an iron man type character or arnold schwartzenegger in terminator, to maybe a genetically modified human sideboard hybrid. while those things are entirely off the table, were not there just yet, not yet, but with dwindling military recruitment numbers across the us and all branches of the military. the d o d wants to make who they've got will make them last, make soldiers more durable if you will, enhance human function and capability. that's where we are right now in 2023. in the us under darpa, the defense advanced research projects agency. there are a myriad of projects currently under way. take project adapter, for example. that stands for advanced acclimation and protection tool for environmental readiness, and involves sideboard implants to alter soldiers,

natural body functions or responses to make food that could make you sick from food poisoning by producing their reputed substances or chemicals in the body to tell the good, not to respond to disruption. it's like a mini factory of good bacteria. sounds like a minor or even useless thing, but when you're on the battlefield, you can't afford to be sick to your stomach or dehydrated. food poisoning could literally cost you your life and it's not just darpa, not just the us working on these tweaks to human biology that can benefit their battle readiness. a super secret development is under way for several military super powers, like china and russia as well in the west. subcontractors to the pentagon are lined

up in the private sector to develop these advancements like enhanced night vision without and gambles. this hot new sector has sprung up in the last decade called synthetic biology, which has seen billions of dollars poor in from both venture capital and the d o. d . so here to discuss this potential game changer in warfare. well bring in professor arman krishnan. he's an assistant professor of political science at east carolina university and author of several books, his most recent one called military neuroscience and becoming age of narrow warfare . he's got expertise in international affairs and national security professor. thank you so much for joining us today. first, tell us a little bit about your book, military neuroscience and the coming age of neuro warfare. what's it about? what prompted you to delve into this topic?

well, it's about mount applications of neuro science and you of human performance enhancement, as well as human performance. the great, the good vision and also in terms of to use for intelligence and things like determining whether somebody's assess the truth or not. and so there are many different applications that are national security relevant. and yeah, my or just not interesting topic 10 because of my earlier work. i'm not talking this weapon systems. as i found that artificial intelligence research relates strongly to austin, nor science research. so i'm the intelligence research has tried to build enough successful brain to this model on the human brain. and that's why the 2 pos overlap. so let's go beyond psychological warfare. cy, off or,

or even the information war. we have now entered the age of what many would colloquially call body hacking, or what the pentagon calls synthetic biology research. one of many darpa projects right now is called n 3 next generation non surgical neuro technology program. it aims to provide soldiers with bi directional brain machine interfaces which they called b, c i. so in brief, basically i would enable neuro pathways to communicate with external devices via an implant that talks to an external receptor. so in theory, the person can control like a swarm of drones just by thought rather than by computer. how and, and why would this be a desirable application for the military? but make sure it has been interested in brand computer enterprise systems, at least tonight in sixties. the don't idea is to combine the high cognitive

abilities of the human brain. that's the response times of machines. so by perry, a human brain, with a machine or a weapon system, you can get the best of the 2 words. and that's the reason why the military wants it. and yeah, they have been working on different approaches to do that. so one approach was a project called deep brain stimulation. so that's the top of project from 2013, which requires and then basic approaches. so you have to drill holes into the brain to insert some implant into the brain. and that can be used for um, 3 things like that that are up to date. so you can relieve stress or pain. so it has been used on notary veterans who have a medical conditions. and obviously you could develop that folder in terms of using it for 4th grade computers into phase the. so where you have

a seamless connection between the human brain and a computer. so you could allow them to control a computer or a machine by thought. and so that is quite powerful and yeah, but they are now trying to do is to have a non invasive technology, which can perform at least somewhat better than what they have already. so whether you're using is e g, a, but they're looking at something better than you g. and again, adopt would be very practical if you could go to it into some kind of helmet like device. so you don't have to permanently modify your soldiers and you don't have to take a huge medical risk that comes with that. so, so that was kind of the context why they're trying to do it. assign just called robert free test, who is

a nano technology researcher at the institute for molecular manufacturing has been working on artificial red blood cells called respirators sites. he says these nano machines would give humans the ability to quote, hold their breath at the bottom of a swimming pool for hours, or let someone sprint at top speed for at least 15 minutes without stopping to breathe. and how might this be a plaque of all the soldiers on the battlefield may have cross. you would like to have soldiers where have great the endurance we have greater strength. who can perform at the peak level for an extended period of time. who don't need to sleep much or don't need to eat and high. yeah. anything that's kind of accomplish that is obviously desirable approach is called nano medicine. so you can inject nano particles or nano bought into the body in order to achieve some performance

