[kelseyfrog]

There is a market for advertising-subsidized neural implants.

Think of the profit potential of being able to directly influence consumer brains patterns. It's a multi-trillion dollar industry, minimum.

The fear isn't that it's an option; It's creating a world where you can't afford not to. Much like how modern life requires internet participation, the idea of a potential world that requires neural implant participation and the economic incentives described above is viscerally horrific.

[Zambyte]

> The fear isn't that it's an option; It's creating a world where you can't afford not to.

It's not even just that I couldn't afford not to. It's that in a way, I couldn't choose not to. Anything anyone says that has Neuralink installed is compromised. Any friendly suggestion to grab lunch at Major Chain Restaurant TM could be an ad. Any anecdote could be political campaigning.

It's not just not having it myself, it's the fact that those around me having it is a problem.

[kelseyfrog]

That's a great point I hadn't considered.

What a terrible position to be in if the technology actually helps disabled folks though. On one hand their quality of life may improve. On the other, there may be a huge (possibly justified) stigma on all implanted people due to what you're writing about.