Science

‘Where Do You Stop and the Machine Begin?’ British Report Alludes to Mind-Controlled Weapons

Royal Society Report Suggests Advances in Neuroscience Could Result in Mind Controlled Weapons

(Photo: Senior Master Sgt. David H. Lipp/US Air Force)

A new report produced yesterday by the U.K.’s Royal Society states that the progression of neuroscience will not only improve treatment in the medical field in the near future but will also have more of an application in a military setting. So much so, that the report suggests soldiers brains could be, in effect, “plugged in” to the weapons they operate.

(Related: Are ‘mind-reading drones‘ next in the military’s arsenal?)

With the quickly advancing technology, the group calls for government to look further down the line and prepare for the legal and ethical implications of the use of this technology.

The report states:

Neuroscience is a rapidly advancing field encompassing a range of applications and technologies that are likely to provide significant benefits to society, particularly in the treatment of neurological impairment, disease, and psychiatric illness.  However, this new knowledge also suggests a number of potential military and law enforcement applications.

These applications tend to serve one of two main goals. Performance enhancing applications seek to improve the efficiency of one’s own forces – for example by optimising recruitment, training and operational performance or improving treatments for rehabilitation. Performance degrading applications seek to diminish the performance of one’s enemy – for example through the development of weapons such as incapacitating chemicals.

Wired notes that authors seem to be concerned about Britain’s recent interpretation of the Chemical Weapons Convention’s protocol for use of incapacitating chemicals as weapons by law enforcement. The authors state that it “suggests that the use of incapacitating chemical agents for law enforcement purposes would be in compliance with the CWC as long as they were in types and quantities consistent with that permitted purpose”. With the review of the CWC coming up in 2013, report authors call for officials to consider the definition of “incapacitating chemicals” at that time.

Royal Society Report Suggests Advances in Neuroscience Could Result in Mind Controlled WeaponsAnother interesting facet within the report, The Guardian writes, is that the authors also place an emphasis on technology using a brain-machine interface. The brain can control a weapon much faster than a finger poised on a trigger, which waits for the signal from the brain before pulling. There is some concern over where to draw the line should use of this technology in a military capacity come to fruition:

[Rod] Flower, a professor of pharmacology at the William Harvey Research Institute at Barts and the London hospital, said: “If you are controlling a drone and you shoot the wrong target or bomb a wedding party, who is responsible for that action? Is it you or the BMI?

“There’s a blurring of the line between individual responsibility and the functioning of the machine. Where do you stop and the machine begin?”

Research is already being conducted to use similar technology to help disabled patients. For example, scientists have translated the thoughts of paralyzed people into words through analysis of their brain scans.

Another form of technology mentioned in the report includes sending a weak electrical shock through the skull to enhance performance, which studies have already found to be effective.

(Related: Creepy: this robot can now control you with electricity) 

Red Orbit reports that brain imaging expert Irene Tracey of Oxford University said in a press conference while some of the ideas in the report may seem too futuristic, the rate at which technology is improving is “alarmingly quick”. Therefore, the reality of these outlandish ideas is not too far off.

The report also calls for scientists to consider the dual-use of improving neural technology — how it can be used both to harm and benefit humanity.

[H/T Popular Science]

Comments (22)

  • BlackCrow
    Posted on February 9, 2012 at 11:09am

    The U.S. Air Force has been working on this for twenty-five years. The limiting factor in how hard a fighter can maneuver is the fact a pilot can only take 9g and then only for a short period of time. The theory is if a pilot can control the aircraft by thinking the aircraft could react faster and the pilot could sustain high g load longer.

    Fact of the matter is the pilot is still the limiting factor in aircraft performance and the improvements in computers are making the pilot obsolete at least in fighters. The F-22 and the F-35 can easily pull higher g loads than the pilot can withstand. The problem is the Air Force is run by old fighter pilots that can’t accept the fact that the day of the manned fighter are over.

    You can’t win the next war fighting the last war. The leadership of the Air Force is still expecting the red horde to come through the Fulda gap. Ain’t happening!

    Report Post » BlackCrow  
  • TROONORTH
    Posted on February 9, 2012 at 9:44am

    This is such old news. I can’t believe that Blaze is publishing this as a breaking story.

    I have been under mind control by the cat for years.

    Must go now. Cat treat jar needs emptying again.

    Report Post » TROONORTH  
  • trotula
    Posted on February 9, 2012 at 9:08am

    This is probably the most intriguing topic out there. Who are we? How do we think? How much is brain vs mind vs soul. Is the brain a computer equipped with mechanisms designed to keep us alive and reproduce? When we think a thought, is it really our own thought, or just a by-product of chemical reactions in an amazing complex machine? When we laugh at a joke, what makes it funny? When we make a choice, good vs evil, is it freely chosen, or is it simply a very complex reflex? All I can say is, I seem to make choices. I seem to have free will…apart from these chemical reactions. It all boils down to faith, and what you believe, without necessarily having proof.

    Report Post »  
  • knownothing76
    Posted on February 8, 2012 at 9:44pm

    As the lines between fully human and cyborgs continues to blur there is a need for people to be thinking of the legal and ethical potentials behind our current science. As a cyborg (mechanical heart valve/pacemaker) this is of utmost concern Where do we stop? When is enhancement playing God?

    Report Post »  
    • 2theADDLED
      Posted on February 8, 2012 at 9:59pm

      The negatives will always outweigh the positives on this one.
      Imagine in the wrong hands what this could do.

