Dr James Giordano: Battlescape Brain – Military and Intelligence Use of Neurocognitive Science

Dr James Giordano is one of the world’s leading experts in all things electromedicine, nanomedicine and Smartdust.

There’s something in the air, because on Wednesday, Dr Giordano posted the statement, below to his LinkedIn account, raising the alarm about the Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology (N3) that he helped to develop, as a consulting ethicist, which he describes, here as “medical” in its “intent” and its “obvious” potential for weaponization for “mind-reading” and “mind control” and the need for “biocybersecurity-by-design”.

He notes that other nations, possessing different values and objectives from our own may have zero compunction about weaponizing these technologies and he says, “Pandora’s jar has been opened”.

He makes no mention of the Department of Defense’s “vaccine”, presumably because he has a Security Clearance and he would like to keep it.

LinkedIn Post:

Dr James Giordano, Executive Director of the Institute for Biodefense Research Executive Director of the Institute for Biodefense Research 1d • 1 day ago

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)’s Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology (N3) project is an ambitious initiative aiming to develop vast array of nanoscalar sensing and transmitting brain-computational interfaces (BCIs). An axiomatic attribute of such a system is obviating the burden and risks of neurosurgical implantation by instead introducing the nanomaterials via intranasally, intravenously and/or intraorally, and using electromagnetic fields to migrate the units to their distribution within the brain. It’s said that location is everything, and so too here. Arrays would require precise placement in order to engage specific nodes and networks, and it’s unknown if -and to what extent any “drift” might incur in system fidelity.

The system works much like WiFi in that it’s all about parsing signal from the “noise floor” of the brain; but “can you hear me now?” takes on deeper implications when the sensing and transmitting dynamics involve “reading from” and “writing into” brain processes of cognition, emotions and behavior. I’d be the first one to argue for an “always faithful” paradigm of sensing and transmitting integrity; yet, even if the system and its workings are true to design, there’s still a possibility of components (and functions) being “hacked”. As work with Dr Diane DiEuliis has advocated, the need for “biocybersecurity-by-design” is paramount (not just for N3, but for all neurotech, given its essential reliance upon data).

By intent, N3 holds promise in medicine; but the tech is also provocative for communications (of all sorts), and its dual-use is obvious. Yes, Pandora, this jar’s been opened. If we consider the sum-totaled operations of the embodied brain to be “mind”, and N3-type tech is aimed at remotely sensing and modulating these operations, then it doesn’t require much of a stretch to recognize that this is fundamentally “mind reading” and “mind control”, at least at a basic level. And that’s contentious. In full transparency, I served as a consulting ethicist on initial stages of N3, and the issues spawned by this project were evident, and deeply discussed. But discussion is not resolution, and the “goods” as well as the gremlins and goblins of N3 tech have been loosed into the real world. The real world is multinational, and DARPA – and the US – are not alone in pursuing these projects. Nations’ and peoples’ values, needs, desires, economics, allegiances, and ethics differ, and any genuine ethical discourses – and policy governances – must account for that. The need for a reality check is now; the question is whether there is enough rational capital in regulatory institutions’ accounts to cash the check without bouncing bankable benefits into the realms of burdens, risks and harms.

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Dr James Giordano’s Curriculum Vitae

Dr James Giordano PhD is the Pellegrino Center Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Biochemistry, Chief of the Neuroethics Studies Program, Co-Director of the Project in Brain Sciences and Global Health Law and Policy, and Chair of the Sub-Program in Military Medical Ethics at Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC.

Professor Giordano is Senior Bioethicist of the Defense Medical Ethics Center and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, Distinguished Stockdale Fellow in Science, Technology, and Ethics at the United States Naval Academy, Senior Science Advisory Fellow of the SMA Branch, Joint Staff, Pentagon, Non-Resident Fellow of the Simon Center for the Military Ethic at the US Military Academy, West Point, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Health Promotions and Ethics at the Koberg University of Applied Sciences, Koberg-GER, Chair Emeritus of the Neuroethics Project of the IEE Brain Initiative and serves as Director of the Institute for Biodefense Research, a federally funded Washington, DC, think tank dedicated to addressing emerging issues at the intersection of science, technology, and national defense.

He previously served as Donovan Group Senior Fellow, US Special Operations Command, member of the Neuroethics, Legal, and Social Issues Advisory Panel of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA, and Task Leader of the Working Group on Dual Use of the EU Human Brain Project. Professor Giordano is the author of over 350 peer-reviewed publications, nine books, and 50 governmental reports on science, technology, and biosecurity, and is an elected member of the European Academy of Science and Arts, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, UK, and a Fulbright Professorial Fellow. A former US Naval officer, he was winged as an aerospace physiologist and served with the US Navy and Marine Corps.

Contributed by Alexandra Bruce

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