Forget the battlefield radios, the combat PDAs or even infantry hand signals. When the soldiers of the future want to communicate, they\u2019ll read each other\u2019s minds.<\/p>\n
At least, that\u2019s the hope of researchers at the Pentagon\u2019s mad-science division Darpa. The agency\u2019s budget for the next fiscal year includes $4 million to start up a program called Silent Talk. The goal is to \u201callow user-to-user communication on the battlefield without the use of vocalized speech through analysis of neural signals.\u201d That\u2019s on top of the $4 million the Army handed out last year to the University of California to investigate the potential for computer-mediated telepathy.<\/p>\n
Before being vocalized, speech exists as word-specific neural signals in the mind. Darpa wants to develop technology that would detect these signals of\u00a0 \u201cpre-speech,\u201d analyze them, and then transmit the statement to an intended interlocutor. Darpa plans to use EEG to read the brain waves. It\u2019s a technique they\u2019re also testing in a project to devise mind-reading binoculars that alert soldiers to threats faster the conscious mind can process them.<\/p>\n
\nThe project has three major goals, according to Darpa. First, try to map a person\u2019s EEG patterns to his or her individual words. Then, see if those patterns are generalizable \u2014 if everyone has similar patterns. Last, \u201cconstruct a fieldable pre-prototype that would decode the signal and transmit over a limited range.\u201d\n
The military has been funding a handful of\u00a0 mind-tapping technology recently, and already have monkeys capable of telepathic limb control. Telepathy may also have advantages beyond covert battlefield chatter. Last year, the National Research Council and the Defense Intelligence Agency released a report suggesting that neuroscience might also be useful to \u201cmake the enemy obey our commands.\u201d The first step, though, may be getting a grunt to obey his officer\u2019s remotely-transmitted thoughts.<\/p>\n
The approach seems to be physiological rather than New Age mystical, as such, but still. . . .Does this bother you? What about working on neuroscience that would \u201cmake the enemy obey our commands\u201d? Couldn\u2019t the state use that technology to make its citizens obey its commands?<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wired.com reports that the Pentagon is investing in the possibilities of telepathy on the battlefield: Forget the battlefield radios, the combat PDAs or even infantry hand signals. When the soldiers of the future want to communicate, they\u2019ll read each other\u2019s minds. At least, that\u2019s the hope of researchers at the Pentagon\u2019s mad-science division Darpa. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","category-technology"],"yoast_head":"\n
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