its interest in this dynamically developing region. this is the projected growth figures for the annual economies of asian countries range from 5 to 15 percent per year. for example, to extremely important areas that receive great attention here in the region. our education and health care, there is no doubt that the leading position today in this market, the market of educational services and health care markets as a whole, is occupied by the leading western multinational corporations. i have no doubt that if we take an active position on the russian side, we can not only compete seriously with the proposals of western partners and in fact our competitors, but also become the undisputed leaders in the region and providing appropriate services and implementing comprehensive strategic programs here as being another spike of violence in the west bank is, is waiting for his report to launch a rated send in arresting several palestinians. and the process the and it's really

tough because each road is said to have exploded above a palestinian refugee time with for the military, very close. and the helicopter storming becomes as well, according to reports, 5 palestinians were injured fee is way beyond these days. that's 3 months, of course, it's well arrested during the rain. so many things we accompany here on, on the international. i do hope you're having a wonderful start to your week wherever you may be taking go for the top of the hour pizza scott's will be here with all the latest, the . the

the hello, i'm the noah chan. you're tuned into modus operandi. there are countless movies, comic books, tv shows about them. they range from that man, the iron man to the ex. med, whether its bullet proof armed exoskeletons to enhanced human bio engineering. the idea of the super soldier is one that the military industrial complex has long had his eyes on ready or not. they are becoming a reality. let's talk about it. all right, let's get into the m o the . when you hear the term super soldier, what comes to mind?

maybe an iron man type character or arnold schwartzenegger and 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 to make folders 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, they recruit ex 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. super secret development is under way for several military super powers, like china and russia, as well. in the us,

sub contractors 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 . and so here to discuss this potential game changer in warfare. well, bring in professor arman christian, and 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 the coming age of neuro 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 motor applications of neuro science and you of human performance enhancement, as well as human performance the, your great degree of vision. and also in terms of the use for intelligence and things like determining whether somebody's says the truth or not. so there are many different applications that are national security relevant and yeah, my or just not interested in the top 10 because of my earlier work. i'm not talking this weapon systems. that's what i found, that artificial intelligence research relates strongly to austin, nor science research. so i think the intelligence research has tried to build enough to push your brain that 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 more, 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 bought rather than by computer. how and, and why would this be a desirable application for the military would 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 box 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 a delta project from 2013, which requires and then basic approach. 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 of that 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 is 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. how might this be up like a bolt? the soldiers on the battlefield may have cross. you would like to have soldiers swear of greater 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 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. also understand that it's related to improving the oxygen uptake in the blood and that allows you to have greater and yours and to cope this policy, oxygen in the environment so. so that is quite the 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 can 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, well, how about 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 estimate of $421000000000.00 in 2022 alone according to statistics. 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 a truman genetic engineering. so that would be to design is human soldier from scratch. so you would have to work with the human embryos. and you would try to combine human dna of, 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 connect gene expression. so you can activate or d, x of age genes. and that can be used for showing performance enhancement and adapt is some 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 something

organs. and yeah, it's quite possible that the chinese military is already working in this and that the us luxury is also considering that very seriously. course, the technology can be generally used for modifying any time 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 radcliffe. and so, as you suggested in 2016, the crisp of technology is low cost and easy, and difficult 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 cause this function where you could have organisms 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 the most teachers, and they can be used for delivering some north talks and 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, existence for a millennia. we'll discuss it when we return with professor arman christian in sit tight, the ammo will be right back. the

the

the welcome back to the m. o i manila chance 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 jane's program supports force 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 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 solutions set to protect war fighters in the homeland against intentional or accidental misuse. 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 continue the advancement of fully robotic warriors? i mean, why can't we take humans off the battlefield entirely? some of the argument to say, we don't need human soldiers because they have nuclear weapons. as i said, they were present totally different capabilities. so machines can do something, 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 or took abilities that might be needed. so there are certain circumstances where machines could easily out performed humans. so for example, for space weapons or putting a deep sea nissan off environments that are very suitable for insurance. but that

could be a 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 it. and so for example, yeah, i realize learning networks that learn by themselves. so nobody knows how they evolved over time. so you can simply put an economist, 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 any 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'd distort the, the eyes decision making and even fix the i to attack on forces or civilians. i say, i don't think you can do away with humans or 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 would be the part of that? the word is defined as an x of force to compel. you need to do all well. so you cannot have a war where you do not inflict some sort of pain on the enemy are 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 was entirely for by machines. and so that will always be some human participation, and more at the very least, humans would be participating. it was collateral damage. so you would 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 these or technology that could mental the course of mind control in any population. and 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 the has always been an interest and 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 plato was suggested to that. and this has been also implemented in modern times. if you think of the s s reading program course in the evenings form. so that has been going on for a long time that you want to select the type of soldiers who have the best genetic conditions for the task. and yeah, we have not the technology to do genetic screening. so we wouldn't be able to select people for some 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. so that's what stocks of gene therapy

and other types of enhancement. and yeah, drugs are obviously a part of it. and so soldiers have taken drugs for a long time in order to get that to performance and convert. i'm to, yeah, that's just the reality of war and war to 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 military. 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 not, the soldiers had been known to use it 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 an awesome teddy products like net settlement that was used by them often in the 2nd world war. and also was use the logic stand by the american military in vietnam. 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 trucks. there's the risk of addiction and the asterisk of other kinds of health damage to the follows from this. so the use of trucks is not ideal

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

there's clearly not something that they would prefer to the possibility of just putting in 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 and they might 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. 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. so the

machine much destroyed a satellite and space and it might be an early warning sort a lot. the other side might consider that is the sort of going out to tear and much launch new to weapons. so that is something that is a real i know the 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 used to have humans that are nearby and that can potentially intervene in that. if something goes wrong, professor arman christian, an author of the book, military neuroscience and the coming age of neuro warfare. thank you so much for that informative. and if i'm being honest, truly frightening conversation, thank you. all right,

that's going to do it for this episode of modus operandi the show 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, [000:00:00;00]

the, [000:00:00;00] the we are close to concluding agreements with 6 african states where we intend to supply food free of charge, including logistics. we will start deliveries in the next couple of weeks. and it says rest is all set to send free grand shipments to africa cuz he needs to be focus leader red chip hood ones, the middle of a truck, including security, compulsively, reducing the black st. greenville, con official, south african pro refused the us to claim that the country had hosted