But here’s the thing, just like many technologies we’ve seen in Sci-Fi movies, you never know what could become a reality. Even Elon Musk thinks creating that kind of drone could be quite affordable. You can make it swarm of assassin drones for very little money by just taking the face ID chip
That’s used in cell phones and having a small explosive charge and a standard drone, and have them just do a grid sweep of the building until they find the person you’re looking for, ram into them, and explode. When it comes to war, technology is a subject that evokes
Strong emotions, a range of thoughts, and perhaps sparks some debate. particularly if those technologies are unmanned. You might ask yourself “Are we ready for this?” “Are we opening a Pandora’s Box we can’t close?” As unsettling as it might be, investigative journalist and author, Annie Jacobson has unveiled some more controversial projects
You may not like, and it comes from DARPA or Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. There’s a moth. So, there’s a Manduca Sexta Moth, that’s what it’s called. It’s a large moth. And science… DARPA scientists put brain chips into the larva when I went there to meet a DARPA scientist who was working on
An artificial brain for DARPA. And that little Wasp drone, they are being shot off the arm of an operator. It weighs just a few pounds, and it has some of the most incredible technology. This is called the Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System. It can kill a human target two miles away.
It is no secret that the U.S Government channels a significant amount of funding towards its Defense Agency. As reported by the Department of Defense, the Biden-Harris Administration submitted a proposed fiscal year 2024 budget request to Congress. The request amounts to 842 billion dollars for the Department of Defense,
An increase of 26 billion dollars over last year. With resources of such magnitude, we can only speculate about the advanced technologies on which they’re working. what could they possibly be planning? could the implications alter our understanding of warfare? Let’s take a closer look at what they’ve been investing in. We all know Atlas.
This agile robot built by Boston Dynamics for DARPA can perform a variety of natural movements. Its creation marked a leap toward accelerating advancements in the world of robotics. The dream is to engineer robotic comrades that could stand by our side ready to lend a helping hand. But at the same time,
DARPA also funded this modular robotic system. It can kill a human target two miles away. It has everything that was ever designed in Vietnam shrunken down to the size of my fingernail and more. This unmanned vehicle provides a range of options, from non-lethal to lethal. It was designed for military reconnaissance
And frontline safety. A transformative process that blurs the boundary between human judgment and automated response. Does that make you feel uneasy? The Crux of the matter is… who’s accountable? Who’s deciding and who’s safe from potential hacking in this world of unmanned systems? And it’s not just the robots.
The WASP III, AI-enabled drone, that Jacobson mentioned is also reported to be developed under DARPA’s micro vehicle program. What they’re doing is taking audio of an area, so for example, if a unit goes into the warfare, and they understand that there is a terrorist hideout over there, they’ll send the the Wasps in,
And they will be taking video and audio in real time. Similarly, China is increasing their number of drones and tweaking some older design to make them way more sophisticated. They want a military that can employ artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and generally a lot more unmanned systems.
Without a doubt, drones are going to be important in war since they are a growing trend for future combat. Take this one for example, the WZ-7 Drone. This model is capable of operating at high altitude to conduct surveillance missions. It is designed with two sets of overlapping wings
Which according to the Chinese military create more airborne stability. Drones are the Jack-of-all-trades from military use to awe-inspiring aerial shots. But let’s take a twist in thought: what if these drones aren’t exactly electronic? I mean… what if bees or beetles are the future of drones? In Nanjiang Technical University in Singapore,
A researcher named Dr. Sato has been working on some of the most advanced cyborg insects that you can control. if I want to a change to galloping I press this button, so it will change to galloping. yes.. this is galloping So, this is when it runs faster, basically? Yeah.
Cyborg animal like this still use their own energy to drive their muscles, yet all the scientists did was send a small electrical buzz to the beetle’s muscles, managing to control it to an extent. Doesn’t this melding of bio and tech give you pause? It’s almost as if we’re stepping
Into a black mirror-like future, isn’t it? Remember that episode where drone ADI bees star flying around and… doing things? And do you see other applications as well? Criminal investigation, to find a terrorist or something. We are very serious use this cyborg beetle for peaceful applications. Although purposeful, applications of drones
Like this can also instill a certain kind of fear, at least a fear of being outmatched. What else can possibly be developed? And will it stop there? Now let’s take a leap of imagination. Cyborg bees or wasps, tiny and stealthy. They zip unnoticed right past you. What if you could command these
Cyborg drones just with your mind? What kind of power would that afford you? You put the sensor on, and you think the right way, and you can increase the speed of the fan by thinking and controlling that thought. Much like a robot’s network of wires transmitting signals between sensors, processors, and motors,
Our nervous system also has a similar setup. Signals are sent from our sensory organs to the brain, and finally get actuated in the muscles. To understand how we can control something with our mind, we need to comprehend brain signals, also known as mind reading. this mind reading is a fundamental aspect
Of being able to control or manipulate those signals. One way is to use FMRI or Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. In 2019, a team of six researchers received funding from DARPA under the N3 program, also known as Next Generation Non-surgical Neurotechnology. They were working on a brain-machine interface.
