Paralysed but Not Defeated
In 2016, a single second shattered Noland Arbaugh’s life. Paralyzed from the shoulders down, the former college athlete and chess enthusiast faced a future void of independence. Today, he’s not only playing chess again but he’s doing it with his mind, powered by Neuralink’s groundbreaking brain-computer interface.
Table of Contents
2 - The Real Story
3 - Neuralink: The Bridge Back to the Board
5 - Conclusion
Born in Yuma, Arizona, Noland Arbaugh grew up in a humble household. His father introduced him to chess at age seven using his glass chess set. By only ten years old, Noland was competing in local tournaments. At High School, Arbaugh became a chess prodigy, leading his team to many chess tournament wins.
Accepted to Texas A&M University in 2012, Arbaugh studied for a degree in International Studies and politics. He joined the university’s chess club, organizing late-night blitz tournaments in his dorm.
Arbaugh was working at a summer camp in the Pocono Mountains called Island Lake Camp. On their first day off, him and a group of his friends went to a man made lake in Binghamton, New York. While he was wading through the lake, he spotted some friends who were not getting wet and so they decided to go over and pick them up to throw them into the water. Noland explained that at some point he got hit in the side of the head dislocating the C4 and C5 vertebrae then they were almost immediately relocated again.
He woke up face down in the water. He realised he couldn't move, he tried over and over but it was hopeless, he had to hold his breath and pray that someone noticed him and picked him out of the water. Sadly no one did so he eventually decided "Might as well take a big drink and whatever happens, happens."
He finally woke up when they pulled him out of the water and on the beach. He woke up again when an ambulance came and he was talking to a paramedic about what has happened. He woke up again when they were transferring him to a helicopter, and then woke up again in the hospital right before they took him into surgery. A friend of his went with him to the hospital, bawling her eyes out, but Arbaugh tried to comfort her by cracking a few jokes and saying "Look, everything's gonna be fine. Look, I'm all right." Sadly he can't remember fully what he said to her.
Arbaugh underwent a six-hour surgery to realign his spine. The prognosis was grim. Quadriplegia (paralysis of all four limbs) with minimal chance of regaining arm function. He awakened intubated in the ICU, and luckily was doing just alright. During his hospital visit he became depressed with his new reality and wondered what his life would look like from now on, it was reported that in the hospital he "could not be alone for more than maybe 30 minutes without having to call someone in".
Many people believe he became paralysed due to a diving accident into shallow waters, but this was not the case.
3 - Neuralink: The Bridge Back to the Board
However, around 2 years ago a friend of his called randomly drunk on a Wednesday morning at 11am and he said, “Hey, you want to get a chip in your brain?” And Noland replied with, “Sure. Why not? I got nothing going on.” Apparently, while drunk, his friend was researching about SpaceX and human trials for a new brain chip popped up and the first person he though of was Arbaugh. His friend was a Biology Major who worked in a lab researching about Neurology, part of Noland believes it was him that gave his friend an interest in neurology and brain chips
He decided to apply over the phone with his friend but he though it was a long shot, because "there was nothing really spectacular" about him. He constantly felt like he didn't do anything with his accident, and started to feel like he didn't have a purpose anymore. He thought there was no way they would pick him for the trial due to this so he decided to joke around with the application and not take it very seriously.
Then the next day he got an email telling him he was shortlisted for the Neuralink. He got sent a link with 20 different time slots and his first though was, “I know I'm not very memorable, so the least I can do is select the very first time slot on everything they send me, and at least they will remember me for being the first person to be interviewed".
The first interview was just asking simple questions about him and how he became paralysed, just to make sure he wasn't some random person trying to get a neuralink while not being paralysed. The second interview was much more medically related, his medical history, calling the surgeons that realigned his spine, and eventually consent forms for a day of tests at Phoenix at Barrow Neurological Institute, where he spent 8 hours having blood tests, brain scans, urine tests and pretty much anything else you could think of.
He was told that if during any of his interviews, his story didn't line up with exactly what they wanted for the first neuralink patient then they would say sorry and move on to another patient. Then a month after the testing, he was told he would be number one. He would be the first neuralink patient.
The surgery was supposed to take 3 to 6 hours but somehow they managed to complete it in 1 hour and 54 minutes. The surgeons made an incision, drilled a hole in his skull then they let a small surgical robot, nicknamed "Tiny Dancer", take over. Tiny Dancer placed 16 electrodes on the 64 threads near the neurons in his brain. They had around 20 needles on standby to replace the needle that tiny Dancer was using to place the electrodes in his brain in case it broke. One needle did it.
The electrodes were implanted in the motor cortex on the left side of his brain. Each of the 64 threads have 16 electrodes connected to it, totaling 1,024 electrodes overall, and they are implanted in the part of his motor cortex specifically correlated to right hand movement. Those electrodes, they pick up neuron spikes, neuron signals, and so if he "moves his right hand" in my brain to move the cursor on his computer, it translates through an app on his computer the Link App, and it turns it into cursor control.
A couple weeks before Noland's surgery one of his friends was staying over to help out, and they were laughing about how funny it would be to play a prank on someone out of surgery. His friend, Bane. didn't think Noland would do it. He said, “There's no way you do that.”
When he finally woke up from surgery, most of his family and close friends were standing around him, and his mum looked at him. She asked, “Hey, honey. How are you doing?" Noland decided to look at her, and say, “Who are you?” She freaked out. Noland confessed in an interview that this is by far one of his favourite parts of his story, showing how even through all of his hard times he has still maintained the same jokey personality he had before.
Around 2 hours after Arbaugh's surgery, Elon Musk himself decided to pay him a visit, Noland was still a bit groggy but Musk came in saying “Hey, good job. Finally made it here. It's good to meet you.” And also things like, “How do you feel? How's it going?” Noland confesses that he doesn't remember much from the chat as he was still getting through the aftermath of the anesthesia, but what he does remember very vividly is how cool his bomber jacket was. A little bit later the neuralink team came in and they watched the brain chip work for the first time.
Now Arbaugh has a way of finally playing chess by himself online, after every game he reported he is getting more comfortable with moving the pieces with his mind and is on his way to reach his goal of 2000. At the 2024 Speed Chess Championship he was amazed when he was asked to make the opening move in front of many of his idols. Which again, he decided to try and make it into a joke.
So, what do you think? Would you ever let Elon Musk put a chip in your brain? Let me know in the comments and as always I hope you enjoyed this blog!!
