
Darpa is testing implanting chips in soldiers’ brains - jacquesm
http://fusion.net/story/204316/darpa-is-implanting-chips-in-soldiers-brains/?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=/feed/
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ilkan
I'm disappointed... what an alarmist and false article. Soldiers are expensive
to train, you want them to come back safe and healthy so you can send them out
again. Fighting is a messy affair where you have to rely on people making good
independent decisions in swiftly variable situations with limited information,
and helping each other out.. a battalion of "hunter killer cyborgs" needing
direction and micromanagement would be a real commander's worst nightmare.
Commenters have been playing too many video games :) Most armies are
volunteer, not draft... who would ever join again?

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astazangasta
>Soldiers are expensive to train, you want them to come back safe and healthy
so you can send them out again.

Who is "you"? Maybe _you_. I didn't want to send out soldiers in the first
place. I haven't supported a single conflict the US has been involved in in my
lifetime, and I certainly don't think that the need to get soldiers - who have
already been traumatically injured fighting bullshit wars - back in the field
is a pressing one.

Even if it WAS a pressing need, are you fucking INSANE? The US military
implanting chips in soldiers' brains is a fucking bonkers notion. How about we
stop putting these people in harm's way for our oil wars, first of all, and
start actually offering them good medical treatment and therapy when they get
home? Let's solve all of these problems first, then we can talk about putting
chips inside them (the answer will still be 'no').

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kelvin0
If I was cynical, I would say that this is the perfect machevielan scheme:
Send you poorest people to fight your dirty wars, then when they come back
broken, use them as guinea pigs ...

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icewater0
I would go with:

1) Suppress the empathy response; 2) Implement a kill-switch for rogue units.

:-)

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snowwrestler
I once attended a talk by the head of DARPA at a technology conference in DC.
He said, in essence, the job of DARPA is to take a serious look at things that
sound crazy, but just might work.

As background he pointed out that a lot of ideas that are fundamental to our
current understanding of science and technology were at one time considered
crazy and impractical. Now, most ideas that we today think are crazy or
impractical, are in fact crazy or impractical. But it's likely that a tiny few
will be transformative. DARPA's job is to seriously test and cull for the good
ideas. Once they find a good idea, they hand it off (as they did the
Internet).

This can lead to some science-fiction-sounding headlines (like this one). But
the truth is that DARPA has no idea if they will work. So when it comes to
news coverage of DARPA, you have to bring a big grain of salt. News media love
to report crazy-sounding stories, and frankly it seems like DARPA enjoys
having a science-fiction reputation. That doesn't mean the programs are
"real," the way we think of other government programs like the F-35 or
Medicaid.

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stevoo
I am wondering if this can be used two ways and if the soldiers with this
implant are willing to take the risks.

Assuming that a soldier has been captured by enemy forces and he has knowledge
of vital information. What are the chances that using the implant they can
"fry" the soldier brain to avoid giving the enemy those vital information ?

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sobkas
I'm more interested what are the chances of soldier going "insane" just before
giving testimony to court/senate about "some things that people in the control
of that chip would like to bury"? Or even having a stroke or epilepsy
attack...

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synctext
Clickbait title

To repair injury, not sensational super soldiers.

“Suggesting that we aim to develop ‘super soldiers’ or that our brain-related
research is being conducted to ‘unlock the secrets of artificial intelligence’
is patently false,'” he said.

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mcv
Of course he would deny that.

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hugh4
Good old fashioned mad science. I can dig it.

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coldtea
Yeah, the kind that results in more efficient mass murder, suffering, and
oppression in the world. Hurray!

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stonogo
This is a pretty stupid assumption to make. All the of the 'weaponized brain'
bullshit is coming from breathless web journalism types -- DARPA's research is
into offsetting TBI, which is a real problem for many, many veterans.

If you need proof that not everything DARPA does is going to immediately
commit mass murder, consider the internet you used to post your teenaged
witticism.

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vfdfv
This _' weaponized brain' bullshit_ arises out of a very legitimate fear of
the US military, the right-wing nutcases that pull its strings, and its
extensive history of unethical human experimentation. If DARPA is seriously
interested in reducing TBI then perhaps they should consider conducting fewer
fraudulent wars.

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TDL
"the right-wing nutcases that pull its strings..."

You may want to look into the history of the military in the U.S., both right
and left share in it's excesses.

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vfdfv
I am no fan of either party, and I consider people like Barack Obama and
Hilary Clinton to be right-wingers as well, but the self-proclaimed political
right does the majority of warmongering.

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therobotking
The comments on that article are crazy. How did so many nutters find it and
comment on it so quickly?

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13thLetter
Just from looking around here, it appears they found it via the link from
Hacker News. :(

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tkinom
What if someone put these chips into some volunteer students. They later do a
lot much better in school in term of test scores, homework, writing, reading,
science, etc?

What if you have a mentally disable child, but help with this chip implant,
he/she can do much better than normal students or can easy get high enough SAT
score to get into the best colleges /grad school and cant easily match/beat
the best programmers in Google/Facebook/Apple.

Would you do it?

What if with this implant, you can learn new foreign language in a few days,
learn a new programming language + most complex programming patterns, concepts
while you are sleeping in couple days. You can easily get the best jobs in any
tech company. You can also train yourself to be the best CTO/Programmer in a
few weeks and finish the Backend/FrontEnd/IOS/Android/Windows program much
needed for your startup in no time at all.

Would you do it?

Assuming such chip/software exists and if you don't do it, others might have
huge competitive advantage. Would you care?

Maybe AI stand for Augmented Intelligent soon?

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xiler
Make no mistake, this is more than distant science fiction. Similar devices
and experiments were made by Yale researcher Jose Delgado back in the 50s and
60s [1]. He also wrote a book with a rather interesting title: 'Physical
Control of the Mind: Toward a Psychocivilized Society'.

[1] [http://io9.com/5871598/the-scientist-who-controlled-
peoples-...](http://io9.com/5871598/the-scientist-who-controlled-peoples-
minds-with-fm-radio-frequencies)

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tonylemesmer
Wow, put soldiers in a situation where they become wounded and traumatised and
then go in and say "but yeah we've got this which might help you" Learn a load
about how brain neural interfaces might work. Not much of a leap to then ask
"Let's weaponize it."

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codecamper
oh great, new fodder for the conspiracy theorists.

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bsder
"Interface" by Neal Stephenson and George Jewsbury

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anonbanker
at least I'm not the only one that thought of this book.

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anocendi
Did someone at DARPA take Kingsman seriously?

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toolslive
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Happiness_Cage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Happiness_Cage)
it was a movie first ;)

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rollthehard6
See also Rogue Trooper from 2000AD -

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_Trooper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_Trooper)

in which the 'biochips' where backups for the minds of disposable, genetically
engineered soldier's bodies.

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aethertap
There's a fun sci-fi series by Richard K Morgan that uses this concept. It
starts with "Altered Carbon."

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jitan
[http://www.mdmaptsd.org/](http://www.mdmaptsd.org/)

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x0
Why take a drug when you can just have a brain implant? Being serious, an
implant is permanent whereas that site claims MDMA averages 3.8 years. Brain
chips are so futuristic too.

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acd
Terminator 2 trailer :)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QXDPzx71jQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QXDPzx71jQ)

