Pentagon Exploring Brain Implants for Soldiers

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the
technology development wing of the U.S. Department of Defense, is
looking to
install “black boxes” in soldiers’ brains to help revive
memory.

Since 2000, an estimated 280,000 soldiers endured brain
injuries. If soldiers could be furnished with the device, the
complex black box technology could potentially trigger memory and
mitigate brain loss suffered in combat.

While DARPA, naturally, set its sights on military applications,
implications for dementia and alzheimers patients stirs excitement.
Geek
predicts the neurotechnology “could become a key ‘upgrade’ for
humans in the coming decades.”

But even advocates admit the technology faces a long, uncertain
climb. Especially since neuroscientists are still not sure how
memory works. Bloomberg
reports, “It’s still far from certain that such work will
result in a device.”

While potential applications are exciting, they are limited.
Geoff Ling, Deputy Director of DARPA’s Defense Sciences
office, 
explained to Bloomberg:

The DARPA initiative isn’t designed to recover the type of
memories used to recall a person’s name. Instead, it would help
wounded warriors recover ‘task-based motor skills’ necessary for
‘life or livelihood.’

They hope the tax-funded implants will help patients remember
how to do simple, everyday activities like “tie their shoes and
perhaps eventually operate machinery or fly planes” Ling said.

DARPA has a history of sponsoring some weird technology. Think
wall-climbing suits
called “gecksin,” inspired by geckos. But its research also
helped lead to the Internet. It recently closed a
contract with IBM for “self-destructing” technologies and
launched a plan to “revolutionize web search.”