Directed energy weapons that use wave beams to cause pain, and electrical brain stimulation that boosts a soldier's combat ability - it may sound like science fiction warfare, but experts say advances in neuroscience mean it's on the horizon.

Rapid progress in the ability to map brain activity and manipulate its responses with stimulants could change the face of warfare, a panel of experts said on Tuesday.

The experts, looking at the scope for neuroscience in future military conflict, said researchers on the cutting edge of medical science should remember that their work could have other, more harmful uses.

"We know neuroscience research has the potential to deliver great social benefit - researchers come closer every day to finding effective treatments for diseases and disorders such as Parkinson's, depression, schizophrenia, epilepsy and addiction," said Rod Flower, a professor of biochemical pharmacology at Queen Mary University of London, who led the panel.

"However, understanding of the brain and human behavior, coupled with developments in drug delivery, also highlight ways of degrading human performance that could possibly be used in new weapons."

Mind and machine, enhancement and directed energy weapons.

This one caught my attention, but it got pulled from my local paper's online version PDQ. Which of course, only made me MORE curious about it.

How to degrade your performance. I wonder what the laws are about testing this stuff?

I'm part cyborg already, so I guess that you might say I lean in the transhumanism way.

There were laws passed in the early to mid seventies about the use of psychotronic weapons on the civilian population. But there are many technologies designed around the same context, so the wording of both the description of the tech and the law is important, of course.
All these types of technologies and the research of neuroscience, like anything else, are double edged swords, obviously. But weaponizing in a variety of ways is usually where the motivations are inclined to lead. It's been going on quite some time.
It is the way, also, to the "hive" mind, and all those who claim we should be freed of our egos (though egos are quite necessary to identity, personal protection, making judgements, and survival) for there to be no more war, violence, or aggression because this is the only way people can be expected to behave civilly, should embrace this, I suppose. BTW, I often wonder about those who insist we are one and should be freed of our egos and how they would respond if someone was to plagiarize their words...... Take their hard earned dollars, claim credit for their thoughts, work, creations or discoveries, etc.... Sorry, got a little off the topic, there.

I will gladly invite all the soul-destroyers who want to live in my head to come for a try out.

I guarantee that I'll survive integrating them, and I am pretty sure that trying to integrate me would make most people go fracking double-expresso permanent acid trip crazy ass crazy. And that's on my good days.

These articles were came back out again today with a slightly more rosy tone, emphasizing the gosh-let-us-play-video-games aspect of this technology.