WUC NEWS: Darpa

DARPA is implanting chips in soldiers’ brains

TheWake UpCall 0 Darpa 9:49 PM

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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There’s a sudden rash of stories about <a href="http://disinfo.com/tag/darpa/">DARPA</a>‘s bizarre projects, and this one from <a href="http://fusion.net/story/204316/darpa-is-implanting-chips-in-soldiers-brains/">Fusion</a> may be the most disturbing:<br><br>For decades, DARPA, the secretive research arm of the Department of Defense, has dreamed of turning soldiers into cyborgs. And now it’s finally happening. The agency has funded projects that involve implanting chips into soldiers’ brains that they hope will enhance performance on the battlefield and repair traumatized brains once the fog of war has lifted.</span><br>
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DARPA is implanting chips in soldiers’ brains

There’s a sudden rash of stories about DARPA ‘s bizarre projects, and this one from Fusion may be the most disturbing: For decades, DARPA...

Ex-DARPA Head Wants You to Swallow ID Microchips

TheWake UpCall 0 Darpa, ID Microchips 9:49 AM

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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Google executive also pushes e-tattoo that reads your mind.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Former DARPA director and now Google executive Regina Dugan is pushing an edible “authentication microchip” along with an electronic tattoo that can read your mind. No this isn’t a movie script about a futuristic scientific dictatorship, it’s trendy and cool!</span></div>
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Ex-DARPA Head Wants You to Swallow ID Microchips

Google executive also pushes e-tattoo that reads your mind. Former DARPA director and now Google executive Regina Dugan is pushing an ed...

DARPA BRAIN CHIPS TO IMPLANT FALSE MEMORIES

TheWake UpCall 0 Darpa 10:42 AM

DARPA BRAIN CHIPS TO IMPLANT FALSE MEMORIES

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing brain chips that will implant or remove specific memories from a subjec...

DARPA's New Biotech Division Wants to Create a Transhuman Future

TheWake UpCall 0 Darpa, Transhumanism 9:52 PM

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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Pentagon's advanced research wing has announced its latest budget - and whoa, does <a href="http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_DARPA.htm" target="_blank">DARPA</a> ever have some ambitious plans for the future.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Their new Biotech unit will be harnessing biology for national security, and dealing with everything from stopping plagues to building synthetic soldiers. DARPA's commitment to cutting-edge innovation is unquestioned.</span></div>
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DARPA's New Biotech Division Wants to Create a Transhuman Future

The Pentagon's advanced research wing has announced its latest budget - and whoa, does DARPA ever have some ambitious plans for the ...

DARPA working on brain implants to help restore memory

TheWake UpCall 0 Darpa 11:13 AM

DARPA working on brain implants to help restore memory

Memory loss could soon be a thing of the past. US military researchers say they’re developing a new brain implant that could restore mental...

Vaccines, DARPA and Military Involvement: Bad Has Surely Gone to Worse

TheWake UpCall 1 Darpa 8:09 AM

Vaccines, DARPA and Military Involvement: Bad Has Surely Gone to Worse

DARPA developing ultimate web search engine to police the internet

TheWake UpCall 0 Darpa, Internet 4:24 PM

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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Pentagon’s research arm that fosters futuristic technology for the military will soon begin working to surpass current abilities of commercial web search engines. Yet, once it masters the “deep Web,” the agency doesn’t say much about what comes next.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Defense Advanced Research (DARPA) said its <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Memex”</em> project will be able to search the far corners of internet content that is unattainable by modern, mainstream search engines, offering DARPA <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“technological superiority in the area of content indexing and Web search on the Internet.”</em></span></div>
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DARPA developing ultimate web search engine to police the internet

The Pentagon’s research arm that fosters futuristic technology for the military will soon begin working to surpass current abilities of com...

