan of $499.99 a day.
And I see that but a game developer is not the right type of business to develop these kind of extremely intrusive and potentially dangerous accessibility devices. We need much stricter guidelines and oversight for this kind of tech before they essentially become a remote control for parts of our brain.
TIL Valve is into brain chips.
The Valve Deckard was a little more ambitious than had been originally anticipated.
To be fair, I think it's specifically Gabe who's been obsessed with brain computer interfaces for the past many years. Obviously it's his company, so Valve by extension participates.
Makes sense, as you get older you get more and more disgusted by the weakness of your flesh, and tend to crave the certainty of steel.
As far as I can see the company behind it (Starfish Neuroscience) is not affiliated with Valve in any way? (Aside from having the same CEO)
And Newell is Valve because it's his private company
Ohh...eh.
2019 left me with the impression Starfish was wireless.
Sticking stuff into my brain isn't on my to-do list.
"Alright, the implantation surgery was a success, now all we have to do is fire up the remote activation. Throwing the switch in three... two...
Where is the Github Gitea/forgejo/CodeBerg/etc repo? OSHW certification?
Until then unfortunately it's "just" Gabe's fanboyism. Better learn from open academic research or OSHW projects.
Billionaires should not exist
Step 1: Tax all wealth above 999 Million at 100% taxrate
Step 2: Congrats, no more billionaires! 🎆🎇🎉🎊
It's worth remembering that there was a time when the highest US tax bracket was taxed at 90%, and that didn't stop the US's longest period of sustained economic growth.
Ridiculously high tax rates for ridiculously high incomes have been done before and are entirely feasible.
tax all wealth above the nth percentile of the populations wealth
Careful now you are scaring tankies because they can't go long without their delusions of getting to massacre everyone who disagrees with them.
Might be a bit of an unpopular opinion, but I don't really see a problem with brain implants. I wouldn't put anything in my brain in a thousand years, but if someone's willing to accept the risks, why not? They have the potential to significantly improve quality of life for many people.
It's exactly like AI. Could the technology be useful were it to be used in service of goals that would serve humanity? Absolutely. Will it be used by billionaires in a way that will be harmful to most people in order to further entrench their power? Most definitely.
"Someone might abuse it" is a reasonable concern. "Therefore nobody should be allowed to use it" is not a reasonable answer to that concern, IMO. We'd never have anything with that approach.
You can say that about literally any consumer product, however.
Like everything else, it will be come enshittified and we will be living in the Johnny Mneumonic world.
At least some of the people developing this stuff think they're going to be able to partner AI and neural links. I think the desire is they think about the solution to a problem and then they don't have to do the work of creating it. It will just exist magically because the AI will do it.
It's egotistical bollocks that comes from believing your ideas are always right, and that a back of the napkin idea is the same as a fully engineered solution.
It could become the standard in time, like smartphones. I can easily see it becoming the norm, making it more expensive and difficult to use a normal smartphone instead of some brain implant, much like how "dumbphones" are coming back as overpriced and gimmicky. Maybe they pullsomething similar to the "green bubble" like apple did, alienating people without implants.
This is a very important concern. Tech companies already exert entirely too much power over society through smart phones and their accompanying apps. The damage they would do with direct access to your neurons is incalculable.
The only thing that comforts me is that I firmly expect that society as we know it will entirely collapse before this technology can really be capitalized. It's not a very comforting expectation, but it somehow bothers me less than the idea of techno-fascist corporate feudal states taking control of everyone's thoughts.
If I lived in, say, Iain Banks's post-scarcity anarcho-communist utopia The Culture, I'd get a neural lace in a heartbeat. But living in this capitalist dystopia that most of us does, I don't trust corporations to not use this sort of technology for domination over the populace.
For perspectives on how it might go (general vibes, not the same technology) I recommend HYPER-REALITY (6 mins short film) or David Brin's Existence novel.