      Report Post »  
  • Brokendrum
    Posted on February 8, 2012 at 9:37pm

    The struggle to produce true AI (artificial intelligence) has shown more problems than results. And then there is Alan Turing – so..

    It boils down to the fact that we just do not think the same way a computer does. It is apples and oranges. There has been computer model research done that included Neurologists to try and get past this obstacle. Understanding exactly how the brain thinks would be a key to realizing how to copy the process.

    For quite awhile now some focus has been on EI (enhanced intelligence) – which basically is you the person Plugged In with direct manipulation of a computer model. Sci-Fi has had Implants and other methods to describe this. The Nano Technology endeavors show a lot of potential here. Just getting folks over the idea of something Grown in their body may be somewhat of a trial though.

    A directly linked Computer Control Interface would allow faster and more precise manipulation than any of the methods being examined today. Virtual Reality on steroids !?

    Our great great grand kids may have some rather interesting choices to make regarding how TUNED IN they want to be.

    Sci-Fi to Science Fact is happening every day.

    Report Post »  
    • InversionTheory
      Posted on February 8, 2012 at 11:21pm

      Granted, I’m hardly the typical man in the street, but my body is but a tool my brain uses to interact with the world. If my hand is obsolete because there’s a better one on the market, I can afford the procedure and the risks of swapping parts are reasonable, I’d have my hand cut away and replaced without hesitation. I am not afraid.

      And if and when the days comes that artificial neurons can creep through my brain, replacing it’s functioning as it goes until there is not one “natural” part of me left, I do not believe I will have lost anything that I would miss and it would be a great and worthwhile adventure.

      Report Post »  
  • rdietz7
    Posted on February 8, 2012 at 9:20pm

    Currently reading ‘the age of Spiritual Machines” written over yen years ago and I’m watching these predictions on accelerated technology unfold. It is amazing and terrifying. I’ve already considered the idea that at some point I could have my brain scanned and its contents downloaded. Man‘s answer to our mortality is going to be somewhat different than God’s. It seems to me that it can have eternal consequences.

    Report Post » rdietz7  
  • marybethelizabeth
    Posted on February 8, 2012 at 9:10pm

    Theblaze and The Glenn Beck Key program is a mind control operation.

    Proof.

    Look through the comments posted. Many of them are word for word what came out of Mr. Beck’s mouth, not even put into the poster’s own words.

    Report Post » marybethelizabeth  
  • Impenitent
    Posted on February 8, 2012 at 8:01pm

    the pineal gland…

    Report Post »  
  • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
    Posted on February 8, 2012 at 7:59pm

    So we come closer to the man-machine phenomena becoming reality; no wonder in drudge just now we find out that Obama is considering military intervention by US forces in Syria.

    Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
  • lukerw
    Posted on February 8, 2012 at 7:50pm

    If you and machines are symbiotic… then where does the Individual Reality begin and end? If you live in The Matrix… theen what is Real? Is that a Steak or Garbage?

    Report Post » lukerw  
    • InversionTheory
      Posted on February 8, 2012 at 11:24pm

      Trying living a day now without the machines we have made for ourselves. It’s not going to get any easier in the future.

      Report Post »  
  • Perspective
    Posted on February 8, 2012 at 7:50pm

    The cyberpunk books William Gibson wrote are coming true. But then science fiction so often does.

    Report Post » Perspective  
    • Stoic one
      Posted on February 8, 2012 at 7:59pm

      This is more pervasive in Sci-Fi than you imply. Say Asimov, Brin, Clarke, also the sci fi universes of Star wars, Star Trek, & Halo.

      Report Post » Stoic one  
    • jasmer
      Posted on February 10, 2012 at 8:31am

      “When the first rumors began to filter out of the Soviet Union some three years ago, our theoretical weapons strategists stood before NATO command to explain – with much confidence – that it would take the Soviets a minimum of ten years to develop a Mach Five aircraft with thought-controlled weapons systems. I stand before you today to explain – with much regret – that we were wrong.”

      “You must think in Russian.”

      http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083943/

      Report Post »  
  • Captain Crunch
    Posted on February 8, 2012 at 7:41pm

    We already have mind control. Its called the Democratic Party with a working Terminator called Obama.

    Report Post »  
  • TXPilot
    Posted on February 8, 2012 at 7:38pm

    I’ve been reading for several years, about plans to make lots of things mind controlled…..I just hope they don’t come out with mind controlled airplanes, because if they do, at my age, I am in trouble. If they tie it to my brain, the landing gear will only go up about twice per week, and then the aircraft will immediately seek out and crash into the nearest Hooters….oh, unless the flight is early in the morning, then it will take me to a Waffle House…..mmmm waffles…..:D

    Report Post » TXPilot  
    • justangry
      Posted on February 8, 2012 at 7:44pm

      That’s awesome

      Report Post » justangry  
    • rdietz7
      Posted on February 8, 2012 at 9:26pm

      I’m actually terrified at the concept that someone like you is a pilot. Retire the plane. Viagra causes strokes! Hooters is retarded. Please don’t fly over Ft Worth area. Family I love lives there.

      Sum it up: listen to your wife for once!!!!

      Report Post » rdietz7  
    • TXPilot
      Posted on February 8, 2012 at 10:46pm

      @RDIET27……lol…..Nah…I don’t think I will be retiring for a very long time, because it gives me great amounts of entertainment giving whiny, little idiots like you loads of angst. You obviously have no appreciation of humor, and if what I say scares you, then my friend, whats coming soon will having you wetting your nappy continuously…..

      Report Post » TXPilot  

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