The Army's Totally Serious Mind-Control Project

[Fireweed247]

Soldiers barking orders at each other is so 20th Century. That's why the U.S. Army has just awarded a $4 million contract to begin developing "thought helmets" that would harness silent brain waves for secure communication among troops. Ultimately, the Army hopes the project will "lead to direct mental control of military systems by thought alone."

If this sounds insane, it would have been as recently as a few years ago. But improvements in computing power and a better understanding of how the brain works have scientists busy hunting for the distinctive neural fingerprints that flash through a brain when a person is talking to himself. The Army's initial goal is to capture those brain waves with incredibly sophisticated software that then translates the waves into audible radio messages for other troops in the field. "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."..

Both scientists pre-emptively deny expected charges that they're literally messing with soldiers' minds. "A lot of people interpret wires coming out of the head as some sort of mind reading," D'Zmura sighs. "But there's no way you can get there from here," Schmeisser insists. "Not only do you have to be willing, but since your brain is unique, you have to train the system to read your mind - so it's impossible to do it against someone's will and without their active and sustained cooperation."

And don't overlook potential civilian benefits. "How often have you been annoyed by people screaming into their cell phones?" Schmeisser asks. "What if instead of their Bluetooth earpiece it was a Bluetooth headpiece and their mouth is shut and there's blessed silence all around you?" Sounds like one of those rare slices of the U.S. military budget even pacifists might support.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20080915/us_time/thearmystotallyseriousmindcontrolproject;_ylt=AmZQks.b2NQe64RukZ2ZTfes0NUE

[DS1]

1. Dammit Johnson! Stop thinking about your sister!

[slampoet]

2. "Wow, sarge is such a hardass.....such a sexy...hard...ass."

[Regret My New Name]

3. Man, I wouldn't this hooked up to me..

I'm finally figuring out how to keep my thoughts from leaving my mouth when they probably shouldn't... This is going to screw everything up.

[crimson333]

4. We are the Borg

resistance is futile.......

[Javaman]

7. You will be assimilated. nt

[JohnyCanuck]

5. "armies and generals will be controlled by electrical stimulation of the brain."

"We need a program of psychosurgery and political control of our society. The purpose is physical control of the mind. Everyone who deviates from the given norm can be surgically mutilated."

"The individual may think that the most important reality is his own existence, but this is only his personal point of view. This lacks historical perspective."

"Man does not have the right to develop his own mind. This kind of liberal orientation has great appeal. We must electrically control the brain. Some day armies and generals will be controlled by electrical stimulation of the brain."

Dr. Jose Delgado (MKULTRA experimenter who demonstrated a radio-controlled bull on CNN in 1985)
Director of Neuropsychiatry, Yale University Medical School
Congressional Record No. 26, Vol. 118, February 24, 1974

http://www.hermes-press.com/brainwash1.htm

[crickets]

6. "Man does not have the right to develop his own mind."

Authoritarian psychos have no idea just how creepy they sound to the sane.

[readmoreoften]

9. you beat me to it!

[readmoreoften]

8. This was begun by chair of the Yale neuroscience department Dr. Jose Delgado in the 1970s

They are probably using the technology that interprets subvocalized thought into sound--it doesn't pick up stray thoughts.

[bemildred]

10. Are bodies such a bad thing?

What is the point of this? I can control my body "by thought alone" already, and I can control most anything they can build with my body. And if that is not good enough, there are computers, though they have their limitations too. We already have secure communications, and a lot cheaper and easier than this.

[Fireweed247]

11. This makes me wonder what kind of new technology they already have

and are already using against all of US.

[loyalsister]

12. What's new about military brainwashing?

:boring: