“I want a beer”. a simple and direct request, but a damn amazing one because it was uttered by a paralyzed man who is communicating for the first time in months, thanks to a life- changing brain implant.
In a testament to the power of wisdom, and beer– experimenters in Switzerland provisioned a 36- years-old ALS case with a chip in his brain, which allows him to spell out rulings one letter at a time, and he used it to order up a cold one.
On top of a drink, the man also asked caregivers for a head massage from his mama, curry and mist fed through tubes, and wanted to rock out to the band Tool. In his words, he wanted it” loud.”
The good folks doing the amazing study over at the Wyss Center in Geneva say it’s the first example of someone with no voluntary muscle movement being capable to communicate.
The ALS case, who agreed to the brain implant back in 2018 when he could still use eye movement to communicate, is now fully paralyzed. The chip allows him to motion“yes“or“no“to a series of letters and spell out commands at a rate of one character per minute.
That means it took him further than 10 minutes to order a beer, but we are supposing he would say it was well worth the delay.
Leave a Reply