Tech & AI
Neuralink Is Reading Signals Straight From the Brain in 2026. Ancient Egypt Threw the Brain Away.
Roughly 21 people across four countries are living with Neuralink implants in 2026, controlling cursors and games by thought alone. Ancient Egyptian embalmers, by contrast, considered the brain worthless — and threw it away.
Brain-computer interfaces reached a genuine, if still early, human-trial milestone in 2026. Roughly 21 participants across the US, UK, Canada, and UAE are living with Neuralink implants through the company's PRIME study, using them to control a cursor, play games, and browse the web by thought alone. High-volume production of the implant itself is underway in 2026, alongside moves toward more automated surgical placement — though no BCI device is yet commercially available to the public.
Where Brain-Computer Interfaces Actually Stand in 2026
- Approximately 21 participants are living with Neuralink implants across four countries as part of ongoing clinical trials
- Participants have demonstrated cursor control, gameplay, and web browsing controlled entirely by neural signals
- High-volume implant production and steps toward more automated surgical implantation are underway, though commercial availability remains a future milestone
The Premise Behind the Surgery
Every serious BCI program in 2026 is built on the same starting premise: the brain is the single most information-rich organ in the human body, and reading its signals directly is worth genuinely invasive surgery to achieve.
Ancient Egypt Didn't Think the Brain Was Worth Keeping
During mummification, Egyptian embalmers carefully preserved the organs believed essential to a person's identity and continued existence in the afterlife — the heart above all, considered the actual seat of intelligence, emotion, and moral judgment, and the organ literally weighed against the feather of Ma'at in the Book of the Dead's judgment scene. The brain, by contrast, was considered functionally unimportant. It was removed and discarded, typically by inserting a hooked instrument through the nostril to break through the ethmoid bone and pull the tissue out in pieces — a genuinely well-documented embalming step, attested across multiple studied mummies.
The Same Organ, a Completely Reversed Verdict
It's about as sharp a historical contrast as exists for 2026's BCI technology: a civilization that built one of history's most sophisticated body-preservation industries around the specific, confident belief that the brain was the one organ not worth keeping, set against a modern technology built entirely around treating the brain as the single most valuable organ in the body — worth surgically wiring directly into. Same organ, completely opposite verdict, roughly three and a half thousand years apart.
Frequently Asked Questions
Roughly 21 participants across the US, UK, Canada, and UAE are living with Neuralink implants as part of the ongoing PRIME study, using them to control cursors, play games, and browse the web by thought.
They didn't consider it important to a person's identity or afterlife — that role was assigned to the heart, which was carefully preserved and weighed in the Book of the Dead's judgment scene. The brain was typically removed through the nose with a hooked instrument and discarded.
No — as of 2026, Neuralink and similar BCI technologies remain in clinical trials with a limited number of participants; no BCI device is yet commercially available to the general public.
The organ hasn't changed in three and a half thousand years. What's changed completely is the verdict on whether it's worth keeping — and, in 2026, worth wiring directly into.