Milplex-Defense

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Military Soldier Cyborgs - Digital destiny, or Prophetic Holocaust?
Published on 12-04-2009

Source: Tactical War Fighter Gear

Cyborg soldiers are a logical evolutionary link between humans and
robots. Yesterdays soldier went into combat alone. Todays soldier is
enhanced by human controlled robots. Tommorows soldier will be a
soldier cyborg, a cybernetic organism enhanced by everything
technology has to offer. The future of combat holds even greater
prospects for autonomous robots that kill at their own discretion.

The idea of combining man and machine is nothing new. Ocular cochlear
implants have been helping people see and hear for years. Paralytics
like Stephen Hawking have been assisted by technology that allows them
to speak what they think. Other cases like Prof. Kevin Warwick
department of Cybernetics, University of Reading Project Cyborg 1.0,
and 2.0 have been documented as well. Artificial Intelligence AI
research is exploring organic brains for computing use, that is
organic computers that use living neurons as their CPU . Private
companies like Digital Angel, Verichip and Applied Digital Solutions
are already contracting wholesale human implantation of RFID microchip
technology. **********

Brain Computer Interface and Neural Interfacing is becoming more of a
reality in advanced military research. The military implants members
of the Special Operations community for GPS tracking and casualty
identification purposes. Implants for tracking elderly persons with
Alzheimer's, child kidnap victims, and convicted felons are all now
commonplace. DARPA is working on several projects to ready fleets of
insect cyborgs and other mammals, monkeys, dogs, even sharks.

Now science is braving a new frontier. Soldiers at Fort Bragg are
conducting ongoing tests on Future Force combat systems designed to
make the 21st century American cyborg soldier a more effective
instrument of war, a veritable cyborg able to communicate with
augmented cognition more speedily and efficiently. The U.S. military
is funding projects to integrate human with artificial intelligence.
Problem: Human brains are superior to computers at visual recognition
but inferior at information processing. Solution: human-machine
integration. Human component: A soldier or analyst who scans scenes or
images. Machine component: Sensors that monitor the brain's activity
and relay information about it to commanders or computers. Analytical
application: Computers identify images and image areas flagged by the
human scan and select those for more thorough scrutiny. Battlefield
applications : 1) A prototype helmet already delivers "a visual
readout for combat commanders showing the cognitive patterns of
individual Soldiers." 2) "Brain pattern and heart rate data from
system-equipped soldiers will be transmitted wirelessly to commanders
in real-time to improve overall battlefield information management and
decision-making." Project buzzwords : "real-time cognitive state
assessment," "networked soldiers," "Augmented Cognition,"
"human-computer warfighting integral." Translation: We're fielding
cyborgs. Human Nature's prediction: The next step will be to remove
the human component from the battlefield and let machines provide the
sensor mobility as well as the information processing.

***********Ethics: The ethical dilema has been bought and paid for
already. A group of ethicists are being paid $250,000 to ask how much
we should use nanotechnology to enhance humans. Should we implant
future nanotech-enabled computers and actuators into soldiers to make
them more effective? If nanochips can help kids do better in school or
help locate a kidnapper, are parents obligated to provide them with
it? Does it make a difference if these enhancements are implanted,
rather than just worn outside the body?

The US Army is experimenting with connecting neuro-physiological
sensors to soldiers to assist them in cognition and sensemaking during
tense warfare situations:
The augmented cognition system uses neuro-physiological sensors that
assess a warfighter's attention by measuring and recording location,
brain activity and body responses, including heart rate, and adapting
to his preferred learning style.

Using that data, the system will then influence the way the soldier
gets information, according to a statement from the Army's Natick
Soldier Center in Natick, Mass. The technology will help individual
warfighters determine the most important information available and
decide the best course of action in varying environments.

“The technology we are developing will ultimately help warfighters
when they are faced with information overload, especially under
stress, and will significantly improve mission performance,” said
Henry Girolamo, the Natick Soldier Center's DARPA agent for the Army's
Augmented Cognition Program.

Here are some examples of current DARPA 'Human-enhancing' projects:

The 'Brain Interface Program' is the most lavishly funded of nearly
all the DARPA bioengineering efforts (the project has been given over
$24 million budget). It is aimed at developing ways to 'integrate'
soldiers into machines -literally- by wiring them (remotely or
directly) to their planes, tanks, or computers. An implantable brain
chip has been implemented as well via the integration of
stimulus-response signals in the brain via electrodes. The Pentagon
hopes to use these 'modified' creatures in mine clearance. DARPA is
quoted “The human is becoming the weakest link in defense systems."

Enhancement efforts at the Brain Interface Program are now progressing
nicely. The chief of the project, Alan S. Rudolph, now wants to be
able to transmit images or sound directly into the brains of
soldiers...or prisoners of war.

*************The ' Metabolic Dominance and Engineered Tissue ' program
is aimed at being able to artificially pump up soldier endurance and
muscle strength. (electrogastric manipulation --b)

The ' Persistence in Combat ' program is a combat self-treatment
scheme which will include pain-reducing and blood-stopping devices and
techniques soldiers would apply to their own wounds -even moderately
severe ones- thereby bypassing the need for a medic and enabling a
soldier to keep fighting, despite serious wounds! Pain-obliterating
electrodes in the brain activate to nullify pain.

The ' Continuous Assisted Perfomance ' program hopes to find
biotechnological ways (implants, metabolic manipulation, etc) to make
it possible to push exhausted cyborg soldiers on without loss of
performance for up to seven days without sleep. (Heavy
experimentation with this as behaviour modification among our populace
NOW--b)

The above technologies are referred to by DARPA under the subheading
of 'neuroengineering.' Now they are looking at micro processing chips
that can be implanted beneath the skull and remotely manipulated.
Rudolph estimates that a usable chip that could be field-tested soon.
Ted Berger of the University of Southern California , envisions pilots
who will be able to pilot their planes by thought alone, thanks to
brain implants.

Abstract : “ Combining man and machine to enhance innate soldier
capabilities is the hallmark of a soldier-cyborg transformation.
Increasing the man-machine interface in the unpredictable environment
of war has enormous potential to change the human dimension of war.
This paper discusses the issues of values, ethics, and leadership
concerning technologically advanced armed forces as they move warfare
into the unfamiliar world of the cyborg.”

Conclusion: The immediate future holds some very interesting prospects
for cyborg soldiers that remain largely unexamined by the general
populace.