for thousands of years we as humans have
actually been using tools to do things
that we can’t do with our bare hands
these tools have been becoming more
complex more intricate and allow us to
do things that really have one goal to
improve the quality of our life and
that’s what we’re going to talk about
today so then somewhere in the 1800’s
someone had the bright idea that they
were going to take these tools and use
them as an extension of the body now I’m
not convinced that this wingsuit worked
at all and I don’t know what the wheel
in the middle does but I’m sure they had
fun trying so if we use these devices in
these tools as extensions of our body
what are we trying to do well about a
hundred years later humans did figure
out how to fly so this is again all
about doing things that we can’t do okay
changing our abilities in increasing
what we can do to some new level and
then something happened in the 80s the
70s something remarkable happened
computers began to develop right and do
and we’re able to do things that we
can’t do again with our natural
abilities computers were filling up
rooms and then later they were
miniaturized okay and they became
smaller and smaller then the personal
computer came out okay and we had these
in our homes and then finally we
developed microchips that could fit in
the palm of our hand
then came the Bionic age we literally
were now taking these tools and these
technologies not only using them as
extensions of our bodies but actually
trying to put them into our bodies we
were implanting these technologies into
our bodies to do things like to treat
cardiac conditions the first pacemaker
was introduced in the late 70s in the
middle you’ll see the cochlear implant
which came later and built upon the
knowledge we had from the from the
pacemakers and then finally on the right
which you see
who’s the first brain implant about 13
years ago I had the privilege to be
involved in some of the very first
studies where we put tiny electrode
arrays into the motor area of people who
were completely paralyzed
okay this was the first time we were now
directly connecting the human brain to
the computer and then opening up many
many possibilities and I’m gonna tell
you about that today so this term Bionic
really is an old term and it’s now
actually coming back and it’s becoming
popular again and it’s simply the
combination of biology and electronics
but what we’re finding is at that
intersection there are many many
challenges but also many opportunities
and again in this effort to try to do
things that we can’t do with their own
natural bodies but the problem is what
is going to happen in the future what
happens if this this trend continues and
we continue to merge with machines in
essence okay so what is going to guide
us in this effort what’s going to
actually drive this development my
argument today is going to be that if we
focus on quality of life first and we
look at this this plot is the
advancement of technology on the
horizontal axis in quality of life is on
the vertical and as long as we keep our
eye on the slope of that curve and we
try to improve quality of life and
continue along that trajectory that
everything should be okay
but what happens if the trend goes the
other way what happens if machines and
devices in artificial artificial
intelligence AI gets pulled into the
picture and now we’re merging with
machines connecting our brains to
machines that can out think us that’s
going to be the critical question but
the argument again is going to be I
think we can control this trend and I
think we can stay in a safe place if we
focus on the early part of this curve ok
quality of life that should be driving
where we go with this today this is Ian
Burkhart I want you to want you to look
at
and here in this picture ian was out on
vacation out in the ocean and he dough
into a wave which drove him into a
sandbar headfirst he ended up with a
fracture of the c5 level became
completely paralyzed from the mid-chest
down yet has no use of his hands he
can’t walk and he needs help to do basic
things like to clothe himself
I met Ian about five years ago and Ian
became interested in a study that we had
been planning for many years and the
goal of this study was simple we wanted
to actually place a device in his motor
area that would look at his signals his
patterns in his brain as he thought
about movements that he hadn’t done in
years but to attempt to reroute those
signals to his muscles and allow him to
move again that was the simple goal and
when Ian started the study we asked him
what was his goal what did he want to
get out of the study and he had a simple
answer he said I just want to be able to
pick up a cup with one hand and take a
drink without having to ask for help
okay that was Ian’s goal now he
preferred that it would be beer in that
Cup but as a young man that was totally
understandable but know what really then
occurred was that Ian began the study
and the surgery went went well and the
tip was placed and we were starting to
collect signals from his brain and
everything was looking good but we ran
