Neuralink's first study participant says his whole life has changed

It was February 2024 when Noland Arbaugh, the first person to get Elon Musk's experimental brain chip, rolled across the stage in a wheelchair during a Neuralink "all hands" meeting, revealing his identity for the first time. The room, filled with Neuralink employees, erupted in applause as Arbaugh—who dislocated two of his vertebrae in a swimming accident in 2016 and has since lost sensation and movement below his shoulders—smiled ear-to-ear in his chair, a red Texas A&M hat planted on his head. He grinned as he began to speak: "Hello, humans." About a month before that town hall, Arbaugh had…