Six years ago, OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman once quipped that he'd ask an AI how his company would make money, a statement met with skepticism but rooted in his genuine belief in the technology's future. Today, a similar sense of audacious ambition surrounds Max Hodak, the co-founder and CEO of Science Corp., and former co-founder of Elon Musk's Neuralink. Hodak's current venture is not just pushing the boundaries of brain-computer interface (BCI) technology; it aims to fundamentally redefine the very concept of a brain, potentially integrating multiple hemispheres, devices, or even entire groups of people into a single conscious entity.
From Neuralink to Science Corp: A Vision Beyond the Known
Hodak, who began programming at age six, honed his neuroscience expertise at Duke under pioneering neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis. In 2016, he co-founded Neuralink with Elon Musk, serving as its president and overseeing daily operations until 2021. Reflecting on his time with Musk, Hodak describes a distinct problem-solving dynamic: "We got into lots of situations together where something would happen. In my mind, I’d have two diametrically opposed possible solutions, and I would bring them to him, and I’d be like, ‘Is it A or B?’ And he’d look at it and be like, ‘It’s definitely B,’ and the problem would never come back.”
Armed with these insights, Hodak recruited three former Neuralink colleagues to launch Science Corp. approximately four years ago. Like Altman, Hodak presents his team's seemingly improbable goals with such calm conviction that it's easy to believe the limits of human cognition are on the verge of being overcome, with Science Corp. at the forefront.
The Expanding Landscape of Brain-Computer Interfaces
While the focus on AI data centers and talent wars has dominated headlines, the BCI sector has been quietly gaining significant momentum. According to the World Economic Forum, nearly 700 companies globally are involved in BCI technology, including major tech players. Microsoft Research has dedicated seven years to BCI projects, and Apple recently partnered with Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos-backed Synchron to enable BCI control of iPhones and iPads. Even Sam Altman is reportedly supporting a Neuralink rival. China has also signaled its intent to become a global BCI leader by 2030, targeting core technological breakthroughs by 2027.
Hodak acknowledges that much of the underlying neuroscience isn't new. "A legitimate criticism of the BCI companies is that they aren’t doing new neuroscience," he states, noting that decoding cursor or robotic arm control from humans has been done for decades. The true innovation, he argues, lies in engineering. "The innovation at Neuralink is making [a device] small enough and low-power enough that you can fully implant it and close the skin, and have something that isn’t an infection risk. That genuinely was new.”
Prima: Restoring Vision and Generating Revenue
Despite the grander ambitions, Science Corp. is also focused on practical, revenue-generating solutions. The company develops and sells specialized tools to researchers, transforming expensive, cart-sized recording systems into affordable, handheld devices. Their most significant near-term product, however, is a procedure called Prima.
Prima, a computer chip smaller than a grain of rice implanted directly into the retina, recently made the cover of Time magazine. Combined with camera-equipped glasses and a portable battery, this technology restores "form vision" to individuals with advanced macular degeneration, moving beyond mere light perception. In clinical trials involving 38 patients, Science Corp. reports that 80% regained the ability to read, two letters at a time. Hodak proudly states, "To my knowledge, this is the first time that restoration of the ability to fluently read has ever been definitively shown in blind patients.”
Science Corp. acquired Prima from French company Pixium Vision last year, refined the technology, completed trials, and submitted results for European approval, with a planned launch next summer. While U.S. FDA approval is still pending, Hodak estimates the procedure will initially cost $200,000, making Science Corp. profitable with just 50 patients per month.
The Next Frontier: Optogenetic Gene Therapy
Beyond Prima, Science Corp.'s next ambitious step is optogenetic gene therapy. This involves making neurons light-sensitive for control via light rather than electrodes. In macular degeneration, photoreceptors die, but Prima's electrodes stimulate the surviving bipolar cells directly. With gene therapy, the goal is to bypass electrodes entirely by engineering surviving cells to respond to light using new proteins.
Hodak explains that the eye is an "ideal place to do this type of gene therapy work, because it’s kind of left alone by the immune system." Unlike other body parts where engineered cells trigger immune attacks, the eye's immune response is uniquely subdued. While other companies pursue similar methods, Hodak asserts Science Corp.'s proteins are "state of the art," offering superior speed and sensitivity.
Growing New Brain Tissue: The "Waffle Grid" Device
Even gene therapy is not Science Corp.'s ultimate goal. Hodak envisions a method to grow new brain tissue, addressing the fundamental limitations of current BCI approaches like Neuralink's. Electrodes are inherently crude, causing tissue damage. "Every time you place something mechanically into the brain, there’s no free space in there," Hodak notes. While the trade-off is justifiable for severe conditions like spinal cord injury or blindness, tissue damage prevents scaling up to "millions or billions of channels."