enhancement. so i understand that it's related to improving the oxygen uptake in the blood and that allows you to have greater insurance and to cope this policy, oxygen in the environment. so how does that? so that is quite tough real and i think it's a new term kind of capability to we have a so that we can use now medicine in order to have some performance enhancement. that especially as a concerns of things that could oxygen uptake. i mean, that has been a technique in doping for quite some time. i'm so sorry to say not of both of themselves. um, what i have with that because i like them. the one you've described but robot frightens us. i don't know when that will be a reality. and biotech is a massive field,

an estimated $421000000000.00 in 2022 alone according to the t stuff. it's generally defined as the use of biological systems or living organisms to develop its products, sometimes called biologics. meanwhile, the former us director of national intelligence, john radcliff, accused china of going one step further in biotech. he said china was using chris for technology to alter human genetics in order to create a physically superior soldier without offering any evidence. mind you, if we entertain the idea that this is actually happening suspending any ethical arguments given how costly a crisper program would be, is this concept even feasible? and what does it take decades to develop an army of super humans? well, i don't think they are necessarily looking at this time at human genetic engineering

. so that would be to design schuman soldier from scratch. so you would have to work with human embryos. and you would try to combine human dna eve of some other. but actually animal dna to create a totally new type of organism. uh, so obviously that would take a long time. so you would need 18 or 20 years to grow your soldiers. but i don't think that this is commonly the issue as of what you can do is gene therapy or gene doping. so you can money can a gene expression. so you can activate or d, x of age genes. and that can be used for showing performance enhancement and adapt is an interesting kind of technology. you can do it with the zeros injections as we can potentially insert some new genes into the body as well into certain organs.

and yeah, it's quite possible that the chinese military is already working on this and that the us luxury is also considering that very seriously. course, the technology can be generally used for modify. anytime to fill out the organism, including plans and also animals. so you don't have to necessarily necessarily go to 2 minutes for that. and yeah, according to james clapper, who was a director of national intelligence before rach plan. so as you suggested in 2016, the chris but technology is low cost and easy and that it could amounts to a weapon of mass destruction if it was of use a. so we would be talking about potentially modifying plants or animals and doing it in a malicious way, in order to cost this function with good half organism self destruct. uh

so that is a very dangerous kind of technology because once you release something into the environment, it's very difficult to take it back and then you can combine it with a gene ross. so you could totally modify an existing species as compound and that would be indeed very dangerous, as of what they are currently considering is working with most details. so genetically modified, not most of the doors, and they can be used for delivering some north talks in or some biological agent. so, so that is a much one year term for us. all right, coming up next has soldier, body hacking, actually existed for a millennia. we'll discuss it when we return with professor arman christian in sit tight. the ammo will be right back. the

show. they just don't have to shape house because the and engagement equals the trail. when so many find themselves will support. we choose to look for common ground the. 9 given even him dunbar foolish for that's dealing with so obviously really is grand. the fiscal is when a new level of them not have that has to be a matter for, for the selling the prior to the

status of most recently and stuff which is set to play the welcome back to the m. o i, manila, chad with the advancement of a i systems on the battlefield does not necessarily mean we are working towards bloodless wars. a back to discuss is professor arman christian and thank you for staying with us professor. now, despite many of these discussions around crisper and china is alleged experimentation, not much talked about in the us is this thing called space genes program, which sounds to me a lot like what christopher technology does now from their website under darpa, it says this quote, the safe james program supports for protection and military health and readiness by

protecting service members from accidental or intentional misuse of geno editing technologies. additional work will leverage advances in gene editing technology to expedite the development of advanced prophylactic and therapeutic treatments against gene editor's. advances within the program will ensure the united states remains at the vanguard of the broadly accessible and rapidly progressing field of g no editing. then they go on to say overall, the safe trans program is creating a layered, modular, and adaptable solution set to protect war fighters and the homeland against intentional or accidental misuse of g. no editing technologies prevent and or reverse unwanted genetic changes in a given biological system. and facilitate the development of safe, precise, and effective medical treatment that use gene editors. all right, professor,

given the enhancement and use of drones and other non human tack on the battlefield . why bother with trying to alter human soldiers? why not continued the advancement of fully robotic warriors? i mean, why can't we take humans off the battlefield entirely? no, it's some of the argument to say, we don't need to. and soldiers because they have nuclear weapons. as i said, they were present totally different capabilities. so machines can do certain things better than humans, but humans can also do a lot of things much better than machines. and so we need both types of capabilities. we cannot simply invest in just one type of capability and ignore or the other kinds of activities that might be needed. so there are certain circumstances where machines could easily or performed humans. so for example,

for space weapons or putting a deep sea nissan off environments that are very suitable for humans. but that could be very suitable for autonomy was weapon systems. at the same time, if you will have to operate in a human environment such as in a city where you have civilians around. it's probably not the best option to rely on telling them is weapon systems for that. the risks of some to talk to great. and or the a, i show some promise about also some very substantial and inherent problems with e. i. and so for example, yeah, i realize learning networks that learn by themselves. so nobody knows how they evolve over time. so you can simply put an autonomy weapon system in the field and hope for the best. you never know how it would respond in a new type of situation. and obviously, i mean,

adversary would try to click into doing something stupid. so does account. they are. so you might be able to manipulate the data collection of the eyes system . and deb, i distort the, the eyes decision making and even fixed the i to attack on forces or civilians. i say, i don't think you can do a wave of human soul just a, i don't think that is a feasible. now on that note, as, as you're just sort of alluded to there, do you ever foresee a future where of war, where there are no human casualties, you know, both soldiers or civilian. what could be the part of that? the word is defined as an x of force to compel you and i need to do it. oh, well, so you cannot have a war where you do not take some sort of pain on the enemy or causing some financial mature. the damage is not enough. and tumors for fight and they both need

to feel pain in order to stop by to. and i don't think that it is, uh, it makes sense to have a ward. it has entirely fault by machines. and so there will always be some human participation in more, at the very least, humans would be participating, it was collateral damage. so you will never be able to eliminate that kind of risk . and the only way you could have a bloodless war would be some sort of non lease or technology that could mentally course or mind control in any population. so that is a very scary possibility. but luckily it's not in the near future. how long do you think countries have actually been genetically, or at least chemically altering soldiers without the public knowing? but let me know has always been an interest in genetic to improving your soldiers.

i mean that the most basic technique is eugenics and breeding. so that is an idea that goes back to ancient times and the greek philosopher title was suggested to debt. and this has been also implemented in modern times. if you think of the s s reading program called levens form. so that has been going on for a long time that you want to select the type of soldiers who has the best genetic conditions for the task. and yeah, we have not the technology to do the genetic screening. so we would be able to select people for certain jobs and i think that is potentially already happening. so we are not always informed about these kinds of things, but the, the technology for genetic screening is this. the next step would be genetically

modified, not so that would start of gene therapy and other types of enhancement. and yeah, drugs are obviously a part of it. so, so just have taking drugs for a long time in order to get that to performance incumbent. i'm to yeah, that's just a reality of war award of such an extreme situation that you need to overcome a lots of physical and mental challenges and anything that helps you with that such as performance enhancing drugs are obviously a good fit for the notary. and for historical context, would you consider that this has actually been done for centuries, maybe a millennia, even. i mean, take, for example, the fact that the vikings were known to eat psychedelic mushrooms. we're talking about trimmings here before some of the raids that they conducted or nazi soldiers

had been known to used to use mass to be able to fight on and march longer. couldn't be considered a form of body hacking for soldiers. yeah, it's a very established method of human performance enhancement. and obviously majors have used it for a long time. and the person i mean, was giving the soldiers cocaine in the 19th century. so that goes back a long time. and obviously you have no synthetic drugs like net settlement that was used by them often in the 2nd world war. and also was used to logic spent by the american military india. now. so that is not something unusual. obviously you have some downsize that comes to drugs so you can get a highly irrational, unpredictable behavior as a result of those drug stores, the risk of addiction and the asterisk of other kinds of health damage to the

follows from this. i saw the use of drugs is not ideal. um, but it's a, it's a reality more. do you think the automated weapon systems are a competitor to the concept of genetically altered super soldiers and, and that with the success of a guy and tournaments, weapons that this field of research will drop out of the limelight and, you know, not receive as much funding in the future, i don't see that happening at all. i think the potential for a i has been is exaggerated a lot, especially recently. and so there are lots of downsides to a. i don't think that you can get rid of the human on the battlefield. what do use moultrie is trying to do is to pair soldiers booth. i'm sending autonomous machines . i so you would have soldiers directing a set of drones or other types of robots that would assist the soldier in the task

