Technology continues to advance with implications that will mold and shape our society.
No one could have foreseen the changes that computers and then cell phones would have on social interaction.
The phone has become a lens through which many view their lives, this has been claimed to be the cause of many problems into today’s world and it looks like this could become the tip of the iceberg.
VR and augmented reality have seen the development of platforms of technology that take people away from human on human interaction.
These technologies often started life as military funded projects and now there is a new one that could continue to morph and massively change society.
The Government is seriously researching and Creating Mind-Controlled Weapons and machines.
Let’s take a look
Our old friends at DARPA, the Department of Defense's research arm, have decided to fund a project that aims to invent ways to instantly read the minds of soldiers. They are designing and using newly created tools like the manipulation of the human brain through genetic engineering of the human brain, nanotechnology and infrared beams.
This worrying project has the end goal of creating weapons systems which could be controlled via direct links to the mind of soldier, a digital telepathy or telekinesis if you will. What do they plan on controlling?
Well that’s easy everything. Starting with drones and working up to bigger craft.
I already look at the dangers of drones in the video linked above
The research and development wing of the US military complex has announced that six teams will receive funding under the Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology (N3) program.
This money will be used to pay for the development of two way communication from a human being to machine all without the need for surgery.
Outlining the projects goals Jacob Robinson of Rice University’s bioengineering department said
"Imagine someone who's operating a drone or someone who might be analyzing a lot of data, There's this latency, where if I want to communicate with my machine, I have to send a signal from my brain to move my fingers or move my mouth to make a verbal command, and this limits the speed at which I can interact with either a cyber system or physical system. So the thought is maybe we could improve that speed of interaction."
I think what he means by improve is change the human element of this equation. The transhumanist idea that we must better our own biological body to meet the demands of ever improving technology creating a synergy of in the biological and mechanical.
Is this yet another step toward a cyborg future?
To support this idea Robinson goes on to say that the data the human subject would receive from smart machines would be like a tidal which threatens to overwhelm brain of the man or woman using the technology, but ultimately he hopes that he can find an answer and that this equipment would become part of both the military and civilian domain.
So just how close are they, and what stands in the way of a cybernetic military?
While there have been huge advancements in the capability of reading and even writing information directly to the brain, these developments generally need the surgical insertion of brain implants. We see these devices used today to treat things like Parkinson’s and Epilepsy.
The idea of physically inserting something into the brain of a healthy fighting fit soldier is seen as too much of risk, the use of non-invasive technologies like electroencephalography (EEG) could be used as a link.
At this point we may have to ask the question would these researchers consider implanting a device into someone who was less healthy. Maybe an injured veteran?
This technology allowing the military to have non able bodied but experienced minds on the battle field?
The device they see using would need to read and write to 16 independent locations, this all in a section of brain no bigger than the size of a pea and would need to operate with a lag of no more than 50 milliseconds.
Robinson, is hoping he and his team will achieve this in as little as four years.
Robinson went on to say
"When you try to capture brain activity through the skull, it's hard to know where the signals are coming from and when and where the signals are being generated, so the big challenge is, can we push the absolute limits of our resolution, both in space and time?"
They may have found a way with a plan of genetically tweaking human brains.
This plan of genetic manipulation creep in with the DARPA funded researcher’s planning to use viruses to carry genetic material into preselected cells. The irony of computers once being given viruses by man and now ‘possibly’ computers will be able to do the same to humans is hopefully not lost on Robinson and his team.
The procedure will use two types of proteins as carriers, the first protein absorbs light when a neuron is firing, which would make it possible to detect and locate neural activity. This beam of light would come from an external headset, an infrared light that would be able to pass through the skull and on into the brain.
The headset then detects and measures the tiny signals which are reflected from the altered brain tissue thus mapping an image of the brain.
The second protein has the job of delivering a payload, this payload being the magnetic nanoparticles, these nanoparticles enabling the neurons to be magnetically stimulated.
The stimulation of the neurons would induce an image or sound in the patient's mind. As a proof of concept, the group plans to use the system to send images from' the visual cortex of one person to that of another.
Wow talk about seeing the world through someone else’s eyes!!
Robinson said
"Being able to decode or encode sensory experiences is something we understand relatively well, At the bleeding edge of science, I think we are there if we had the technology to do it."
This technology is being looked at for use outside of the military with companies looking to build fleets of mind controlled drones, could this be the first steps on a path toward surrogates. What if you become a drone pilot will you ever see an actual person or will your life be lived looking through the camera lens of drone?
Battelle the nonprofit research institute sees this as humanities future and they want to develop this technology so that the nanoparticles can be easily delivered through inhalers or nasal sprays.
The person then having the hardware installed ready to connect to a device or maybe have a device connected them!!
This technology Giving access to all we see and hear to an outside source is a scary thought, how we will be able to tell what is real from what is computer based data. This technology could provide the means to hack a human mind.
I opened this conversation with unforeseen effects today’s technology has had on society. People being sucked into a phone screen and disconnecting from real the world, what is going to happen when that world becomes binary code beamed directly into our brain?
Let me know what think in the comments below.
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