Pentagon Has Commissioned DARPA To Implant Chips In Soldiers’ Brains

TheWake UpCall 0 Darpa, Microchips, Pentagon 9:50 AM

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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Like something from a science-fiction flick, the Pentagon is looking to develop a brain chip for use in soldiers that, if implanted, can recover lost memory should a brain injury occur.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This “black box” chip would be implanted into one’s brain to possibly trigger memories surrounding a traumatic event, which may otherwise remain permanently lost, and overcome memory loss quickly and efficiently.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQbUS8CmkmhCeoWb7R_XjqTCZrkMM9EcBdq_5Mg1e48YHoOkyNyibzNT3Z0-Ky450J6ppQdfW61VTfhF6bZWRyPnerar3EhuDzuyCnUZZ8xAiI9jl0v1AAvIzABFbiGbj8phY-lW0zTZ-k/s1600/bionic-implant_01-590x330+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQbUS8CmkmhCeoWb7R_XjqTCZrkMM9EcBdq_5Mg1e48YHoOkyNyibzNT3Z0-Ky450J6ppQdfW61VTfhF6bZWRyPnerar3EhuDzuyCnUZZ8xAiI9jl0v1AAvIzABFbiGbj8phY-lW0zTZ-k/s1600/bionic-implant_01-590x330+copy.jpg" width="640"></a></div>

Pentagon Has Commissioned DARPA To Implant Chips In Soldiers’ Brains

Like something from a science-fiction flick, the Pentagon is looking to develop a brain chip for use in soldiers that, if implanted, can re...

When the robot apocalypse arrives, this is what will be chasing you

TheWake UpCall 0 Darpa, Robot 5:14 PM

<div style="border: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Boston Dynamics, inventor of a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">robot pack animal</a> for military service and a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chPanW0QWhA" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">robot cheetah</a>that — while tethered to a power cable on a treadmill — could outpace Usain Bolt, has a new pet to play with.</span></span></div><div style="border: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="Boston Dynamics robot Wildcat" src="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Boston-Dynamics-robot-Wildcat.jpg" /></span></span></div><div style="border: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The Wildcat is a four-legged robot being developed to run fast on all types of terrain,” Boston Dynamics said in the preamble to their demonstration video. “So far WildCat has run at about 16 mph on flat terrain using bounding and galloping gaits. The video shows WildCat’s best performance so far. WildCat is being developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from DARPA’s M3 program.”</span></span></div><div style="border: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At a 16 mile per hour pace, the Wildcat is running a 3 minute, 45 second mile. The human world record mile holder clocked a 3:43 race in 1999.</span></span></div><script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br />

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<script type='text/javascript' src='http://ads.qadserve.com/t?id=a2b34d3a-e07c-4678-a7a8-346319aafab6&size=728x90'></script><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="266" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wE3fmFTtP9g?feature=player_embedded" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="320"></iframe></span></span></div><div style="border: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><div class="first-text" data-textannotation-id="b5b9844d3ab943789c7abd7abb6af6fd" style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 19px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px 18px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last year, <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5940799/military-robot-cheetah-is-faster-than-usain-bolt++and-freaks-the-hell-out-of-me" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;">DARPA unveiled Cheetah</a>: a robot that could run faster than Usain Bolt. Now, the same team has managed to create a version that doesn't need a power cord, making the electronic beast free to roam wherever it chooses. Be afraid. Be very afraid.</span></span></div><div data-textannotation-id="645144f3e3aaff5b7dcc2c11f599a636" style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 19px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px 18px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A relative of Cheetah, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wE3fmFTtP9g" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">say hello to WildCat</a>. This robot is based on the same design as Cheetah, but doesn't have the tethered power cable of its predecessor; instead, it has a large—and quite loud!—motor attached to it.</span></span></div><div data-textannotation-id="a14cc065440e56022cacc3f5a4db1571" style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 19px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px 18px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That extra weight does means it can't quite match the pace—Cheetah can reach 28mph, while WildCat can only manage 16mph. But, hey, given that's faster than most of us can run, it's not too bad. And remember, WildCat can keep up that speed for as long as it motor runs, which humans definitely can't.</span></span></div>

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When the robot apocalypse arrives, this is what will be chasing you

Boston Dynamics, inventor of a robot pack animal for military service and a robot cheetah that — while tethered to a power cable on a tre...

