Cyborg Soldiers Could Be The Next Step Forward

Remember the movie Universal Soldier that starred Jean-Claude Van Damme? That movie saw cyborg soldiers make use of a brain-computer interface, and this could very well be what the future entails, if what we hear about the U.S. military is correct, that they are currently working on an implantable chip which will see the brains of soldiers being connected directly to computers. This particular brain-machine interface is currently being worked on by the folks over at the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where the neural connection is said to “open the channel between the human brain and modern electronics.”

Definitely not the first attempt by DARPA researchers to construct a brain-machine interface, although efforts in the past certainly were limited in functionality. As for the latest Neural Engineering System Design (NESD) research program, it intends to increase brain neuron interaction from tens of thousands to touch the figure of millions at any one time.

The future will see DARPA develop a chip that is smaller than one cubic centimeter, and this chip will be implanted within the brain in order to function as a neural interface. What are some of the practical applications that follow? The ability to improve a wearer’s hearing or vision through the feeding of external digital auditory or visual information into the brain. Who doesn’t like a dose of cyborg soldiers in their army anyway?

Edwin Kee
Categories: Military
Tags: Science