Lifestyle
Neuralink: Elon Musk’s vanguard against human obsolescence
Neuralink, Musk’s brain-computer interface company, is in the process of expanding rapidly and has several new technical job openings on their website. There is heavy focus on applied engineering, particularly in the context of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), also known as micromachines or “really tiny robots”, as I like to call them. Not only is this a rapidly growing field of study and application as of late, but MEMS as a priority implies that in the near term, Neuralink is structuring itself as an advanced nanotechnology incubator, with a focus on biocompatible (safe for humans) applications.
A traditional, state-of-the-art 100 electrode array. This is implanted directly into the brain by way of open-brain surgery. (Matthew McKee, Brown University)
MEMS have a fascinating history, often said to have begun with a famous lecture given by Richard Feynman in 1959. In it, he argued that it should be fundamentally possible to one day manipulate matter at an atomic level, to “arrange atoms the way we want”. All matter is composed of atomic structures, and such a capability would logically allow the creation of new materials and chemicals by mechanically altering atomic structures. Technology on this order would allow for the existence of science fiction standouts like true 3D printers capable of assembling almost anything conceivable (food, functioning electronic devices, clothing, pharmaceuticals, etc.) out of some form of basic input matter. That capability is of course purely theoretical and probably decades away from reality, but it offers an idea as to just how useful atomic manipulation could be in nearly every industry one can imagine.
For brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), the allure of MEMS or nano-EMS (NEMS) are obvious. Given small enough machines, one can imagine a sort of biocompatible dust that would naturally proliferate throughout the brain and body, likely by way of the bloodstream. Confused for nutrients or debris, many millions or billions of these tiny dust particles might embed themselves in the vast network of blood vessels throughout the human brain or be absorbed into neurons themselves. Add some sort of mesh network capability or an external device capable of interacting with the smart dust, and you have a vast, detailed method of recording and stimulating neural activity with something as simple as a few pills or injections and a smartphone-sized device.
The minds behind Neuralink
While even the narrower goal sketched above appears far fetched in many ways, the eight founding members of Neuralink have backgrounds that suggest the company will pursue precisely that architecture, often called “neural dust”. Several have conducted critical research into the many complex ways human brains integrate information necessary to move the body, among other things. Phillip Sabes, a professor of physiology at the University of California (San Francisco), has conducted research into the brain’s ability to “flexibly and adaptively integrate information from a variety of sources, from higher cognition to sensory and motor processing”. This information integration is a fundamental feature of all brain function.
Several other founders have experience in neuromorphic (brain-like) computer processors. Paul Merolla has been a central designer in almost every groundbreaking neuromorphic chip project, ranging from Stanford’s Neurogrid and IBM’s TrueNorth. In general, the study of neuromorphic computing hopes to package some of the incredible efficiencies and capabilities of brains into commercial products. Primarily, neuromorphic engineering attempts to replicate the behavior of biological neural networks in order to better understand them and, as a result, better understand how the human mind functions.
The lab Sabes runs has been recently exploring an array of topics, ranging from efforts to drastically improve researchers’ abilities to listen to neurons in the brain, to developing knowledge and technologies that could eventually provide natural movement and control through brain-machine interfaces (i.e. brain-controlled prosthetic limbs) by introducing artificial feedback. The argument his lab makes is that the unnatural look and feel of people using brain-interfaced prosthetics is likely a result of a lack of feedback in the artificial limbs, where real human limbs are typically directed with a combination of multiple senses like touch, temperature, pressure, and more. Possibly the most important conclusion is that through the work his lab does, they are “learning how to communicate with parts of the brain that don’t have a clear topology (location or distribution), which is most of the brain”. For Neuralink to have even a chance of successfully developing a “high bandwidth interface for the nervous system”, this knowledge will be crucial, given the fact that higher cognitive functions tend to be broadly distributed throughout the physical brain.
