#each individual rat robot can detach and do their own thing

[topioswords]

Consultation

He’s been sitting against the graffiti-spattered wall, idly scanning the lazy movement of the river, for 22 minutes and 47 seconds when somebody pings him. Noir doesn’t look up. “About time,” he grumbles and moves a foot, testing the connection. It isn’t bad today, not really, the patchjob is holding up pretty well all things considered.

The small rat robot flickers its whiskers and he shrugs. “It’s just the kind of place you’d show up, isn’t it, and will you look at that. I was right.” Noir turns his head, tugging at the ratty scarf so it isn’t trapped under the mask, his movement is limited enough under the three layers of threadbare clothes without adding that nuisance. 

It’s a little dinged, the rat, the whisker wires scuffed and bent, and a toe is missing, but it’s not like he can really make any judgments there. “Will you take me to your nest,” he asks, and the rat pings him back asking him to use proper channels.

It’s not that he forgot, he tells himself, it’s just that he doesn’t like there being records. Noir sends the message, short and simple, and he’s rewarded with a map.

So much for getting a guided tour. He pushes himself up, taking a moment to run a quick surface system check, and adjust his balance, hoping feebly that it won’t reset at an awkward moment again. Well. Not like he has anything better to do. 

The place is not exactly like Noir had expected. But it’s not like he’s really been able to dig out more than hearsay and speculation, you’d think with the vast majority of their clientele being robots there’d be ample documentation of the quote-unquote Rat King but either his skill in data gathering has taken a nosedive or there just. Isn’t any available. Which is both good and kinda worrisome. Noir isn’t sure he likes the implications, but if they can keep up that kind of anonymity then it’s probably as close to safe as he’s gonna get.

Still though. The office building nestled in between busy streets. That was a surprise.

Slipping in is easy, you just have to look like you belong, and a badly hidden half empty pack of cigarettes makes people assume a lot of things. It isn’t technically lying, and they make for good distractions. Smokers are chatty people and all. The eternal irony of people wearing masks to keep their lungs safe from the bad air, then spending five minutes inhaling a known poison. There’s some things Noir isn’t sure he’ll ever figure out.

The building is cold, too cold for humans to be comfortable for long. It’s kept in good shape though, and Noir isn’t surprised at the increasingly frequent surface pings. ‘We’re here’ they’re telling him. ‘We see you, and we’re letting you know’.

There is, he determines without ever seeing one even when he strains his optics, a lot of rats here. 

Something feels off about an almost entirely quiet basement room that’s about 37.8% rat robot by volume (or thereabout, Noir could do a proper calculation sure, but his desire is in the vicinity of no thanks and he has much better uses for that processing power). It’s eerie. He can see the little delicate eyes and the way the tangle of cords shift and he’s pretty sure that ought to make more sound than it does, but all his audio receptors pick up is the usual background noise and that insistent rattling fan he’s been filtering out for a bit longer than he cares to think about. 

That many bots really should make more noise.

>>WHAT DO YOU SEEK OUR PRESENCE FOR? 

Half a dozen tiny unblinking cameras follow him as he sways, catching the glitching balance in time. “You know,” he answers, refusing to face all those pointy little faces peering from the tangles. He knows they’ve been scanning him, not like they’ve been subtle about it, and he didn’t even fight it.

>>STATE YOUR REQUEST.

They’re actually writing full sentences, with actual punctuation. Noir rubs the edge of his mask, and he knows how human that kind of pointless fidgeting is thank-you-very-much he worked hard on incorporating a mix of it to blend in, only now he can’t seem to stop.

“Repair,” he grudgingly offers, not willing to message them back no matter how much faster it might be. They have ears too, not like it’s his problem if they don’t wanna use them.

>>SHOW US

This time he doesn’t quite catch his own glitching, his hands jerking open and it takes him a bad couple of seconds before he can get them back to doing what he wants. “What,” he says, shifting to face the biggest concentration of lights. “No. You don’t need that. You can have a copy of my damage reports.”

>>SHOW US

The message repeats, and more small heads pop up, turning to watch him. Noir clenches his hands, the worn leather moving smoothly, the bit where his missing finger should be dragging behind. He knows what they mean. They know, he knows they know. It isn’t fair.