into a problem right out of the gate
every single time Ian would open his
hand and grasp an object and try to move
it even six inches he would drop the
object every single time he tried to do
something functional and useful he would
drop the object he couldn’t manipulate
it so what was happening was that we
discovered that the patterns in his
brain were changing so rapidly as he
thought about not only grabbing but
moving that we couldn’t keep up and so
we then went back to the drawing board
and we spent months trying to develop
smarter algorithms and using AI and
using machine learning to try to keep up
and adapt
these pattern changes so after a lot of
hard work on Ian’s part and the team of
course this is what Ian was finally able
to do in the first year of this study
remember his goal
you did it
that was an incredible moment I still
remember it the smile in IANS face his
father was there his family was there it
was absolutely amazing but we still had
a lot of work to do what we also we
started to learn was that we had
completely bypassed his spinal cord okay
and that left us yet another problem so
I’m gonna do an experiment with
everybody here and I want you to raise
your dominant hand if you’re able to
please okay now take your other hand and
drum your fingers against the palm of
that hand very fast go as fast as you
can okay now stop now go the other
direction reverse the direction okay now
do it again in the fast way and pay
attention if you’re doing it from pinky
to index or index to pinky okay keep
that in your mind now how many of you
are going from pinky to index is your
natural fast way okay good
how many of you are doing index to pinky
okay you guys are just strange no let me
make you feel a little better in the
population the distribution that is
actually 85% do it from pinky the index
and 15% the strange group does it the
other way so why is that why in the
world do we have a natural way of doing
this so I’ve even tested my kids when
they were young and I never saw them you
know sitting around the house drumming
their fingers that came later when they
became teenagers but basically I had one
of each okay so the question is why is
that there have been studies now to
really look at patterns of activity not
only in the brain but in the spinal cord
your spinal cord has 10 million neurons
alone ok nothing compared to the brain
but 10 million neurons what does that
mean it means that the spinal cord
itself does computations it actually
facilitates movements there’s a place
you can stimulate in the spinal cord you
can see an entire movement of the leg an
entire cycle of walking okay all without
the brain being involved all right and
so now we have bypassed the spinal cord
completely in Heon and so he was not
able to do
like rhythmic movements now drumming the
fingers is one thing but brushing your
teeth scratching okay doing these basic
things that are necessary now what we
figured out was that there are two
patterns in the brain and we could
actually decipher between those two
patterns and so again after a lot of
work and a lot of training within here’s
what he was able to do with a popular
game so one day he said you know I’m
getting a little bored with these
sessions can we do something like a
video game again natural for a young man
in his early 20s and he said can we try
something a guitar hero like application
and I thought it was a little bit crazy
but you know what it made a lot of sense
you could track the reaction time you
could look at how fast the movements
occurred you could see how complex they
were all in an engaging type of
environment so watch what he was able to
do after practice
yeah so that was his first time so look
at that hand movement you would not know
that that is someone who’s quadriplegic
he’s paralyzed but can’t use his hand at
all so Ian had made yet another
breakthrough and the question was what
else could we do with this technology
could we really impact quality of life
this young man is Steven Haywood he had
enrolled in a study where we were tried
to basically allow him to communicate
more effectively with his loved ones
Steven had ALS Lou Gehrig’s disease he
couldn’t move he couldn’t speak
he couldn’t even invoke facial
expressions when I met him they did
progress that far so the goal and this
is locked-in syndrome
okay so the goal was to allow him to
reconnect with the world to be able to
communicate and control for example the
cursor and his computer and just use his
thoughts to move it around surf the web
and do useful things and write emails
and I still remember one of the times I
was with him and he tried to move the
curse and he was struggling and he was
having some difficulties and his son
came in the room and jumped in his lap
and he said Go Daddy go you can do it
and I’ll send his performance went out
it was absolutely amazing and I think
this speaks to the power of
encouragement the power of being
reconnected you know to the world and to
your loved ones there’s another aspect
of paralysis with spinal cord injury and
stroke victims is the loss of sense of
