Uncle Sam to blow millions on mind-control weapon tech that can be fitted without surgery DARPA, the US military's boffinry nerve center, is trying to fulfill the science-fiction dream of developing non-surgical brain-machine interfaces so soldiers can comfortably control weapon systems with their minds. On Tuesday, it announced funding for six teams at the Battelle Memorial Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, …
Ahh - you meant to say VF-1S. Or StarScream if you're a Transformer's fan (if you take the Bandai version). After all, it was a VF-1S before Harmony Gold got a hold of it. ;)
I'd go for the Crusader (which I think was based on the VF-1A Armoured Valkyrie).
Whatever your take, those designs are amazing!
I believe you mean Jetfire (aka Skyfire) not Starscream. Although the two were friends back on Cybertron so I can see why you might be confused.
Aside: Why is it I can remember all that stupid trivia about cartoon characters from over 30 years ago but I can't remember the names of some of my coworkers whom I see every day?
Last I heard, brain interfaces like this were very cool for disabled people who couldn’t use the standard interfaces, but for anyone else, the standard interfaces were still faster and more precise. Has that changed?
Until it does, I have to assume this would be a narrow tool for very specific tasks, and not replacing all of their previous weapons.
"Enemy launch a dirty nuke (doesn't need to be big), the EMP burst fries the skullcaps. Soldiers left with their M15 to fight with but haven't been trained to use old, manual technology. Whoops...."
Probably not in the immediate future, at least. Last I recall hearing, "Starship Troopers" was still on the required reading list @ U.S military academies, in which a good chunk of chapter 5 is taken up with a discussion on why the armored Mobile Infantry troops train with knives, sticks, rifles and other "obsolete" weapons.
"...in the future they might put on a headset containing a neural interface, use the technology however it’s needed, then put the tool aside when the mission is complete.”
My species is insane and will manage to kill itself off if it doesn't overcome its self-loathing mental health issue. That's my point of view as I watch the drive of proxy soldier devices controlled from afar continue apace. I wish we'd all grow up and make sense. Apparently, that's foolish optimism.
Well... When they get this tech, inevetibly it'll be released and the enemy will then have it.
What remains is to disable the real weapons and run only simulations between the two sides.
We can forgo the whole 'death chamber' and computers determining who 'died' in simulated battle therefore must be killed IRL
I want a hard drive that I can use next to my computer without a dedicated interface. It will listen to signals radiating from the circuits, process it with AI, know what the computer wants, then beam back responses into the circuits.
Now do that for a fully 3D non-standardized object like a brain.
Pretty much everyone has random thoughts at times that aren't desireable...maybe you are driving and idly wonder "what if I crossed the centerline in front of that huge truck?" You don't have any real intention to do so, and you never would, but your mind wanders to that thought for a split second.
Unless there is a population of people who NEVER have such brief wandering thoughts, hooking them up to something that can read their thoughts and use them to control weapons fire in a split second would be a REALLY bad idea.
"allow a blind person to see using the eyes of someone sighted, by reading the sighted person's brainwaves as they look around, and wirelessly stimulating neurons in the blind subject's brain to project the sighted person's view into their mind. "
The beginning of the evolution of what will eventually become the Babelfish! - now we know how it came about.
"For example, Rice University is working on a system that will hopefully allow a blind person to see using the eyes of someone sighted"
Oh this is a bad idea. The human brain has a nasty habit of pointing the eyes to anything of interest, without any input from the consciousness. I don't want anybody else knowing what my subconscious is REALLY wanting to look at . . cue sexual discrimination lawsuits.
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