The neurosurgeon brought on board to make sure that Apple TV+ show Severance is at least plausible says we're "not far off" it being real, let alone possible.
The chilling message comes via a Variety report that discusses the possibilities of Severance being real. For the uninitiated, the Apple TV+ show is about a company called Lumon that uses a severance procedure to give people a real work-life balance. That's achieved by separating those two lives to the point where people don't know about their home lives when at work, and vice-versa.
Severance consultant Dr. Vijay Agarwal says it was his job over the course of two years to make sure the show was plausible, at least to a point. But in reality the severance procedure could be real much sooner than we realize.
"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. They do that by putting electrical pulses into the middle of the brain and into the areas of the brain that are not functioning accurately. We're actually able to put little catheters in the brain and hear single neurons firing. What the public may not be aware of is that we are much closer to this type of technology and this ability than we have ever been before."
So that's a thing that will be keeping me up tonight. You can read more about the work that went into creating Severance in the original Variety interview. Just in case your nightmares aren't already real enough.