touch I mean can you imagine not being
able to feel the hand of a loved one not
be able to feel objects as you you know
you pick them up you try to pick up a
cup of coffee to control the grasp so
those are the things that we’re looking
at next and those are the things we feel
are very important okay so now again
let’s think about quality of life so
this is opening up new doors and
opportunities though okay if we’re
connecting our brains to the computer
and we can connect our brains to the
internet then does that mean that we
could Google just by thinking about it
without having to pull our phones now
that’s really a possibility now so does
that mean when you go in to take a test
that the teacher is gonna say okay put
away your calculators put away your
phones and turn off your brain implant
I mean really think about it and so I
was talking to my daughter about this
the other day and she’s you know and I
said you know what do you think about
this and she’s 13 years old and she said
and why would anybody want to do this in
a very logical question but then I
showed her this quote okay from Ken
Olson in 1977 who said there is no
reason anyone would ever want a computer
in their home how wrong could he have
possibly been what an amazing quote it’s
so really as we think about this the
Bionic age is here okay and it’s not
going away it is going to grow and
accelerate and we’re going to continue
to use technology in our bodies we’re
gonna continue to use brain implants to
treat diseases and conditions such as
paralysis we’re already treating
Parkinson’s as well and we hope to treat
stroke and even traumatic brain injury
one day but I think that as our guide as
we progress if we continue to focus on
quality of life and we look at the needs
that the patient’s have okay where they
can benefit the most and we focus on
that early part of the curve that I
think we’re gonna be okay
and if we remember the true pioneers in
this new frontier are the patient’s okay
like Ian and by the way this is when he
and met John Glenn why don’t you know
another amazing moment true you know
pioneers to different areas but now
we’re going into a new age where the
patients are the ones we have to follow
as they break new ground and if we stay
focused on their needs and what they
need to function and need to improve the
quality of their life I think we’ll be
okay and the question will be will
computers and machines outsmart us or we
will we outsmart them
but if we follow this principle I think
it’s safe to say we will outsmart them
thank you
[Applause]
actually been using tools to do things
that we can’t do with our bare hands
these tools have been becoming more
complex more intricate and allow us to
do things that really have one goal to
improve the quality of our life and
that’s what we’re going to talk about
today so then somewhere in the 1800’s
someone had the bright idea that they
were going to take these tools and use
them as an extension of the body now I’m
not convinced that this wingsuit worked
at all and I don’t know what the wheel
in the middle does but I’m sure they had
fun trying so if we use these devices in
these tools as extensions of our body
what are we trying to do well about a
hundred years later humans did figure
out how to fly so this is again all
about doing things that we can’t do okay
changing our abilities in increasing
what we can do to some new level and
then something happened in the 80s the
70s something remarkable happened
computers began to develop right and do
and we’re able to do things that we
can’t do again with our natural
abilities computers were filling up
rooms and then later they were
miniaturized okay and they became
smaller and smaller then the personal
computer came out okay and we had these
in our homes and then finally we
developed microchips that could fit in
the palm of our hand
then came the Bionic age we literally
were now taking these tools and these
technologies not only using them as
extensions of our bodies but actually
trying to put them into our bodies we
were implanting these technologies into
our bodies to do things like to treat
cardiac conditions the first pacemaker
was introduced in the late 70s in the
middle you’ll see the cochlear implant
which came later and built upon the
knowledge we had from the from the
pacemakers and then finally on the right
which you see
who’s the first brain implant about 13
years ago I had the privilege to be
involved in some of the very first
studies where we put tiny electrode
arrays into the motor area of people who
were completely paralyzed
okay this was the first time we were now
directly connecting the human brain to
the computer and then opening up many
many possibilities and I’m gonna tell
you about that today so this term Bionic
really is an old term and it’s now
actually coming back and it’s becoming
popular again and it’s simply the
combination of biology and electronics
but what we’re finding is at that
intersection there are many many
challenges but also many opportunities
and again in this effort to try to do
things that we can’t do with their own