Other members, like Tim Hanson, have spent the better part of a decade developing flexible, stable, and minimally-invasive alternatives to the rigid electrodes of today, which require inherently risky surgery to install. These flexible electrodes, capable of being more or less “injected” into the brain, have been successfully tested numerous times in animal subjects and are currently undergoing tests to ensure their longevity and resilience to the tough environment of living things.
Heading back to the concept of “neural dust” and other innovative methods of recording and stimulating neurons, another of the eight founders of Neuralink is Dr. Dongjin Seo, a central figure in the exploration of “neural dust”. Described as “ultra-miniature, untethered, wireless neural implants (‘Neural Dust’) for brain-machine interfaces”, Seo and several others have spent years developing the concept. Most recently, Seo and six other researchers successfully conducted testing in rats of a preliminary prototype of neural dust that was passive, wireless, and had no batteries. By powering the ‘dust motes’ with ultrasound while implanted in brain tissue, the researchers were able to produce detailed, accurate recordings of rat brain activity. This successful proof of concept occurred in 2016, and it is undoubtedly no coincidence that Seo was invited just months later to co-found Neuralink with Elon Musk.
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- Dr. Seo’s neural dust prototype. The longest dimension is approximately 1 millimeter. (Berkeley Labs)
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- A zoomed-in diagram of the dust mote pictured to left.
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- An alternative non-invasive electrode, in the form of an injectable mesh. (Lieber Research Group)
While there is a vast amount of progress and miniaturization that must occur before anything approaching Musk’s aspirations is possible, the very fact that non-invasive neural recording and stimulation could be achievable in humans within a handful of years puts into doubt a great deal of specific criticism Neuralink and Musk have received since the reveal.
Bandwidth
Another difficulty in creating a “high bandwidth interface for the nervous system” lies in the high-bandwidth aspect of the endeavor. In order to functionally interact with an array of neurons, say even a million neurons, a vast amount of data will have to be transferred very rapidly, and wirelessly, back and forth between brains and computers. The creation of true, seamless BCIs will likely require observing and stimulating tens of millions to billions of neurons. If we assume that a single neuron would create around 5,000 bytes (5 kilobytes) of information per second, and we want to observe ten million neurons simultaneously, the bandwidth necessary can begin to reach well into the range of terabits (~120 gigabytes) per second. It’s possible that this issue can be circumvented by communicating and stimulating fewer neurons per second or solved with some form of compression between brain and computer, but it serves to illustrate the incredible scale of the brain and the difficulties of creating an interface worthy of the title “high bandwidth” in context.
It should thus come as no surprise that Dr. Seo has assisted in the development of extremely high bandwidth, short range wireless communications in the past. Every single member of the Neuralink team was aggressively vetted and narrowed down to a select few individuals who were experts in multiple highly complex fields each. Musk told that Wait But Why‘s Tim Urban that he likely personally interviewed or met with at least a thousand people before deciding upon the eight initial founding members. Many of the founders Musk originally approached left sought-after tenured positions at prestigious institutions to join Neuralink, and this speaks to Musk and Neuralink’s highly compelling goals.
The human brain is thought to contain as many as 100 billion neurons, at least 20% of which are relevant to the higher-level cognition that is unique to humans, and possibly a trillion or more glial cells which may play a far more significant role in cognition than previously thought. Ahead of Neuralink and the brilliant team are numerous vast and undeniably daunting challenges. As they have before, they will continue to peer deep within the abysses of human consciousness and attempt to progress our understanding of ourselves. Whether they succeed or fail, they will do so for the sake of the future of humanity; endeavoring to improve upon a chaotic natural marvel and hoping to ensure competition in the face of artificial intelligence that will know no biological bounds.
Elon Musk
The Boring Company just doubled its tunneling power in Nashville
The Boring Company’s Prufrock MB2 is commissioned and ready to mine beneath Nashville’s streets.
The Boring Company’s second tunnel boring machine, Prufrock MB2, is officially ready to dig in Nashville. The company confirmed the news on X, posting: “Prufrock-MB2 is ready to mine in Nashville! MB2 commissioning is complete, including the brief 11 rpm rotation shown here. Will MB2 catch up to MB1, who had quite the head start? And Prufrock-MB3 ships in August!”
MB2 arrives with meaningful improvements over its predecessor. Lessons learned from the launch and operation of MB1 have already been applied to MB2 to improve efficiency and prepare the machine for launch.
Traditional tunnel boring machines operate in a stop-and-go cycle, digging roughly five feet, halt, erect precast concrete segments to line the tunnel wall, then resume. That repeated interruption is one of the main reasons conventional tunneling is slow and expensive. Prufrock is designed to install the tunnel liner simultaneously with mining, eliminating the need to stop every five feet. The machine also skips the need for excavated launch pits. Prufrock arrives on a truck, tilts down, and launches into the ground within 24 hours. And when the tunnel is complete, it emerges from the ground and drives to its next launch site on a trailer, eliminating the need for expensive cranes or pit excavation. The machine is also fully electric and runs with zero people in the tunnel during normal operations, controlled remotely from a surface operations center.
Prufrock-MB2 is ready to mine in Nashville! MB2 commissioning is complete, including the brief 11 rpm rotation shown here.
Will MB2 catch up to MB1, who had quite the head start?
And Prufrock-MB3 ships in August! pic.twitter.com/TTrMql2aRg
— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) June 17, 2026
It won’t be long before we hear of another major update on The Boring Company’s Music City Loop project – a planned underground transit network beneath Nashville that would move passengers in electric vehicles through a series of tunnels at highway speeds, and bypassing surface traffic entirely. Nashville was selected in part because of its strong rock conditions that suits the Prufrock machines well, and relatively less regulatory hurdles.
Progress has been steady on multiple fronts. All 37 permits and approvals required ahead of tunneling have been obtained, out of 45 total. Key wins include a fully executed TDOT tunnel permit authorizing 25 miles of tunnel, unanimous airport authority approval for a Nashville International Airport station, and the city’s first residential station agreement serving downtown tower residents.
With MB1 already tunneling, MB2 now commissioned, and MB3 shipping in August, Nashville is becoming something of a live proving ground for scaled tunnel boring. The broader ambition is not limited to one city. The Boring Company’s stated goal is to make underground transportation a practical alternative to surface roads across major metro areas. Nashville is one of many cities, including a successful Las Vegas tunnel system, where that idea is being put to the test at real speed.
Investor's Corner
Tesla unfolded its first European “folding Supercharger”
Tesla’s folding Supercharger just arrived in Europe and it changes how fast charging expands.
Tesla’s Folding Unit Supercharger has officially landed in Europe, with the company teasing a new installation in its effort for a broader rollout targeting major motorway rest stops across the European continent in Q3 2026. The arrival marks a notable shift in how Tesla is thinking about network expansion, moving from hardware performance alone to engineering the logistics chain itself.
While Tesla did not reveal the exact location for the new folding Supercharger in Europe, the photo shared on X heavily suggests that this maybe somewhere in Norway. Historically, whenever Tesla rolls out an entirely new infrastructure architecture in Europe, whether it was the original Supercharger stalls years ago or these brand-new modular V4 “Folding Units”, Norway is almost always the designated launch pad because of its unmatched EV adoption rate and supportive infrastructure
The Folding Unit, introduced in March 2026, is a factory pre-assembled V4 charging station built on an industrial hinge system mounted to a heavy-duty concrete base. The entire assembly arrives on site ready to unfold and connect. Tesla confirmed the units feature telescopic light poles specifically designed for easy transportation and fast on-site deployment, a detail that signals how carefully the logistics chain has been engineered alongside the hardware itself. The design allows 33% more stalls per delivery truck, cuts installation time roughly in half, and reduces overall deployment costs by more than 20% compared to traditional installations.
