Abstract
National security organizations in the United States, including the armed services and the intelligence community, have developed a close relationship with the scientific establishment. The latest technology often fuels warfighting and counter-intelligence capacities, providing the tactical advantages thought necessary to maintain geopolitical dominance and national security. Neuroscience has emerged as a prominent focus within this milieu, annually receiving hundreds of millions of Department of Defense dollars. Its role in national security operations raises ethical issues that need to be addressed to ensure the pragmatic synthesis of ethical accountability and national security.
Highlights
During the past decade, the US national security establishment has come to see neuroscience as a promising and integral component of its 21st century needs
In the case of neuroscience, civilian research has outpaced that of the military. Both National Research Council (NRC) reports and Department of Defense (DoD) funding reveal ongoing national security interests in neuroscience and indicate that the military is quite eager to glean what it can from the emerging science [1,2]
Via intracortical microstimulation (ICMS), a neurologically controlled prosthetic could send tactile information back to the brain in nearly real time, essentially creating a ‘‘brain-machine-brain interface’’ [9]. The technology underlying this concept is already evolving, and some researchers hope that optogenetics, which both enables ‘‘precise, millisecond control of specific neurons’’ and ‘‘eliminates most of the key problems with ICMS,’’ will supplant the ICMS for sensory feedback [9]
Summary
The US national security establishment has come to see neuroscience as a promising and integral component of its 21st century needs. Via intracortical microstimulation (ICMS), a neurologically controlled prosthetic could send tactile information back to the brain in nearly real time, essentially creating a ‘‘brain-machine-brain interface’’ [9] The technology underlying this concept is already evolving, and some researchers hope that optogenetics, which both enables ‘‘precise, millisecond control of specific neurons’’ and ‘‘eliminates most of the key problems with ICMS,’’ will supplant the ICMS for sensory feedback [9]. In 2007, researchers taught a monkey to neurologically control a walking robot on the other side of the world by means of electrochemical measurements of motor cortical activity [9] Considering this in light of the work on robotic tactile feedback, it is easy to imagine a new phase of warfare in which ground troops become obsolete
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