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research for the US Army under the project name MURI.Named “synthetic telepathy” the US Army has contributed $4 Million dollars to the research effort for “military and commercial applications”.
The interesting bite here is that the news makes the chronology of events seem as if the military is following the lead of the commercial high-tech sector.
Keeping in mind that the government has first dibs on any science or technology that has military implications.
The question that should worry some in the public arena is whether the military already has similar technology that is decades ahead
of the yet inexistant commercial sector.
We will leave it to our astute readers to interpolate the reason how come the military may seem to be marginally involved with this
technology and is only supporting the effort with just $4 Million dollars at a second rate research center at UCI versus going to Har-
vard, MIT, and/or Stanford and funding its own secret research at one of many government facilities and laboratories.
However should the reader realize that the most feared present-day deterrent, atomic energy, is now in the hands of nations such as
Iran, North Korea, Pakistan and India, and that in a few decades many others may follow, any news leak that would concretely demon-
strate that the US Military has indeed very advanced thought weapons that can be used to enhance not only military response and per-
formance in battle but also can be used to vanquish the enemy outright could precipitate a global pre-emptive confrontation with traditional (nuclear) weapons before the one-
sided advantage could tip the balance of power and dictate the future for many nations unwilling to succumb to the weapons of the fu-
ture.
Imagine a battlefield soldier that can use telepathy and telekinesis and confuse the adversary, make him hear an oncoming shell or
see the enemy advancing, flanking his position when it is a mirage, just an image being beamed in his or her head.
Telekinesis can enable a soldier to move a trigger at a distance, detonate mines, or cause an artery to burst in the body of the adver-
sary.
Such an advantage could be terrifying for some nations and could lead to unforeseen, unwarranted or unfortunate reactions.
It would be so easy to dismiss all of this as just hyperbole and inconsequential.
Sounds too far-fetched? Too alarmist? I know, it’s impossible, just like telepathy, and artificial intelligence, splicing the atom and the
human DNA, electricity, semiconductors and other technologies that have only arrived within the most recent 100 years of our history.
It is only within this century that flame throwers were invented and used in the first World War. Mustard gas, chemical and biological
weapons have also been invented in this century.
These are banned technologies for many reasons.
Joining the science of robotics with artificial intelligence and the technology of “synthetic telepathy” could create a weapon that would
permit the owner to deploy with far less barriers or inhibitions, without having to perform the proverbial “count to ten” before moving
into action.
The military today has embraced the adoption of drones in carrying out difficult missions, however the benefits multiply since the oper-
ator or pilot is detached and can execute instructions and orders with less error.
There is another long-term damaging side effect to this technology that can only be adequately assessed if a society takes a long term
view and can look back at its earlier stages of development without having lost the sense of feeling or what its social situation was like
at the margin prior to taking the forward plunge.
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