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"Soldiers barking orders at each other is so 20th Century. That's why the U.S. Army has just awarded a $4 million contract to begin developing "thought helmets" that would harness silent brain waves for secure communication among troops. Ultimately, the Army hopes the project will "lead to direct mental control of military systems by thought alone.
If this sounds insane, it would have been as recently as a few years ago. But improvements in computing power and a better understanding of how the brain works have scientists busy hunting for the distinctive neural fingerprints that flash through a brain when a person is talking to himself. The Army's initial goal is to capture those brain waves with incredibly sophisticated software that then translates the waves into audible radio messages for other troops in the field. "It'd be radio without a microphone, " says Dr. Elmar Schmeisser, the Army neuroscientist overseeing the program. "Because soldiers are already trained to talk in clean, clear and formulaic ways, it would be a very small step to have them think that way."
Some possible concomitant hazards my friend pointed out with this system could involve gays in the military: Why? Because if one of the guys in the unit had a crush on another guy in the unit - problems could result as those brainwave messages were translated to - well I suppose everybody. Another problem would be with "complaint thoughts" in cases where soldiers' minds were read while they were wondering who the hell spent 4 million bucks on mind reading helmets and that they were idiots - couldn't the transmission of these messages jeopardize future promotions? Also "thou shalt not covet thy neigbor's wife" issues ruin unit cohesiveness. Another scenario could be with the enemy capturing a headset and reading the minds of soldiers plugged into the same network.
It is predicted that these and many other problems expected during development of this high tech wizardry should be sufficient to provide quite a gravy train for the developers.
They don't need helmets to do this. They just know we'd all freak out if we realized this technology to put thoughts in other people's heads already exists and has been used for decades and requires no special helmet, meaning ALL OF US are susceptible to having another's thoughts put into our heads.
ReplyDeleteMicrosoft has a monkey which moves equipment solely by brain waves. That focuses on helping paraplegics to control artificial limbs. If that technology exists, than converting brain waves, and sending them, and then decoding them should be a piece of cake. When this technology is married, soldiers will be able to control tanks, drones, etc. while sitting in the dayroom, sipping a Coke.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 12:19 above - I agree. Message implantation via repetition and shock have worked quite well.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 1:20 directly above - all I can say is I switched to Apple years ago. I wouldn't trust Microsoft, to quote an eloquent commenter to this site, to "pour piss out of a boot with the instructions stamped in the leather sole"
JR
when they recruit these crack heads out of east los angeles who can't get a job, all they need for a mind reader is one of those straws you stick into the ear hole and look out the other side with, you don't need a friggin helmet with people who have no mind to read, do you?
ReplyDeletethis kind of technology is coming, that way, when fuckwads like Michael Chertoff, who works for an israeli security firm now, gets you at the airport for questioning, he can whip one of those spiffy mind reading helmets and tell that you're anti semitic, want to blow up synagogues in new york, want to fire laws rockets (even if you don't know what the fuck a laws rocket is) and do harm and injure people so that the new prez, bho, can whip the 'majority report' cops on your ass and arrest you before you fuck up!
how's that for a quick dissertation about mind reading from the cynical, very much shaking my head in 'disbelief' side of things?
the military pisses away so much money, it never ceases to amaze me how many trillions of bucks they'll give to 'beltway bandits' to waste, when they can't fund child healthcare or single payer benefits for each and every one of us.
Eisenhower sure nailed it on he head. the M.I.C. might as well be called; "gimme all yo fuggin money or I'll arrest you and send you to Gitmo for some real fun there.."
I don't know how the government can have the nuts to insist any of us pay them a red cent in taxes, when they piss it all away as if it's nothing. I truly don't.
If the above is UNPOPULAR SPEECH I wonder where all the rebuttals are?
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