Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

DARPA'S 'Pulsed Ultrasound' Helmets Could Control Soldiers' Minds

by Warren Riddle on September 11, 2010 at 03:00 PM

Soldier Helmets When will it end, DARPA? The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has cursed the earth with unmanned missile systems, all-terrain robots and machines that feast upon -- and then fuel themselves with -- human flesh. The group, which works directly for the U.S. Department of Defense, now hopes to turn actual humans into controllable, mindless and murderous cyborgs.

The organization has decided to further the dehumanization movement by funding an ambiguous, yet monstrous, "transcranial pulsed ultrasound" project. According to Popular Science, the technology involves implants that manipulate troops' minds to stimulate neural processes, relieve stress, heighten alertness and mental acuity, and even "reduce the effects of a traumatic brain injury." Sweet. Invulnerable, hyper-sensitive warriors -- who can distribute death and destruction despite irreversible brain damage -- don't seem petrifying or horrific at all.

Perhaps most frightening, though, is that the implant procedure doesn't even require invasive surgery. The chip, which actually operates from within a (hopefully self-aware) soldier's helmet, "can exert its effects upon subcortical brain circuits deep within the brain." So, again, when will all this end? Apparently when the last biological human exhales his final, dying gasp. At least one thing seems certain amid this doomsday conjecture, though: that, if the U.S. ever implements another draft, it'll be time to visit wondrously bland and benevolent Canada. (We love you, DARPA. Please don't dispatch LittleDog to maul us in our sleep.)

Tags: brain, cortical simulator, CorticalSimulator, cyborg, darpa, eatr, helmets, military, soldiers, transcranial magnetic stimulation, TranscranialMagneticStimulation

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular