DARPA paving the way for a future brain-based Internet

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DARPA Wants Brain Inter­faces for Able-Bod­ied Warfight­ers (IEEE Spectrum):

“Until now, the neu­ro­science pro­grams at DARPA, the mad sci­ence wing of the Depart­ment of Defense, have focused on tech­nolo­gies for warfight­ers who have returned home with dis­abil­i­ties of the body or brain. For exam­ple, pro­grams have fund­ed research on pros­thet­ic limbs that are wired into the ner­vous sys­tem and brain implants that could treat post-trau­mat­ic stress disorder.

But the way the mil­i­tary fights wars is chang­ing, and so must DARPA’s pri­or­i­ties … The Next-Gen­er­a­tion Non­sur­gi­cal Neu­rotech­nol­o­gy (N3) pro­gram will fund research on tech that can trans­mit high-fideli­ty sig­nals between the brain and some exter­nal machine with­out requir­ing that the user be cut open for rewiring or implantation…The pro­gram has two tracks: One for researchers devel­op­ing com­plete­ly non-inva­sive tech and the oth­er those work­ing on “minute­ly inva­sive” technologies…

DARPA’s Sanchez says that mak­ing brain tech easy to use will open the flood­gates. “We can imag­ine a future of how this tech will be used. But this will let mil­lions of peo­ple imag­ine their own futures,” he says. “What do you want to do with your brain?”

News in Context:

• DARPA invests in non­sur­gi­cal neu­rotech­nolo­gies for even­tu­al use in healthy human subjects
• Eight research teams work­ing with DARPA to dis­cov­er best ways to acti­vate neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty and accel­er­ate learning
• DARPA launch­es Tar­get­ed Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty Train­ing pro­gram to accel­er­ate cog­ni­tive skills training
• Five rea­sons the future of brain enhance­ment is dig­i­tal, per­va­sive and (hope­ful­ly) bright
• 10 neu­rotech­nolo­gies about to trans­form brain enhance­ment and brain health
• With two new fund­ing mech­a­nisms, The Chan Zucker­berg Ini­tia­tive reach­es out of neu­ro­science to expand its Neu­rode­gen­er­a­tion Chal­lenge Network