Apple’s ‘Severance’ Neurosurgery Consultant Says We’re ‘Not Far Off’ From Its Terrifying Technology

variety.com:

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterApple TV Plus drama “Severance” takes place in a world where people are able to undergo a medical procedure that gives them a literal work-life balance by implanting a chip in their brain that essentially splits them into two different conscious versions of themselves: an “Innie” who is awake only at work, and an “Outtie” who is not aware of what they do from 9 to 5.In order to make the sci-fi thriller’s central plot point believable enough that viewers could accept it as a reality of the life of Mark Scout (Adam Scott) and his severed colleagues at Lumon Industries and move on to the larger ethical implications of severance, director Ben Stiller and series creator Dan Erickson brought in a real-life neurosurgeon to make all of this look possible.

And, according to the M.D., it’s not actually impossible at all, given enough time. “My job, over a couple of years, was to leverage the things that exist in neurosurgery and neuroscience today with a knowledge of the brain, and what the brain could be capable to do in the future,” “Severance” consultant Dr.

Vijay Agarwal told Variety of his years-long work on the show, which debuted Feb. 18.“We are not at the stage yet, as depicted in the show, but I would say we are not far off.

Right now, big academic centers, big neurosurgery, neuroscience centers are able to get micro catheters into the brain. They are able to adjust functions, like movement and tremor.