Science Corp. has developed a proof-of-concept device tested in mice: a tiny "waffle grid" that sits on the brain's surface. Each well contains engineered neurons grown from stem cells, optimized for specific functions. Once implanted, these neurons grow new connections—axons and dendrites—into the existing brain tissue, forming biological links. In mouse trials, five out of nine mice learned to move left or right when the device was activated. Hodak emphasizes its biocompatibility: "It does this in a perfectly bio-compatible way, because the brain is really just a bunch of neurons. Just neurons talking to neurons, the way evolution intended, save for the not-inconsiderable fact that some of the neurons come from a lab.” Should anything go wrong, a patient can take an FDA-approved vitamin that triggers the engineered neurons to die, acting as a built-in biological safety valve.
The Ultimate Quest: Cracking Consciousness
Hodak reframes his entire endeavor: "I actually think BCI is a longevity-adjacent story." His ultimate goal is to understand and engineer consciousness itself. "The brain does two things: the brain is intelligent and it’s conscious. We know that intelligence is substrate-independent, because you get it in both brains and GPUs. But the end of the brain-computer interface quest, I think, is actually conscious machines.”
This quest involves deciphering the physical laws that enable subjective experience and then replicating it in new substrates. Hodak believes that once humanity comprehends how billions of neurons create a unified experience—what neuroscientists call "the binding problem"—truly revolutionary possibilities emerge. These include the startling prospect of multiple brains forming a single consciousness. "You could really, in a very fundamental sense, talk about redrawing the border around a brain, possibly to include four hemispheres, or a device, or a whole group of people,” he explains.
This vision echoes the dystopian themes of shows like Apple TV's "Pluribus," where an alien signal transforms humanity into a hive mind. Hodak, however, seems to believe the underlying science is sound. He ponders the societal implications: "Will there be some giant super organisms that correspond to world cultures? Will there be dyads, like the next step up in marriage?” He admits uncertainty about how the technology will be used but is confident "those devices will get built." Ultimately, this path leads not just to smarter humans, but to individuals merged with machines and each other, with consciousness spanning multiple substrates, bodies, and minds. Hodak provocatively suggests, "What if, instead of endlessly patching failing bodies, we just moved the consciousness somewhere else?”
Timelines and Societal Tipping Points
What makes Hodak's predictions particularly striking is their concrete nature. He offers timelines, patient numbers, and regulatory pathways, not vague "someday" promises. He predicts that by 2035, "biohybrid neural interfaces will be basically available for patients in need," which he believes "will start to really deform the world in interesting ways.”
Hodak clarifies that healthy individuals won't be lining up for brain surgery soon, emphasizing that these are "very serious brain surgeries." However, he notes that as people age, "many people eventually become patients." He foresees technology improving, surgeries becoming safer, and benefits growing more dramatic, leading to an expanding patient population. By the late 2040s, he expects the technology to be "really ubiquitous."
The true "weirdness" is expected around 2035. Hodak predicts this is when "patient number one gets the choice of like, ‘You can die of pancreatic cancer, or you can be inserted into the matrix and then it will accelerate from there.’" He suggests that within a decade, someone facing a terminal illness might choose to have their consciousness uploaded and preserved via BCI technology, a prospect that leaves audiences both entertained and concerned.
The Economic Implications of Enhanced Cognition
One persistent challenge is the unequal distribution of financial resources. While insurance currently covers treatments for conditions like macular degeneration, the widespread proliferation and improvement of BCIs could disrupt the entire healthcare economic model. Hodak contrasts consumer tech, which benefits from deflation (better, cheaper products leading to market expansion), with healthcare, which operates on a "fixed bucket of money."
As BCI technology improves and extends lives, more resources will be needed for healthcare. "The problem is that as new technologies come along that produce better outcomes and longer lives, there’s more stuff to spend money on for better outcomes," Hodak explains. "You can’t spend like 10 times as much on healthcare. This would be a catastrophe.” He believes this "fundamental conflict" will eventually break the healthcare system. The implication is stark: either healthcare spending spirals out of control, or access to BCIs becomes a matter of affordability, potentially creating class divisions based on cognitive enhancements. The thought of competing against individuals with perfect recall or instantaneous calculation abilities is a daunting, near-term economic reality.
Despite these profound societal questions, Hodak maintains a pragmatic outlook. When asked about society's future, he smiles and says, "I worry a lot more about Twitter than I do about these things," expressing greater concern about information manipulation through traditional media than through direct brain interfaces.
The conversation leaves a lasting impression, much like Sam Altman's once-absurd-sounding comment about AI. Years ago, many ambitious ideas in Silicon Valley were met with initial skepticism, only to reshape the world. Hodak's vision, though seemingly far-fetched, demands serious consideration, hinting at a future where the boundaries of the brain, and indeed consciousness itself, are fundamentally redrawn.
