The Pentagon Wants to Bring Mind-Controlled Tech To Troops

Funny, when I first read this, I thought they were bringing mind control of other human beings but it is not that. Controlling devices with your mind is pretty cool though.

The idea of humans controlling machines with their minds has spun off sci-fi blockbusters like “Pacific Rim” and entire subgenres of foreign film, but while today skyscraper-sized fighting robots exist only on the big screen, the Pentagon is building technology that could one day make them a reality.

Today, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is selecting teams to develop a “neural interface” that would both allow troops to connect to military systems using their brainwaves and let those systems transmit back information directly to users’ brains.

The Next-Generation Non-Surgical Neurotechnology, or N3, program aims to combine the speed and processing power of computers with humans’ ability to adapt to complex situations, DARPA said. In other words, the technology would let people control, feel and interact with a remote machine as though it were a part of their own body.[/exnews

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edit on 17-7-2018 by DoubleDNH because: (no reason given)

edit on 17-7-2018 by DoubleDNH because: (no reason given)

"The program is solely focused on designing an interface for humans to connect with technology, not the technology itself, but according to Emondi, the use cases will likely be more high stakes than controlling prosthetic limbs."


My first thought, but we always seem to weaponise.

They were working on this, with varying degrees of success, for aircraft in the 80s. They released a video showing what I called the BEM helmet (Bug Eye Monster). It had two displays, each about the size of two current smart phones placed side by side, in front of the pilot's eyes, one for each eye.

The thing worked better than you'd think, especially given it was the mid 80s, but it was so big and heavy, and had to come all the way to where it sat on their shoulders, so they could only wear it for about 10-15 minutes before developing a migraine.

a reply to: DoubleDNH

Danger is obvious, mind control implants to control the population at first marketed as a new type of cell phone which you would wear, ring with thought and answer with a thought.
Then come's the stage of child implant's.
And finally the neural net completely subverting the public allowing them to be controlled, there mood's regulated by machines, there opinion's controlled and democracy completely destroyed in the process since while in an ideal world the public would control the machine in the real world the control of that machine would fall either to an artificial intelligence or to a slave machine intelligence controlled by a tiny elite.
Cue a new age of slavery, lot's of happy slaves walking to there own slaughter.

a reply to: Zaphod58

This is the baseline technology which has been around for a long time now, BT over here in the UK was actually developing chip's that could be interfaced with the brain back in the 90's so it is not new either and so a lot of international company's are sitting on patent's for this very tech.
I see the advantages such as increased reaction time, shoot at the speed of thought, track what the pilot is seeing and direct that to the missile etc but once you open this particular Pandora's box there goes the neighborhood.

Also remember the number of time's army's around the world have used performance enhancing drug's on there own soldiers, drug's can and do fail but if you can control the soldiers mood, aggression, even his thought's turning a man into a robot soldier is not far off and perhaps for the military at least far cheaper than fielding actual robot's until they are mass produced and able to do everything that a man can do which is a little further off than some futurists predict, controlling people with technology however may already be being done if we believe some of the conspiracy research on this very site.

originally posted by: Plotus
"The program is solely focused on designing an interface for humans to connect with technology, not the technology itself, but according to Emondi, the use cases will likely be more high stakes than controlling prosthetic limbs."


My first thought, but we always seem to weaponise.

So true. But it is inevitable. I've seen some of the early tech from many years ago now, that allowed disabled people to use an interface similar to a EEG that 'read' your thoughts. It actually read the state of your brain, but if you focused on a specific thing, you could train the software to interpret it as a command. People were "ZOMG they're reading our thoughts!!!!11" which pissed me off slightly.

In ways, this is exactly how our bodies work. We just learn to do it as babies, so it is second nature to us now. Learning to do it as adults might seem weird, but it's no different.

I can see benefits of having a more direct link to the weapons we use, also. At least, there should be a more direct result to the intent, rather than spray and pray... idk.

It's a shame we do weaponise everything... but it is inevitable. We build homes with rocks, as much as we bash each other with them..

Hope they will focus more on helping the people with disabilities first.

a reply to: Zaphod58

IF it means they can fix the PTSD after the fact.

It would be hard to argue against it.

As a man who was a Medic through two wars, If they could find a way to fix that for me and my family, and make me a better warrior.

Maybe im way off base but, do it.

Do it.