. so that is clearly not something that they would prefer to the possibility of just putting an autonomous system into the field and then hoping that it does the job as intended. uh so you might have a big problem with controlling autonomous weapon systems a. so if you're dealing with no networks, it may not be able to develop the capability of circumventing certain programming. and then you might use control over those machines that doesn't amount to the front of the machine becoming self aware and fighting against humanity. but it can result in the machine doing something really stupid. and that kind of have very serious consequences or so you have to consider that autonomous weapon systems have extremely fast response funds. so when something goes wrong, it might be too late for a human to effectively intervene and in that,

and you might get some knock on effects that are uncontrollable. and so the machine much destroyed a satellite and space and it might be an early warning shuttle on the other side might consider that is the start of going out to attack and much launch new drill weapons. that sort of it is something that is a real and very scary possibility. as i think we need to look for ways of ensuring that there's sufficient human control overdose machines. i don't think it is a viable or reasonable option to let those machines just operate by themselves. you'll need to ask humans that are nearby and that can potentially intervene, that if something goes wrong, professor arman christian and author of the book, military neuroscience and the coming age of narrow warfare. thank you so much for that informative. and i'm being honest,

truly frightening conversation. thank you. all right, that's going to do it for this episode. i've noticed operandi that shows that dig deep into foreign policy and current affairs. i'm your host manila chance. thank you so much for tuning in. we'll see you again next time to figure out the the a c 90 age the once a week and it became a us colony that still retained its own cultural identity. speak in favor of independence. we be thrown into prison today, close to health, it's population. the grow, the residence of was a retail have new representation in congress on both of us presidential elections. like okay, we're gonna make you american citizens, which you didn't ask for. even if we were offered citizenship,

we would prefer one say, gonna using these 2 entities. he chose to fight, so he's homelands independence. we felt that we could generate more of a spirit of resistance rather than of submissive except a reality that we felt was like shot fear. my sorry that i decided to fight for my country. no, not could. i have done things differently. yes, absolutely. do i now think that violence is not the means to achieve anything? absolutely. so look forward to talking to you all. that technology should work for people. a robot must obey the orders given by human beings, except we're so shorter is a conflict with the 1st law show you alignment as a patient. we should be very careful about visual intelligence. at the point, obviously, is to create a trust rather than fit the various job. i mean with the

artificial intelligence, we have somebody with theme and the robot must protect this phone. existence was alexis, the, are in 1884. the german empire began its colonial invasion internet may be from the very start, burling encourage the white colon as to settle in south west africa and take away the best land from the local drive. the germans were actively draining natural resources and using the local population as a cheap labor source. this was causing major pro, test, and lead to rebuild your in 19 o 4, they hear arrow,

and nama drives rebuild against the german colonial rule. kaiser wilhelm the 2nd was fully determined in order to suppress the rebellion with the utmost severity against the inhabitants of nam may be germany through its 15000 well equipped army . all around the country concentration camps were built. in humane medical experiments over citizens were conducted within the period of 4 years. the german, skilled up to 60000 people, among which there were 80 percent of the here railroad tribe, and 50 percent of the number dr. the events in south west africa are called the 1st genocide of the 20th century. stand not without reason, are compared to the holocaust just 2 decades later after the massacre in nam may be a hitler to solve unit foot on the same round colonial uniform which puts the world

into the chasm of the 2nd world war. the, the possibility of resuming the black sea greenville and other key international issues will be discussed by russian president vladimir prudence at his turkish counterpart, present or other want, as the leaders prepared to meet later today. and so to save you a pm or under moody slide, as the international institutions of outdated and calls for their reform to better reflect a global shift towards multi polarity tenea hoss the 1st african climate summit as leaders gather to present oper, cuz unified position on the climate crisis levels believe the assignment will help the content in to find its own independence solutions. so with them and see we are discussing your pain solutions, swap, providing.