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Category: military

Convergent engagement of neural and computational sciences and technologies are reciprocally enabling rapid developments in current and near-future military and intelligence operations. In this podcast, Prof. James Giordano of Georgetown University will provide an overview of how these scientific and technological fields can be — and are being — leveraged for non-kinetic and kinetic what has become known as cognitive warfare; and will describe key issues in this rapidly evolving operational domain.

James Giordano PhD, is the Pellegrino Center Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Biochemistry; Chief of the Neuroethics Studies Program; Co-director of the Project in Brain Sciences and Global Health Law and Policy; and Chair of the Subprogram in Military Medical Ethics at Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington DC. Professor Giordano is Senior Bioethicist of the Defense Medical Ethics Center, and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences; Distinguished Stockdale Fellow in Science, Technology, and Ethics at the United States Naval Academy; Senior Science Advisory Fellow of the SMA Branch, Joint Staff, Pentagon; Non-resident Fellow of the Simon Center for the Military Ethic at the US Military Academy, West Point; Distinguished Visiting Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Health Promotions, and Ethics at the Coburg University of Applied Sciences, Coburg, GER; Chair Emeritus of the Neuroethics Project of the IEEE Brain Initiative; and serves as Director of the Institute for Biodefense Research, a federally funded Washington DC think tank dedicated to addressing emerging issues at the intersection of science, technology and national defense. He previously served as Donovan Group Senior Fellow, US Special Operations Command; member of the Neuroethics, Legal, and Social Issues Advisory Panel of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); and Task Leader of the Working Group on Dual-Use of the EU-Human Brain Project. Prof. Giordano is the author of over 350 peer-reviewed publications, 9 books and 50governmental reports on science, technology, and biosecurity, and is an elected member of the European Academy of Science and Arts, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (UK), and a Fulbright Professorial Fellow. A former US Naval officer, he was winged as an aerospace physiologist, and served with the US Navy and Marine Corps.

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Originally released December 2023._ In today’s episode, host Luisa Rodriguez speaks to Nita Farahany — professor of law and philosophy at Duke Law School — about applications of cutting-edge neurotechnology.

They cover:
• How close we are to actual mind reading.
• How hacking neural interfaces could cure depression.
• How companies might use neural data in the workplace — like tracking how productive you are, or using your emotional states against you in negotiations.
• How close we are to being able to unlock our phones by singing a song in our heads.
• How neurodata has been used for interrogations, and even criminal prosecutions.
• The possibility of linking brains to the point where you could experience exactly the same thing as another person.
• Military applications of this tech, including the possibility of one soldier controlling swarms of drones with their mind.
• And plenty more.

In this episode:
• Luisa’s intro [00:00:00]
• Applications of new neurotechnology and security and surveillance [00:04:25]
• Controlling swarms of drones [00:12:34]
• Brain-to-brain communication [00:20:18]
• Identifying targets subconsciously [00:33:08]
• Neuroweapons [00:37:11]
• Neurodata and mental privacy [00:44:53]
• Neurodata in criminal cases [00:58:30]
• Effects in the workplace [01:05:45]
• Rapid advances [01:18:03]
• Regulation and cognitive rights [01:24:04]
• Brain-computer interfaces and cognitive enhancement [01:26:24]
• The risks of getting really deep into someone’s brain [01:41:52]
• Best-case and worst-case scenarios [01:49:00]
• Current work in this space [01:51:03]
• Watching kids grow up [01:57:03]

The 80,000 Hours Podcast features unusually in-depth conversations about the world’s most pressing problems and what you can do to solve them.

Learn more, read the summary and find the full transcript on the 80,000 Hours website:

Nita Farahany on the neurotechnology already being used to convict criminals and manipulate workers

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A new analysis of 105-year-old data on the effectiveness of “dazzle” camouflage on battleships in World War I by Aston University researchers Professor Tim Meese and Dr. Samantha Strong has found that while dazzle had some effect, the “horizon effect” had far more influence when it came to confusing the enemy.

The findings are published in the journal i-Perception.

During World War I, navies experimented with painting ships with dazzle —geometric shapes and stripes—in an attempt to confuse U-boat captains as to the speed and direction of travel of the ships and make them harder to attack.