Not "The Matrix" -- we will just serve as batteries for someone's AI or Crypto farm while having/living in lucid dreams?
Continuum is a tidy lil show addressing this, too. Actually, not so tidy, a bit of a mess. But still entertaining and intriguing at times.
I've read Consider Phlebas, due to either your or another lemmings' recommendation and it's very '80s sci fi in writing style. I felt it required a bit too much attention for a good audio book at work, but wasn't really interesting enough to pick up the physical book. Player of Games is supposed to be very different, is it worth giving it a shot or is Iain Banks' writing just not to my taste?
Another problem is abandonment. When the company goes under or the device becomes outdated and they no longer want to support it the device can't be easily removed. If the device was fixing a disability, the person's disability will be reinstated.
Like "Unauthorized Toast"... with all the DRM laws, we could get arrested and charged with a felony for trying to repair ourselves.
I suspect we will end up in a situation where you have a "mount" that is connected to your brain. The mount is able to be serviced by any company in the field, because it is standard. From there, you have the actual chips which are going to be relatively easy to install and remove, eventually you might even be able to do so at your house. This allows competition while allowing being consumer friendly.
As for the disability side of things, it just means that when your chip is no longer serviced you easily swap it for another companies whose are.
At some point in humanity's future, I assume that it will be a thing and be widespread. Just too many potential benefits to having high-bandwidth links to the brain not to eventually do it.
But it's a path with a lot of hurdles along the way, and risks.
If I can read your thoughts, it can change them. I guess it depends on the level of sophistication but it opens up the ONE place in the entire world that is completely yours.
The one place i cant leave, id love to not have my shit fucked up anymore.
That's the challenge with technical advances. It's not just solving the technical problem, it's also solving the societal problem.
If you look back into history, Automated elevators was a major panic until people got comfortable with the idea.
Imagine the guy at BMW who invented subscriptions for heated seats teaming up with the guy at nvidia who does drivers and youll understand why I wouldnt
If it prevents or mitigates Alzheimer's, or other degenerative brain diseases, it's a good development.
They should make a big facility to test the implants
Maybe have an AI overseer, they could name it Gladys
You'd need people to solve puzzles to really put the implant through its paces. Something involving blocks should be sufficiently simple to play around with while having lots of variation.
Yperating System?
How the hell is this not the Onion?
isn't the verge the same as the onion?
Nah, the verge is less credible
I was sure it must be. Is it not? Gosh.
Finally the logo makes sense
We're going to get Borg before GTA VI
"As part of your onboarding process, we're just going to implant your Company ID. That way, for your safety, we'll always know where you are. If you hear a buzzing sound, that means return to the office immediately. Reduced work speed will produce a mild reminder shock.
"Welcome to the Corporation."
Maybe they could use the implanted chip to wall off your non-work side when you enter your office so you're not distracted and fully focused on your job.
Then when you leave your work side gets blocked off so you can leave work at work. Automatic work/life balance.
Not sure if it was intentional but you just summarized the show Severance.
Reminder shock is amazing LMAO
This is the new tech that will justify Half Life 3 they were talking about in the doc. It all makes sense now, the ultimate controller!
Who is controlled though?
Valve bros dont need to worry about what happens in life after gaben, because I think gaben is going to ascend to cyberspace before the end.
Portal 2 was a road map
That's... Not a very promising roadmap...
Him and Kurzweil just hanging out on the same subnet.
I'd probably be a slow adopter tbh. Feel like you would wany such a chip to be quite trustworthy and reliabld. Proprietary software and hardware is not the most trustworthy thing in the world...
Usually I am an earlier adopter of tech because I'm interested in technology, and I have money to burn. But I don't need a brain chip, I'm weird enough already without having to debug my own head.
"Yes honey, I'm coming. Just one more thing to compile in my head"
Segmentation fault
three weeks after implant
"I was completely wrong about this technology! Valve Mindtap is the best thing ever!"
eyes stare 1000 yards into the distance while your true consciousness screams to be let out from the dark prison it has been trapped in
It would need to become a platform and standard unto itself.
