Alright, so here’s the scoop, if you care about all this brain chip stuff. Gabe Newell, you know, the Valve guy, has this company, Starfish Neuroscience. And they’ve got a chip they’re working on, which sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie. Yeah, seriously. It’s supposed to be this super tiny, uber-efficient brain-computer interface. When I first heard it, I thought, “Really? That’s the next big thing?”
Anyway, they’re like teaming up with this big R&D player, imec, to make this happen. There’s a lot of talk about it being wireless and battery-free—which, don’t ask me how that works—reading and stimulating brain activity. Like, Newell’s been chatting about it for a while now. Something about complex neurological disorders. I barely understand how my coffee maker works, but sure, why not?
And get this—it’s a teensy 2x4mm chip. If you told me years ago that I’d be reading specs on brain chips from the Valve dude, I’d have laughed. But here we are, and they’re saying it’s pretty low power, just 1.1 mW. I guess that’s impressive?
Now, I’m not an expert, but apparently, it has all these electrode sites and channels for recording all sorts of brain stuff. Impedance and stim voltage? That’s a lot of big words for me. But it’s designed in some TSMC 55nm process. Fancy talk for “small and efficient,” I guess.
So, they’re calling for collaborators—folks working with wireless power and implantable devices. If you’re out there thinking, “Hey, I could work on brain chips,” maybe this is your jam. They think it’ll be out around 2025.
And then Newell, back in 2023, made this wild comment on how we’re closer to something like ‘The Matrix’ than we think. I mean, what does that even mean? He reckons hooking up to our brains might eventually be no big deal—and he’s not alone! This guy Mike Ambinder from Valve also talked about using brain-computer interfaces for gaming. Like, imagine your game knowing how you feel. Weird, right?
Shout out to Brad ‘SadlyItsBradley’ Lynch for putting this in the spotlight.
So, there you have it. Brain chips, sci-fi dreams—call it what you will. It’s the future, apparently.
