Making Heads and Tails of the Coming Era of Neural Devices, Could Moore’s Law Address the Declining Mental Health Trend

Despite major advances in medicine and technology, mental health outcomes have declined globally over the past several decades. Fortunately we are in the early phases of exponential growth neurotech similar to Moore’s Law. These emerging neural devices may provide a solution to the growing mental health crisis. Clinical data shows promising outcomes from technologies such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) leading to exponential improvement in performance improvements and cost reductions. As a result, neurotechnology could follow a similar path to personal computing going from a handful of niche markets to ubiquity over the next decade. Indeed, next generation therapeutic brain-computer interfaces (BCIs)—particularly minimally invasive implants—could become mass-market solutions for regulating mental states. The future may be one where neural devices help individuals thrive in an increasingly complex world, not by augmenting human intelligence but by enhancing emotional well-being and preserving the most precious aspects of our humanity.