Which is to say, I'm not installing one until I can flash the firmware myself.
Yeah no thanks
It’s wild how Lemmy gamers and others treat Steam as if it’s a noble corporation and Gabe is THEIR billionaire so he can’t possibly be bad. The fact that he’s a billionaire is proof that he underpaid and stole from everyone below him. There are no good billionaires, and Gabe is not your friend
I mean, it's hard to hate on someone who pays his people well, gives fun benefits, cultivates chill working culture and is overall simply a chill guy and whose big, fat marketshare comes from actually working for the customer.
Yeah. He could probably pay better or give more of his wealth into the society. Hell, prolly even should. But the fact is that among anyone else with that title, Gabe looks like a goddamn saint.
He’s anti union, valve employees aren’t allowed to unionize. Also seems cool with making money off all the games made by studios who are also underpaying and over working employees
He could direct his company to stop targeting kids with addictive gambling mechanics and looking the other way regarding grey-market resellers.
cultivates chill working culture
Yes but to be fair it wouldn't be hard to find someone that felt that they were more exploited by Valve then by the likes of EA or Epic
The fact that he is a billionaire does not mean that lol. He’s a billionaire because his company gets a cut of every sale of games on his platform, and his platform is the industry standard/default platform for digital distribution. He could be paying his employees a million a year to be a janitor and he’d still be a billionaire, no “stealing” and not one being underpaid.
The fact that you wrote this with just vibes makes me love Gabe that much more. I'm finding that the best past in life is to reject whatever the fuck you all are selling since you're all so out of touch with reality.
It’s wild how many servile, billionaire lovers there are here today. It’s kinda pathetic
We could build Sword Art Online, but I think we all know that this technology will be used to beam ads directly into your head 24/7. You won't be able to sleep because of the penis enhancement ads.
Nah, it's GabeN.
Half Life: Alyx Episode 2 will be coming straight into your brain.
it's Gaben
It's a new technology. The product will be bigger than Gabe or Valve and won't take long to become duplicated in function and form, then become commonplace.
Gabe is starting a fire, it may spread and do things against his or anyone's goodwill, Pandora's box.
I'm hoping if it's headed by Gabe's efforts it will be relatively clean. Guess only time will tell.
If it solves my tinnitus, I'm all for it.
Look into Lenire. First FDA-approved treatment
Black mirror did an episode on this
In this heeadline: Neuralink's Competitor Recieves Prototype
in this thread: Gabe Crazy
"has long toyed with the idea that your brain should be more connected to your PC"
seems like billionaires' wet dream to be honest
But imagine how easy it would be to track you serve you more personalised ads.
We have all been "convinced" to carry tracking devices with us everywhere we go. Way cheaper than a brain implant.
Props to him for trying it himself instead of having someone else do it and take all the risk
Valve CEO Gabe Newell pretends to get a hole drilled into his head for a brain-computer interface.
That picture 😂
I’m only doing the brain chip thing if it can fully transplant me to a Matrix level of simulated reality and get me out of this current hellhole permanently.
Die Gedanken sind frei, wer kann sie erraten, sie fliehen vorbei wie nächtliche Schatten. Kein Mensch kann sie wissen, kein Jäger erschießen, es bleibet dabei: die Gedanken sind frei.
What?
#Valve CEO Gabe Newell’s Neuralink competitor is expecting its first brain chip this year
Thank you. That's much clearer
Not what I asked for... But it was what I needed... My cataracts are acting up again.
Project deckard. Gamers are getting the chip to run games inside their brains.
That will be awesome for when my body dies, but I still want to be a brain in a jar playing MechWarrior.
So this is how we're gonna get half life 3 huh
I want to get one of the first implants possible. VR headsets are so unsightly.
Poor monkes 🐒