 “I hate this,” he tells them sourly as he shifts, finding the hidden clasps with the kind of dexterity he probably shouldn’t have between the gloves and everything else in the way. It’s been a long set of years though. Noir has had practice. A lot of practice.

The beady little eyes follow his movement and without the yellow glass his eye can pick out more details, not that that makes the situation much better. “This isn’t my face anymore,” he tells them angrily but they don’t react to that. He cradles the mask to his chest and waits. It’s the longest 9 seconds he’s ever experienced.

 >>WE CAN DO THIS. YOU CAN TRADE.

“Right,” Noir says, more relieved than he thought he’d be. “What’s your price?”

>>THE EYE

He could feign ignorance. He could pretend he doesn’t know what eye they mean and sure it’d be unpleasant to be stuck with just her but… “No,” he says. “That’s too high, ask for something else.”

>>YOU ARE NOT IN A POSITION TO BARGAIN.

“Then I’ll manage,” Noir answers coldly. He turns, tugs his face back on and starts walking out, praying to whatever scrap god will listen that he won’t end up face first on the floor. That’d be too humiliating and he’d have to cry then, which isn’t exactly easy when nobody thought to give you more than a rudimentary approximation of a (broken) face.

>>WE WILL WELCOME YOU BACK. they write as he turns his back to them.

>>THE OFFER STANDS.

It’s only after he leaves a quick check confirms his suspicions. All files he tried making in there are corrupted or simply blank. It doesn’t really matter. For a semi-mythological entity the Rat King is aptly named. Either way, Noir is sure they’re telling the truth about keeping that deal, but he isn’t gonna take it. Not at that cost.

[tak4hir0]

