"Thought Helmets"
Thursday, August 6, 2009 by Rick
I looked around the internet and found this;
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1841108,00.html.
An article by Time outlining the development of 'mind-control' helmets by the U.S Army, with the article dated Sept. 14, 2008.
Some things i noted from the article:
- Schmeisser on "thought helmets" - "It'd be radio without a microphone," says Dr. Elmar Schmeisser, the Army neuroscientist overseeing the program.
"Because soldiers are already trained to talk in clean, clear and formulaic ways, it would be a very small step to have them think that way." I thought this comment by Schmeisser reflected an extropian ideology, as thought control over soldiers would definitely make them cyborgs, perhaps robots?.
- It is interesting to note at the beggining of the article it states; 'That's why the U.S. Army has just awarded a $4 million contract to begin developing "thought helmets", At first reading this it seemed like a typo.. $4M doesn't really seem that much compaired with the scale of other Army concept developments (billions im guessing?). If $4 million dollars is all they need to research thought control technology that seems like a pretty easy option for the Army if it works. How would other armies respond to this technology?
- The article also stated gamers are waiting on a similar brain wave system to be released by emotiv this summer - a $299 headset, which they hope will allow them to control video game characters by thought rather then any voice recognition like they may be used to. This prompts me to think about the future of gaming, or perhaps everything... are we all eventually going to have no use for old fashioned talking? because we can all communicate with each other telepathically at a high speed because we have hundreds of sensors hooked up to our brains.
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http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1841108,00.html.
An article by Time outlining the development of 'mind-control' helmets by the U.S Army, with the article dated Sept. 14, 2008.
Some things i noted from the article:
- Schmeisser on "thought helmets" - "It'd be radio without a microphone," says Dr. Elmar Schmeisser, the Army neuroscientist overseeing the program.
"Because soldiers are already trained to talk in clean, clear and formulaic ways, it would be a very small step to have them think that way." I thought this comment by Schmeisser reflected an extropian ideology, as thought control over soldiers would definitely make them cyborgs, perhaps robots?.
- It is interesting to note at the beggining of the article it states; 'That's why the U.S. Army has just awarded a $4 million contract to begin developing "thought helmets", At first reading this it seemed like a typo.. $4M doesn't really seem that much compaired with the scale of other Army concept developments (billions im guessing?). If $4 million dollars is all they need to research thought control technology that seems like a pretty easy option for the Army if it works. How would other armies respond to this technology?
- The article also stated gamers are waiting on a similar brain wave system to be released by emotiv this summer - a $299 headset, which they hope will allow them to control video game characters by thought rather then any voice recognition like they may be used to. This prompts me to think about the future of gaming, or perhaps everything... are we all eventually going to have no use for old fashioned talking? because we can all communicate with each other telepathically at a high speed because we have hundreds of sensors hooked up to our brains.
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Interesting find... hope you don't mind but I just went into your post and turned the web address into a live link.