Tesla’s newest “Folding V4 Superchargers” are key to its most aggressive expansion yet
Tesla also noted telescopic light poles which provide benefits over traditional Supercharger installations that require fixed-height poles that are awkward to ship, slow to position on site, and often require separate crews and equipment to erect before charging hardware can even be staged. By engineering poles that compress for transit and extend on arrival, Tesla has removed one of the quieter bottlenecks in the physical deployment process. Every hour saved on a light pole installation is an hour redirected toward getting stalls energized. At scale, across dozens of new sites per quarter, those hours add up to a meaningful acceleration in how quickly a location goes from approved permit to serving its first customer.
Each Folding Unit pairs a single V4 power cabinet with eight charging posts. The V4 cabinet delivers up to 500 kW per stall for passenger vehicles and up to 1.2 MW for the Tesla Semi, supporting twice the stalls per cabinet at three times the power density of its predecessor. Longer cables make every new station immediately usable by non-Tesla vehicles, a priority as Tesla continues opening its network to Ford, GM, Rivian, Hyundai, Stellantis, and others.
As Teslarati reported when the Folding Unit was first unveiled, Tesla’s Gigafactory New York produced its final V3 Supercharger cabinet in March 2026 after more than seven years and 15,000 units, completing a full pivot to V4 production. The European arrival of the folding design is the next chapter in that transition.
Faster and cheaper deployment means Tesla can justify building in markets and corridors that were previously too expensive to serve, filling the coverage gaps that have slowed EV adoption outside major urban centers.
First Folding Unit Superchargers in Europe 🇪🇺 https://t.co/KNfYWJukkL pic.twitter.com/YR1udIpH1i
— Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) June 10, 2026
Elon Musk
SpaceXAI just launched into your kitchen with their new app
SpaceXAI just powered its first consumer app and it predicts what you want to buy.
SpaceXAI just made its first move into consumer AI, and it involves your grocery cart. On June 3, 2026, Gopuff and SpaceXAI announced the launch of Go, a Grok-powered shopping assistant built directly into the Gopuff app that predicts what you need before you even start searching for it.
Gopuff is an instant delivery platform that operates more than 400 micro-fulfillment centers across the U.S., delivering everyday essentials, snacks, drinks, and household items in as little as 15 minutes. It is not a restaurant delivery app or a marketplace. It owns its inventory, controls its warehouses, and handles its own logistics, which means it has built one of the most detailed consumer behavior datasets in retail over its 13-year history.
Go combines SpaceXAI’s advanced reasoning, voice, and image generation models with Gopuff’s dataset of hundreds of millions of orders and real-time cultural signals from X to prepare a suggested cart the moment a customer opens the app. It learns each shopper’s habits and automatically builds a personalized cart based on time of day, location, order history, and real-time indicators. Returning customers can check out with a single tap.
Rather than searching for specific items, users can describe a situation like a game-day party or the desire for a healthy breakfast and Go will assemble a cart automatically. It can also predict when shoppers are running low on items like coffee or paper towels and have them packed and delivered in under 15 minutes. Grok voice integration lets users talk to the app in plain conversational language and check out completely hands-free.
Gopuff co-founder and co-CEO Yakir Gola said: “Today, we believe the greatest friction left in commerce is not delivery or instantaneous access to the essentials customers need. It’s the moment before: the thinking, the deciding, the remembering. We’re combining Gopuff’s demand intelligence with xAI’s frontier reasoning to create an everyday shopping experience that feels like a true extension of you.”
Why SpaceX just made a $60 billion bet on AI coding ahead of historic IPO
The timing carries context beyond the product launch. SpaceXAI was formed after SpaceX completed an all-stock merger with Elon Musk’s xAI earlier this year, folding one of the most advanced AI labs in the world into the same corporate structure as the company preparing what could be the largest IPO in history. SpaceXAI is dipping into consumer-focused AI just as it prepares for its public debut, and while Musk has openly discussed building an everything app, this launch uses Grok to power another company’s product rather than launching a standalone consumer platform. Every consumer-facing deployment of Grok ahead of the IPO roadshow adds tangible evidence that SpaceXAI is not just an infrastructure play but a direct competitor in the AI application layer where OpenAI and Google are already fighting for dominance.
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