natural bodies but the problem is what
is going to happen in the future what
happens if this this trend continues and
we continue to merge with machines in
essence okay so what is going to guide
us in this effort what’s going to
actually drive this development my
argument today is going to be that if we
focus on quality of life first and we
look at this this plot is the
advancement of technology on the
horizontal axis in quality of life is on
the vertical and as long as we keep our
eye on the slope of that curve and we
try to improve quality of life and
continue along that trajectory that
everything should be okay
but what happens if the trend goes the
other way what happens if machines and
devices in artificial artificial
intelligence AI gets pulled into the
picture and now we’re merging with
machines connecting our brains to
machines that can out think us that’s
going to be the critical question but
the argument again is going to be I
think we can control this trend and I
think we can stay in a safe place if we
focus on the early part of this curve ok
quality of life that should be driving
where we go with this today this is Ian
Burkhart I want you to want you to look
at
and here in this picture ian was out on
vacation out in the ocean and he dough
into a wave which drove him into a
sandbar headfirst he ended up with a
fracture of the c5 level became
completely paralyzed from the mid-chest
down yet has no use of his hands he
can’t walk and he needs help to do basic
things like to clothe himself
I met Ian about five years ago and Ian
became interested in a study that we had
been planning for many years and the
goal of this study was simple we wanted
to actually place a device in his motor
area that would look at his signals his
patterns in his brain as he thought
about movements that he hadn’t done in
years but to attempt to reroute those
signals to his muscles and allow him to
move again that was the simple goal and
when Ian started the study we asked him
what was his goal what did he want to
get out of the study and he had a simple
answer he said I just want to be able to
pick up a cup with one hand and take a
drink without having to ask for help
okay that was Ian’s goal now he
preferred that it would be beer in that
Cup but as a young man that was totally
understandable but know what really then
occurred was that Ian began the study
and the surgery went went well and the
tip was placed and we were starting to
collect signals from his brain and
everything was looking good but we ran
into a problem right out of the gate
every single time Ian would open his
hand and grasp an object and try to move
it even six inches he would drop the
object every single time he tried to do
something functional and useful he would
drop the object he couldn’t manipulate
it so what was happening was that we
discovered that the patterns in his
brain were changing so rapidly as he
thought about not only grabbing but
moving that we couldn’t keep up and so
we then went back to the drawing board
and we spent months trying to develop
smarter algorithms and using AI and
using machine learning to try to keep up
and adapt
these pattern changes so after a lot of
hard work on Ian’s part and the team of
course this is what Ian was finally able
to do in the first year of this study
remember his goal
you did it
that was an incredible moment I still
remember it the smile in IANS face his
father was there his family was there it
was absolutely amazing but we still had
a lot of work to do what we also we
started to learn was that we had
completely bypassed his spinal cord okay
and that left us yet another problem so
I’m gonna do an experiment with
everybody here and I want you to raise
your dominant hand if you’re able to
please okay now take your other hand and
drum your fingers against the palm of
that hand very fast go as fast as you
can okay now stop now go the other
direction reverse the direction okay now
do it again in the fast way and pay
attention if you’re doing it from pinky
to index or index to pinky okay keep
that in your mind now how many of you
are going from pinky to index is your
natural fast way okay good
how many of you are doing index to pinky
okay you guys are just strange no let me
make you feel a little better in the
population the distribution that is
actually 85% do it from pinky the index
and 15% the strange group does it the
other way so why is that why in the
world do we have a natural way of doing
this so I’ve even tested my kids when
they were young and I never saw them you
know sitting around the house drumming
their fingers that came later when they
became teenagers but basically I had one
of each okay so the question is why is
that there have been studies now to
really look at patterns of activity not
only in the brain but in the spinal cord
your spinal cord has 10 million neurons
alone ok nothing compared to the brain
but 10 million neurons what does that
mean it means that the spinal cord
itself does computations it actually
facilitates movements there’s a place
you can stimulate in the spinal cord you
can see an entire movement of the leg an