Darpa, Venter Launch Assembly Line for Genetic Engineering

TheWake UpCall 0 Darpa, Genetic Engineering 1:08 PM

<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;">The military-industrial complex just got a little bit livelier. Quite literally.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;">That’s because Darpa, the Pentagon’s far-out research arm, has kicked off a program designed to take the conventions of manufacturing and apply them to living cells. Think of it like an assembly line, but one that would churn out modified biological matter — man-made organisms — instead of cars or computer parts.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;"><img src="http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2012/05/synthetic2.jpg" /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;">The program, called “Living Foundries,” was first <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/pentagons-new-factory-your-dna/" style="color: #007ca5; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">announced</a> by the agency last year. Now, Darpa’s handed out <a href="https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&tab=core&id=e8e2f7298a4b043fa3fb91d3fd693b36&_cview=0" style="color: #007ca5; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">seven research awards</a> worth $15.5 million to six different companies and institutions. Among them are several Darpa favorites, including the University of Texas at Austin and the California Institute of Technology. Two contracts were also issued to the <a href="http://www.jcvi.org/cms/about/overview/" style="color: #007ca5; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">J. Craig Venter Institute</a>. Dr. Venter is something of a biology superstar: He was among the first scientists to sequence a human genome, and his institute was, in 2010, the first to create a cell with <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0521/J.-Craig-Venter-Institute-creates-first-synthetic-life-form" style="color: #007ca5; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">entirely synthetic genome</a>.</div>

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<script type='text/javascript' src='http://ads.qadserve.com/t?id=a2b34d3a-e07c-4678-a7a8-346319aafab6&size=728x90'></script><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;"><span id="more-81226" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></span>“Living Foundries” aspires to turn the slow, messy process of genetic engineering into a streamlined and standardized one. Of course, the field is already a burgeoning one: Scientists have tweaked cells in order to develop <a href="http://www.ls9.com/" style="color: #007ca5; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">renewable petroleum</a> and <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2094364/Bio-engineered-bulletproof-skin-human-cells-spider-silk-revealed-video.html" style="color: #007ca5; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">spider silk</a> that’s tough as steel. And a host of companies are <a href="http://www.dna.com/divisions" style="color: #007ca5; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">investigating</a> the pharmaceutical and agricultural promise lurking — with some tinkering, of course — inside living cells.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;">But those breakthroughs, while exciting, have also been time-consuming and expensive. As Darpa notes, even the most cutting-edge synthetic biology projects “often take 7+ years and tens to hundreds of millions of dollars” to complete. Venter’s synthetic cell project, for example, <a href="http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/breakthroughs/synthetic-cell-breakthrough" style="color: #007ca5; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">cost</a> an estimated $40 million.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;">Synthetic biology, as Darpa notes, has the potential to yield “new materials, novel capabilities, fuel and medicines” — everything from fuels to solar cells to vaccines <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">could</em> be produced by engineering different living cells. But the agency isn’t content to wait seven years for each new innovation. In fact, they want the capability for “on-demand production” of whatever bio-product suits the military’s immediate needs.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;">To do it, Darpa will need to revamp the process of bio-engineering — from the initial design of a new material, to its construction, to its subsequent efficacy evaluation. The starting point, and one that agency-funded researchers will have to create, is a library of “modular genetic parts”: Standardized biological units that can be assembled in different ways — like LEGO — to create different materials.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;">Once that library is created, the agency wants researchers to come up with a set of “parts, regulators, devices and circuits” that can reliably yield various genetic systems. After that, they’ll also need “test platforms” to quickly evaluate new bio-materials. Think of it as a biological assembly line: Products are designed, pieced together using standardized tools and techniques, and then tested for efficacy.</div>

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<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;">The process, once established, ought to massively accelerate the pace of bio-engineering — and cut costs. The agency’s asking researchers to “compress the biological design-build-test cycle by at least 10X in both time and cost,” while also “increasing the complexity of systems that can be designed and executed.”</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;">No doubt, Darpa’s making some big asks of the scientists tasked with this research. And not everyone’s convinced they’ll pull it off. “The biology will fight them,” Daniel Drell, a program manager with the U.S. Department of Energy, <a href="http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/06/darpa-to-offer-30-million-to-jump.html" style="color: #007ca5; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">predicted</a> last year. Which suggests it might be a few years, at least, before Darpa’s bio-creations try to fight us.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; padding: 0px;">Source: <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/05/living-foundries/" style="background-color: transparent;">http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/05/living-foundries/</a></div><br />
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Darpa, Venter Launch Assembly Line for Genetic Engineering

The military-industrial complex just got a little bit livelier. Quite literally. That’s because Darpa, the Pentagon’s far-out research arm, ...

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