The boundary between therapy and enhancement has always been unstable in medicine. A drug that treats depression in a diagnosed patient is a performance enhancer in a healthy one. The same logic will apply — is already beginning to apply — to neural implants. And unlike pharmaceuticals, the regulatory scaffolding for the augmentation case barely exists. The GAO’s 2026 horizon report lists the capabilities that researchers are now actively working toward: hands-free drone control for military operators, real-time language translation, accelerated skill acquisition, and direct brain-to-brain communication.