entire cycle of walking okay all without
the brain being involved all right and
so now we have bypassed the spinal cord
completely in Heon and so he was not
able to do
like rhythmic movements now drumming the
fingers is one thing but brushing your
teeth scratching okay doing these basic
things that are necessary now what we
figured out was that there are two
patterns in the brain and we could
actually decipher between those two
patterns and so again after a lot of
work and a lot of training within here’s
what he was able to do with a popular
game so one day he said you know I’m
getting a little bored with these
sessions can we do something like a
video game again natural for a young man
in his early 20s and he said can we try
something a guitar hero like application
and I thought it was a little bit crazy
but you know what it made a lot of sense
you could track the reaction time you
could look at how fast the movements
occurred you could see how complex they
were all in an engaging type of
environment so watch what he was able to
do after practice
yeah so that was his first time so look
at that hand movement you would not know
that that is someone who’s quadriplegic
he’s paralyzed but can’t use his hand at
all so Ian had made yet another
breakthrough and the question was what
else could we do with this technology
could we really impact quality of life
this young man is Steven Haywood he had
enrolled in a study where we were tried
to basically allow him to communicate
more effectively with his loved ones
Steven had ALS Lou Gehrig’s disease he
couldn’t move he couldn’t speak
he couldn’t even invoke facial
expressions when I met him they did
progress that far so the goal and this
is locked-in syndrome
okay so the goal was to allow him to
reconnect with the world to be able to
communicate and control for example the
cursor and his computer and just use his
thoughts to move it around surf the web
and do useful things and write emails
and I still remember one of the times I
was with him and he tried to move the
curse and he was struggling and he was
having some difficulties and his son
came in the room and jumped in his lap
and he said Go Daddy go you can do it
and I’ll send his performance went out
it was absolutely amazing and I think
this speaks to the power of
encouragement the power of being
reconnected you know to the world and to
your loved ones there’s another aspect
of paralysis with spinal cord injury and
stroke victims is the loss of sense of
touch I mean can you imagine not being
able to feel the hand of a loved one not
be able to feel objects as you you know
you pick them up you try to pick up a
cup of coffee to control the grasp so
those are the things that we’re looking
at next and those are the things we feel
are very important okay so now again
let’s think about quality of life so
this is opening up new doors and
opportunities though okay if we’re
connecting our brains to the computer
and we can connect our brains to the
internet then does that mean that we
could Google just by thinking about it
without having to pull our phones now
that’s really a possibility now so does
that mean when you go in to take a test
that the teacher is gonna say okay put
away your calculators put away your
phones and turn off your brain implant
I mean really think about it and so I
was talking to my daughter about this
the other day and she’s you know and I
said you know what do you think about
this and she’s 13 years old and she said
and why would anybody want to do this in
a very logical question but then I
showed her this quote okay from Ken
Olson in 1977 who said there is no
reason anyone would ever want a computer
in their home how wrong could he have
possibly been what an amazing quote it’s
so really as we think about this the
Bionic age is here okay and it’s not
going away it is going to grow and
accelerate and we’re going to continue
to use technology in our bodies we’re
gonna continue to use brain implants to
treat diseases and conditions such as
paralysis we’re already treating
Parkinson’s as well and we hope to treat
stroke and even traumatic brain injury
one day but I think that as our guide as
we progress if we continue to focus on
quality of life and we look at the needs
that the patient’s have okay where they
can benefit the most and we focus on
that early part of the curve that I
think we’re gonna be okay
and if we remember the true pioneers in
this new frontier are the patient’s okay
like Ian and by the way this is when he
and met John Glenn why don’t you know
another amazing moment true you know
pioneers to different areas but now
we’re going into a new age where the
patients are the ones we have to follow
as they break new ground and if we stay
focused on their needs and what they
need to function and need to improve the
quality of their life I think we’ll be
okay and the question will be will
computers and machines outsmart us or we
will we outsmart them
but if we follow this principle I think
it’s safe to say we will outsmart them
thank you
[Applause]
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