I have the view opposite of yours: Neuralink has the most profound and consequential potential of the litter—though it‘ll play out as a dark horse.
Perhaps it is easier to see its value as a multiplier of human potential. If you were ten, twenty, a hundred, or a thousand times smarter than others, how well would you do in, say, the market? The one eyed man or woman rules in the land of the blind as Elon has amply demonstrated.
Also, solving aging will not be enough, we’ll need upgrades to compete and survive. It isn’t just AI that we’re in competition with. Mutants of extraordinary capability are cropping up (only slightly exaggerating here, for example:
Who Are These Kids, and What Are They Doing to Jazz? from the NY Times).
Further, the internet enables an unprecedented ability to winnow. Who’s to say that the Western Liberal tradition will prevent breakaway and fragmentation of human civilization as we reach into space, even with just baby steps into this solar system?
Say that Neuralink ‘only’ solves addiction and sensory-motor control issues, that is a big deal and a big business.
In the larger picture, the pandemic may have made things seem like they’re slowing down, but technological changes are gathering speed and power.