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Sponsored by World of Warships! Follow this link https://wo.ws/40Q4JZz and use the code IMPACTFORCE to get a cool starter pack! For new players only.

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DELTA-V Calculators: https://www.overvieweffekt.com/tools/brachistochrone-rocket-calculator.

Thanks to ⁠ for the Mass Effect music. Check it out and his channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57-xIuu4Vvw.

REFERENCES
https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/enginelist3.ph…ein_Drive_)
https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/torchships.php#brachistochrone.

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ATTRIBUTION
“SpaceX Starship Ship 24 & Booster 7 V4” (https://skfb.ly/oD9TL) by Clarence365 is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
“MCRN Tachi \[Expanse TV Show]” (https://skfb.ly/o6JGy) by Jakub. Vildomec is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution.
“Saturn” (https://skfb.ly/orVqA) by NestaEric is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
“MCRN Donnager (The Expanse)” (https://skfb.ly/6XU7L) by Chris Kun.
“Epstein’s Yacht (The Expanse)” (https://skfb.ly/6XTu7) by Chris Kun.

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Continue reading “The Speed of Constant-Thrust Space Travel” | >

Lockheed Martin has secured a contract from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Innovation Unit (DIU) to develop a quantum-enabled Inertial Navigation System (INS) prototype.

This new technology, named QuINS, aims to redefine navigation capabilities for military operations by providing accurate location data even in areas where GPS signals are unreliable or unavailable.

QuINS employs quantum sensing technology to enhance navigation and positioning.

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“Hans A. Bethe, who discovered the violent reactions behind sunlight helped devise the atom bomb and eventually cried out against the military excesses of the cold war, died late Sunday. He was 98, among the last of the giants who inaugurated the nuclear age.” William J. Broad, New York Times, March 8, 2005.

Remembering Hans Bethe makes available a collection of more than five and one half hours of videos of one of the legendary figures of physics of the past century. He interprets the transcripts of secretly recorded conversations of interned German atomic scientists when they first heard of the use of the atomic bomb. Hans Bethe (pronounced BAY-tah) and Robert Wilson, a co-participant in the Manhattan Project discuss the development of the bomb. In 1993 he and friend, Victor Weisskopf, fondly reminisce about their early years as immigrants to upstate New York. Kurt Gottfried, Physics Department Chair, moderates these discussions. In 1994 Bethe describes the Manhattan Project for Cornell students, after being introduced by Carl Sagan, and entertains their questions.

This ‘…unpretentious man of uncommon gifts’, as the New York Times described him, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1967 for his work explaining how stars shine. In 1995 his friends and colleagues celebrate his influence and the 60 years he had been at Cornell. He continued as an active and productive researcher and published original scholarship for many additional years beyond his ‘official’ retirement. A complete list of his publications is included.

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The X-37B is a reusable robotic space plane operated by the US Space Force. It resembles a miniature space shuttle at just under 9 metres long with a 4.5 metre wingspan and is an uncrewed vehicle designed for long-duration missions in low Earth orbit.

The craft launches vertically atop a rocket, lands horizontally like a conventional aircraft and serves as a testbed for new technologies and experiments that can be returned to Earth for analysis.

It’s development was a collaborative effort between NASA, Boeing, and the US Department of Defence. It was originally conceived by NASA in the late 1990s to explore reusable spaceplane technologies but transitioned to the US Air Force in 2004 for military purposes.

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In a scene toward the end of the 2006 film, “X-Men: The Last Stand,” a character claps and sends a shock wave that knocks out an opposing army. Sunny Jung, professor of biological and environmental engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, was intrigued. “It made me curious about how the wave propagates when we clap our hands,” Jung said.

Jung is senior author of a study, published in Physical Review Research, that elucidates the complex physical mechanisms and involved in a handclap, with potential applications in bioacoustics and personal identification, whereby a handclap could be used to identify someone.

“Clapping hands is a daily, human activity and form of communication,” Jung said. “We use it in religious rituals, or to express appreciation: to resonate ourselves and excite ourselves. We wanted to explore how we generate the sound depending on how we clap our hands.”

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