The team was led by Jacob Robinson from Rice University. We’ve been able to manipulate viruses so that they can introduce new genes that give cells the ability to do things they don’t normally do. They do the idea encompasses instantly reading soldiers minds using tools such as genetic engineering of the human brain, nanotechnology,
And infrared beams. The ultimate ambition you might ask? Weapons controlled purely by thought. This is how it works. Robinson and team use special viruses to carry DNA into certain brain cells. this DNA then prompts these brain cells to produce two types of proteins. These modified viruses along with
Tiny magnets are then injected into the bloodstream. Just imagine a unique protein that acts like a light-absorbing sponge. This protein is making brain cells react to magnetic fields and light. Then, a special headset equipped with lasers, light sensors, and electromagnets is used to detect and stimulate brain activity.
The helmet also has detectors that can pick up the signals coming back from your brain. This is how you can communicate with a machine without needing any brain surgery. We can see what parts of the brain are active when you’re seeing, hearing, or even thinking about something.
It’s like a cool movie of your brain in action. And you wear the hat, you sit in your chair, and you control your UAV. James Fallon, a neuroscientist from UC Irvine confirmed that this type of gene-editing technology is definitely a foundation for the future of mind control.
Put that together with an enzyme called Cass, and so you take the CRISP that you want to use, and you put these pieces together that can be injected, and insert this DNA to certain areas of the brain so that we can change brain cells. if you’re interested in discovering
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And that’s probably why people are actually taking mind control research seriously. Elon Musk also ventured into this realm in 2019 with his brain chip project, Neuralink. In an experimental setting developed by Neuralink, a monkey is seen engaging in video gameplay driven solely by its cognitive abilities. The links record from more than
2000 electrodes implanted in the regions of Page’s motor cortex that coordinate hand and arm movements. This brain computer interface is fully implantable and visually undetectable. it is designed to allow you to control a computer or mobile device wherever you go. A symbiosis, as Elon might put it.
Considering various pieces of evidence so far, and this research in particular, what Annie Jacobson said might not be too outlandish at all. DARPA scientists put brain chips into the larva, okay. so that when it cocooned and became a flying moth, It had the chip built into its system making it easier to integrate
And they could fly… We can understand how it works by examining an experiment conducted by researchers at Cornell University. By using electrodes implanted in its muscles at certain Hertz, they can control its flight and speed. Here, signals are sent to its left flight muscle to make it lift that wing.
Different signals can be sent for it to lower its wing to lift both wings at once or to make them flap. It seems that with our current pace of technological development, we have a lot happening from drones to mind control weapons, from AI-driven robotics to genetic engineering.
Perhaps we should pause for a moment and consider whether everything is happening too quickly. We have to pause from time to time look into our hearts, and ask “Why are we doing this?” Am I still going towards Austin or have I gone too far? You know, maybe we should change direction.
Future of Life wrote an open letter warning of potential risks. They requested a pause in the development of tech more powerful than GPT4 for six months. Signed by Steve Wozniak and other key figures in Tech, they called for the suspension of training such powerful systems amid fears of a threat to humanity.
I hope that basically holding it back from being used by bad people or just doing bad things on its own because of the influence it gets once training. But of course, it isn’t that simple to just pause the development of AI and Robotics. Max Tegmark suggested that this rapid,
Continuous development is due to geopolitical competition. Number one pushback that we’re going to get in the West was like “But, China?” Everybody knows there’s no way that China is going to catch up the West on this in six months, so it’s… that argument goes off the table.
In fact, there’s a serious tech war currently unfolding between these two major powers. In October 2022, the U.S Department of Commerce dropped a bombshell to China by banning the sale of advanced semiconductors and China has responded by filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization against the United States.
Their rivalry can influence various aspects of the economy, trade, and innovation worldwide. but perhaps that’s one minor reason why we need to halt this development and take a moment to assess the trajectory of our advancement in a coordinated fashion, as Max tegmark put it. We did this open letter because we want to
Help these idealistic tech executives to do what their heart tells them by providing enough public pressure on the whole sector. Just pause so that they can all pause in a coordinated fashion. I think we need to regulate AIC quite frankly because um it is I think actually vigorous
To society than uh cars or planes or or medicine. It seems that solely focusing on responsible and ethical AI practices isn’t going to do much for all the risks that we have to bear. Regulations should be taken seriously and halting any kind of development for a while is necessary.
The Godfather of AI, Dr. Jeffrey Hinton and author Yuval Noah Harari both concur with this prudent approach. It’s essential threat of AI taking over. We’re all in the same boat. It’s bad for all of us. And so we might be able to get China and the US to agree on things like that.
So, we should put a halt to the irresponsible deployment of this alien intelligence into our societies and regulate A.I before it regulates us. The future is in our court now teetering on the edge of our collective decision because we bear the responsibility to regulate these technologies. So, what path will you choose?
Will you halt the march of progress or plunged into the uncharted? The fate of our world could rest on your answer. So, choose wisely.
