‘Doctrine of the Mean’: how the US lost a 2-decade race to China in brain implants

2026-03-29 - 14:03

For decades, the United States led the charge in the pursuit of brain-computer interface technology, betting big on bold, high-risk breakthroughs that promised to revolutionise medicine and human-machine integration. In the end, it is China crossing the finish line first. Using a semi-invasive approach that may lend credence to the Confucian “doctrine of the mean” – or the philosophy of seeking a middle path between extremes – a team in China has now come up with a commercially approved product...