The American military looks set to revolutionise war with the creation of ‘cyborg soldiers’.
The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has green lit a project that would allow soldiers to be given enhanced cognitive and sensory abilities by connecting them to computers, The Guardian reports.
The U.S. Department of Defence – who DARPA does advanced research for – hopes to develop military technology with the project, although in the future the same tech could be open to civilian applications.
Those who suffer from vision and hearing problems will benefit from the programme, as the neural interface between the human mind and computers will help improve their senses.
DARPA aim to invest up to $60 million in the project – called Neural Engineering System Design (NESD) – in the next four years.
They’re planning on creating a bio-compatible device that can be planted on soldiers and works as a translator capable of converting between the ‘electrochemical language used by neurons in the brain and the ones and zeros that constitute the language of information technology’.
For this to happen, DARPA says:
…it will require integrated breakthroughs across numerous disciplines including neuroscience, synthetic biology, low-power electronics, photonics, medical device packaging and manufacturing, systems engineering, and clinical testing.
The agency hasn’t set a date for the completion of this human-machine interface, but it’s already hired a number of experts to get the ball rolling.
