Forget Star Wars; that's Reagan era technology. Those Americans blessed with a touch of imagination will be thrilled to learn that the Pentagon has far more exotic plans for at least a portion of our tax dollars:
Just this month, the government confirmed that an Ohio Air Force laboratory had asked for $7.5 million to build a nonlethal "gay bomb," a weapon that would encourage enemies to make love, not war. The weapon would use strong aphrodisiacs to make enemy troops so sexually attracted to each other that they'd lose interest in fighting.
Last year, scientists at Boston University developed brain implants that could steer sharklike dog fish with a phantom odor.
Just three years ago, the military funded a specious study of psychic teleportation, according to the Federation of American Scientists. An 88-page report prepared by the Air Force Research Lab contended that moving through mind powers is "quite real and can be controlled." ABC News, Fringe Science Yields "Gay Bombs" and Psychic Teleportation.
I know that others will disagree, but I personally prefer for my tax dollars to be used for studies of "psychic teleportation." I love weird science and just wish I could earmark my own small contribution to the government so that it would be used for such purposes only.
Apparently many of the most magical and intriguing projects are proposed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). According to the article, DARPA (presumably together with my guy Gore) "helped bring about the internet." Hey, when I was a kid, the internet was unimaginable and I specifically remember laughing when my first husband, an early computer geek, told me that eventually individuals all over the world would be linked through their personal computers. "Why?" I asked. "What would possibly be the point?"
Nowadays, being wiser and much, much older, I understand how much technology that we now take for granted has emerged from just such projects. I just hope that someone, somewhere is working on some of the other advancements we used to imagine would be the stuff of daily life in the 21st century, back when we were still in grade school and the 21st century was a distant dream. Where are the individual personal jetpacks? The undersea communities? The robots who would take care of all the tedious home maintenance tasks? The houses built among the clouds, in the manner of The Jetsons? Forget teleportation; I want a robot that will fold the laundry.
So I am not going to dis DARPA, who appear to be on the point of inventing invisibility cloaks for soldiers.
Inspired by the U.S.-Soviet space race during the Cold War, DARPA's mantra is "to prevent technological surprise for us and to create technological surprise for our adversaries."
"We focus on research that has a high risk of failure, but if it succeeds, it makes a revolutionary difference in national security," said spokesman Jan Walker. "We spend a lot of time talking to the senior leadership to ask them, 'What are the things that keep you up at night?'"
DARPA is spending $15 million to use "megamaterials" developed by Duke University scientists to build shoot-through, invisible, one-way, self-healing shields for soldiers in urban battlefields. By bending light the wrong way, an optical trick can make objects disappear.ABC News, Fringe Science Yields "Gay Bombs" and Psychic Teleportation
Just imagine the many applications in day to day life. Honestly, the benefits would just go on and on. And just imagine if the neuroscience research succeeds and they invent something that will allow soldiers to stay awake for days on end while preserving cognitive function. Can you imagine the boon that this will be to university students and parents of infants? ABC News, Fringe Science Or, for that matter, to the Crux and me? And if you think teleportation is just science fiction, you can read The Teleportation Physics Study right here.
There is a downside, of course. Isn't there always? Alex Debat,senior fellow for national security and terrorism at the Nixon Center in Washington, D.C., told ABC news that ""Living here in Washington, you have no idea how we are inventing enemies," said Debat. "Hundreds of people are trying to figure out how to make China our enemy because there is so much money and power in the Pentagon.""ABC News, Fringe Science. Who in the what now? Oh, of course. ::Sigh:: Even so, it's comforting to consider that the world is (still) full of a number of things.
Anyway, the DARPA site is here. Here are some related notes and articles:
- Stealth Now Old Hat---USAF looks into Teleportation..
- SPACE.com--U.S. Air Force Takes a Look at Teleportation.
- America's Psychic Intelligence Agents.
- American Antigravity: Interview with Dr. Eric Davis.
Finally, here's the Jon Stewart interview with science fiction writer Greg Bear, discussing the future of technology. Greg Bear came up with his idea while working with the FBI while researching technology for the post-911 world. ("We've forgotten American terrorists," he says unreassuringly.)
Comments