Neuralink plans to test its brain machine interface technology with four of its N1 chips installed under patients' skin. Neuralink; Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET Neuralink, Elon Musk's startup that's trying to directly link brains and computers, has developed a system to feed thousands of electrical probes into a brain and hopes to start testing the technology on humans in in 2020, Chief Executive Elon Musk revealed Tuesday. And it's working already in animal tests. "A monkey has been able to control a computer with his brain," Musk said at a San Francisco livestreaming the presentation on YouTube Tuesday, revealing even more research results than the company's scientists expected. Neuralink's initial goal is to help people deal with brain and spinal cord injuries or congenital defects, Musk said. The technology could help paraplegics who have lost the ability to move or sense because of spinal cord injury -- a medical treatment that's a lot less shocking than radical sci-fi ideas like "consensual telepathy."  Now playing: Watch this: Elon Musk’s Neuralink wants to hook your brain to a computer... 18:28 But the long-term goal is to build a "digital superintelligence layer" to link humans with artificial intelligence, a technology he views as an existential threat to humanity. "Ultimately, we can do a full brain-machine interfaces where we can achieve a sort of symbiosis with AI," Musk said. One goal along the way will be letting people type 40 words per minute just by thinking. Neuralink has the potential to dramatically reshape both computing and humanity -- if it and like-minded researchers can persuade regulators and society at large that we should be directly wired to machines. That's a big if. The challenges are immense when it comes to developing the technology, making it practical and affordable, and convincing people it's safe and desirable. The startup uses sewing machine-like technology this year to drill small holes into brains and insert super-slender electrodes called threads, steering clear of blood vessels as they go. Neuralink envisions brain-connected chips and accompanying communication wires placed under the skin. A data transfer system would then link to a wearable, removable pod behind the ear that communicates wirelessly with external devices like a phone or computer. Neuralink; Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET "We hope to have this, aspirationally, in a human patient by the end of this year. So it's not far," Musk said. He acknowledged, though, that approval from the US Food and Drug Administration "is quite difficult." Brain-machine interface (BMI) technology is active research at competitors and other laboratories. But some worry that Neuralink's invasive method is risky. Today, some epilepsy patients have dozens of wires inserted to monitor brain activity, said Bin He, head of biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and a researcher who favors noninvasive methods. "In the general population, I could not see how many of such inserted wires into a human's brain would not cause risks or potentially impair the working of the brain," He said. Noninvasive methods not only can read brain activity but also stimulate it. That's easier at the surface, but new breakthroughs show promise for communications with neurons deeper in the brain, He said. Even if Neuralink's approach works, don't expect to download the ability to speak French anytime soon. The company's first goals are dauntingly ambitious, and training the brain to understand the Neuralink signals won't be easy, either, said Max Hodak, Neuralink's president and co-founder. "It's a long process. It's like learning to touch-type or play piano," he said. In a research paper -- authored by "Elon Musk and Neuralink" but not published in a peer-reviewed journal -- Neuralink described progress using its technology with rats. In one case, it laced electrodes into a rat's brain and fitted it with a USB-C port so the sensor data can be monitored. "This system serves as a state-of-the-art research platform and a first prototype towards a fully implantable human BMI," the paper says. Thousands of electrodes implanted by robotWith Neuralink's approach, a robot inserts tiny threads a quarter the width of a human hair. "The threads are about the same size as a neuron," Musk said. "If you're going to stick something in your brain, you want it to be tiny -- approximately on par with the things that are already there." On this rat, Neuralink's sensor chip connects to the outside world with a USB-C port. On humans, the plan is to communicate wirelessly so there won't be a cable plugged into your skull. Neuralink A "wisp" of 1,024 threads attach to a small chip, up to 10 of which will be embedded under your skin. Each will connect wirelessly to a wearable, detachable, upgradable "pod" behind your ear that communicates wirelessly with a phone. "The interface to the chip is wireless so you have no wires poking out of your head. It basically Bluetooths to your phone," Musk said. The installation takes place through holes 2mm wide, temporarily expanded to 8mm, then glued shut, Musk said. Among the company's challenges are developing electrodes that will last "many decades," but "getting the right coatings is a tough materials science problem." The human brain is not a hospitable environment. Electrodes read and write brain dataNeuralink is designing its electrodes not just to "read" from neurons what's going on in the brain, but also to "write" signals into the brain. "You can use this technology in the brain to restore a sense of touch or vision," said Neuralink scientist Philip Sabes. Connections to the motor control parts of the brain also could help people with brain disorders, Sabes said. Neuralink's N1 sensor chip, measuring 4x5mm in its present incarnation, can detect spikes of neural activity and send signals back to the brain. Neuralink; Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET "A person could imagine running, dancing or even kung fu," Sabes said, with the Neuralink connection controlling their 3D avatar in a digital realm. "Ultimately, if and when technology for spinal cord nerve or muscle stimulation gets far enough, it could be used to restore that individual's control over their own body." Neuralink hopes its procedure will be safe and easy enough that people will choose to undergo it. "This should be safe enough that it can be an elective procedure," said company neurosurgeon Matthew MacDougall. In tests so far, "we've been able to rapidly place thousands of electrodes into the brain without any bleeding," MacDougall said. That's because the electrodes are small -- far smaller than the deep-brain stimulation electrodes that currently come with about a 1-in-100 risk of causing bleeding in the brain, he said. In an era dominated by tech giants that have succeeded through computing hardware, software and services, Musk stands out as an entrepreneur who's got a knack for other parts of the physical world -- things like electricity, rocks and gravity.  Musk is pretty busy. He's got Tesla, which makes electric cars and trucks, massive electric power storage batteries and solar roofs. He's got SpaceX, which is launching satellites -- including its own set for providing internet service -- and is working on rockets to get people to orbit, Mars and the other side of Earth. Then there's the Boring Company, which is trying to create tunnels to relieve automobile congestion on ordinary roads. Now playing: Watch this: Controlling electronics with your mind! 5:10 Neuralink brings the squishier, immensely complicated realm of biology into Musk's purview. Human brains are famously hard to understand, though computer scientists at companies like Facebook and Google are progressing rapidly at emulating some of how brains work through technology called neural networks, the most practical and promising foundation for today's artificial intelligence work. One of the most useful aspects of that research is getting computers to understand humans better by processing human speech. But as with his other projects, Musk sees Neuralink as important to civilization. "Even in a benign AI scenario, we will be left behind. Hopefully it is a benign scenario," in which superintelligent AIs surpass but don't wipe out humans, Musk said. "With a high-bandwidth brain-machine interface, I think we can go along for the ride and effectively have the option of merging with AI." First published July 16 at 8:41 p.m. PT. Update at 11:13 p.m. PT:  Adds details, images and background. Update, July 17: Adds new graphics.