The offensive capabilities of cyber forces in the United States have been developing for a long time. It has also been no secret for a long time that the Stuxnet virus that attacked Iran's nuclear facilities was a joint product of the US and Israeli special services. New, more sophisticated viruses are grown in special laboratories of the National Security Agency (NSA), on the basis of which the US Cyber Command and the CIA operate.
However, the main goal of cyberwar is not the enemy's networks and command posts, but his brain. Research on various aspects of the brain has been going on for many years and is of particular interest to the US military-industrial complex. Such projects relate to neurobiology and related sciences - neuropharmacology, neuromedicine, cognitive neurobiology, neurotoxicology, neuromicrobiology, etc.
Implants, sensors, chips, genetic changes, Internet connection and manipulation of thoughts and actions through human-machine interfaces - all this is already a reality, and not just promising projects for the near future.
In general, neurotechnologies are interesting for the possibilities of increasing the effect of psychological operations as a “force multiplier” in political and military tactics. This trend has been recorded since the 1985 PSYOP master plan of the US Department of Defense, which was subsequently accelerated by the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria.
At the Pentagon, neurobiological research is being handled by the Strategic Multilayer Assessment Group of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Center for Neurotechnology Research of the Potomac Institute, the Office of Naval Research, Sandia Corporation (part of Lockheed Martin), and the US Department of Energy also conduct similar programs and provide grants.
The successes, judging by the official sources, are quite impressive. For example, researchers from DCS Corp and the US Army Research Laboratory fed datasets of human brain waves into a neural network - a type of artificial intelligence that has learned to recognize when a person decides to attack a target. An article about this research was presented at the annual Intelligent User Interface conference in Cyprus in March 2017. “We know there are signals in the brain that appear when you perceive something significant,” says Matthew Jaswa, one of the authors of the article. These signals are called P300 waves, bursts of electrical activity that the parietal lobe of the brain releases in response to stimuli. Discovered in the 1960s, P300 waves are primarily the brain's response to a problem that needs to be solved quickly. The goal is to create a neural network that can respond instantly, continuously and in real time, observing the brainwaves and eye movements of highly trained soldiers doing their jobs.
The study doesn't mean robots can now bypass humans, but an artificial neural network could function much faster than humans. And this is just one of the possible applications.
One way or another, the possible transfer of functions to a machine is associated with the development of artificial intelligence. Based on the experiences of Google's DeepMind lab, it was recently shown that artificial intelligence (AI) can beat the best player in the world in a game of go, which is considered exponentially more difficult than chess.
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Decision-making with regard to hitting a target, developing various combinations for operational use, searching for vulnerabilities in enemy systems are just some of the possible uses of AI by the US Armed Forces. These studies were part of a multi-year, multidisciplinary program called the Cognitive and Neuroergonomic Collaborative Technology Alliance (CaN CTA).
This alliance was formed in May 2010 and brings together world-class researchers, including the most prominent scientists from the US Army research laboratories working in the field of neurobiology. The alliance includes a number of universities - Columbia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, San Diego, Maryland, Johns Hopkins, Carnegie, as well as a number of industrial corporations. They all work for the needs of the US Army.
According to American scientists associated with the US security forces, there are four interactive areas of neuroscience that are important in the field of security:
1. Nano-neuroscience
Nanomaterials and devices can be designed to alter neural networks, induce changes in the properties of the nervous system from the periphery to the brain, and affect sensitivity to internal and / or external stimuli. Nano-neurotechnologies can therefore be used to alter cognitive, emotional and / or behavioral functions and thus influence mental and motor ability, mood; these technologies can also cause disabilities. These technologies can be used to change the functions of intelligence and security services, can be used in combat operations, as well as forms of biological and technological terrorism and means of mass subjugation;
2. Advanced neuropharmacology
We are talking about improving the work of neurons (and / or their degradation), achieved through the use of psychoneuropharmaceuticals. These drugs can be administered via nanocarriers that provide enhanced access to the central nervous system in ways that maximize biological and psychosocial effects, but may elude detection. Similarly, pharmaceuticals can be linked to brain stimulation technologies to modify cognitive, motor, emotional, and / or behavioral processes;
3. Neuro-like and neuro-manipulating devices
These are developments that make it possible to visualize various cognitive-emotional and behavioral functions. By identifying these neurological axes, means of "detecting" and / or "revealing" mental states can be provided. Efforts are underway to focus more on measuring brain activity in an attempt to determine “what”, if not “why,” affects cognitive and emotional processes (such as deception, intention, aggression, etc.). This has led to hypothetical "mind reading" scenarios and has sparked serious debate about the efficacy, value, and ethical implications of such devices and techniques;
4. Neuroinformatics and cyberneurosystems
This linking of the rapid advancement of computational power to neurotechnology has three main areas. First, the use of computing systems to improve cognitive processes (that is, human-computer interfaces); secondly, reversible engineering cognitive mechanisms for the creation of computational technologies and systems for the construction of effective machine intelligence; third, the collection of informational data on neural structures.
All these directions have several tasks, but in the end they can be used to achieve one goal - re-coding the consciousness of a potential adversary. In other words, the US military-political community, using social networks, special programs, and other types of neuroweapons, is trying to figure out how to make people obedient, controlled by zombies.
LEONID SAVIN