The Pentagon Wants to Bring Mind-Controlled Tech To Troops
The Pentagon Wants to Bring Mind-Controlled Tech To
Troops
By Jack Corrigan, JULY 17, 2018 10:30 AM ET
The Defense Department’s research arm is working on a
project that connects human operators’ brains to the systems they’re
controlling—and vice versa.
The idea of humans controlling machines with their minds
has spun off sci-fi blockbusters like “Pacific Rim” and entire subgenres of
foreign film, but while today skyscraper-sized fighting robots exist only on
the big screen, the Pentagon is building technology that could one day make
them a reality.
Today, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is
selecting teams to develop a “neural interface” that would both allow troops to
connect to military systems using their brainwaves and let those systems
transmit back information directly to users’ brains.
The Next-Generation Non-Surgical Neurotechnology, or N3,
program aims to combine the speed and processing power of computers with
humans’ ability to adapt to complex situations, DARPA said. In other words, the
technology would let people control, feel and interact with a remote machine as
though it were a part of their own body.
“From the first time a human carved a rock into a blade
or formed a spear, humans have been creating tools to help them interact with
the world around them,” said Al Emondi, the program manager at DARPA’s
Biological Technologies Office. “The tools we use have grown more sophisticated
over time … but these still require some form of physical control
interface—touch, motion or voice. What neural interfaces promise is a richer,
more powerful and more natural experience in which our brains effectively
become the tool.”
DARPA began studying interactions between humans and
machines in the 1960s, and while technology that merges the two may sound
far-fetched, the organization already proved it’s possible.
Through its Revolutionizing Prosthetics program, DARPA
created a prosthetic limb that disabled veterans can control using an electrode
implanted in their brain. The system gives users “near-natural” arm and hand
motion while transmitting signals that mirror a sense of touch back to their
brain.
Now the agency wants to create a similar apparatus for
able-bodied service men and women that doesn’t require surgical implants.
The N3 program is divided into two tracks: non-invasive
interfaces that sit completely outside the body, and minutely invasive
interfaces that could require users to ingest different chemical compounds to
help external sensors read their brain activity. In both tracks, technologies
must be “bidirectional,” meaning they can read brain activity and also write
new information back to the user.
While those capabilities might fuel conspiracy theories
about government mind-reading and mind-control, Emondi told Nextgov that won’t
be the case—scientists are only beginning to figure out how the brain’s 100
billion neurons interact, so controlling those interactions is next to
impossible. Instead, he said it’s better to think of N3 technology as means to
use to a computer or smartphone without a mouse, keyboard or touch screen.
The program is solely focused on designing an interface
for humans to connect with technology, not the technology itself, but according
to Emondi, the use cases will likely be more high stakes than controlling
prosthetic limbs.
He theorized the interface could be used to help a pilot
coordinate a fleet of drones with their thoughts or troops to control a
remotely deployed robot by using their brain’s motor signals. He added
cybersecurity specialists could even connect to the system to monitor different
parts of a computer network with their physical bodies.
Depending on how the interface is designed, that
specialist might “hear” a cyberattack when it happens or “feel” it in the part
of their body that corresponds to a section of the network. Stimulating
different neurons create different sensations in the body, said Emondi, and
participating teams must decide how their device will transmit signals back to
the brain.
Given the intensely personal nature of the technology,
DARPA is requiring designs to comply with a number of health and safety
requirements, and also address any potential cybersecurity concerns. While
today the project’s biggest ethical questions relate to safety and risk of
testing, “if N3 is successful,” Emondi said, “I anticipate we could face
questions related to agency, autonomy and the experience of information being
communicated to a user.”
“We don’t think about N3 technology as simply a new way
to fly a plane or to talk to a computer, but as tool for actual human-machine
teaming,” Emondi said. “As we approach a future in which increasingly
autonomous systems will play a greater role in military operations, neural
interface technology can help warfighters build a more intuitive interaction
with these systems.”
Participating teams will have four years to create a
working neural interface. DARPA declined to comment on the project’s funding
levels.
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