Noland Arbaugh was a 22-year-old student when an accident changed his life for ever. Swimming with a group of friends, he was hit in the head and blacked out. He was pulled from the water, and when he came round, it was clear the injury to his spinal cord meant he had lost all movement below his shoulders.

A committed Christian, Arbaugh has dealt with his changed circumstances with patience and good humour, the journalist Jenny Kleeman tells Helen Pidd. However, the opportunity came along to have an implant fitted into his brain that would allow him to directly interact with a computer. He jumped at the chance. The operation carried real risk, but he says the thought of being able to move things on a screen with his mind pushed him on.

And it worked. Soon Arbaugh was able to play games, text, WhatsApp and have a full online life just using his brain. Surprisingly, Elon Musk’s Neuralink company is not the only one carrying out such experiments. And Arbaugh is not the only person to have a brain-computer interface. Yet Musk’s ambitions are wider. He is looking to merge man and machine. If he succeeds what could the consequences be?

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