Footnotes to Author Talk: Mind Wars by Jonathan Moreno, Brooklyn, July 23, 2013

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From the Meetup Page for the talk:

“In conjunction with the Brooklyn Futurist Society the Volumetric Society is sponsoring a timely and relevant presentation by Jonathan D. Moreno, Author of Mind Wars who explores DARPA and the role of the intelligence community and university science departments in preparing the military and intelligence services for the 21st century. Super soldiers, drugs that erase fear and the need to sleep, neuroscience, advanced prosthetics and other initiatives are changing the course of modern warfare with many ethical concerns.

Jonathan covers these issues in his recent book, Mind Wars. He is also the author of The Body Politic: The Battle Over Science in America, Is There An Ethicist in the House, Undue Risk: Secret State Science Experiments on Humans and Deciding Together: Bioethics and Moral Consensus.

http://www.jonathandmoreno.com/

Here’s what I wrote down…

Look up: White House Brain Initiative  Fact Sheet

UPenn: Neuroscience Boot Camp

Define term: Cognitive Neuroscience (“the branch of neuroscience that studies the biological foundations of mental phenomena.”)

Church Commission on MKUltra

LSD + Thorazine

WWI and Stanford-Binet test: used for assigning draftees (infantry or not)

Modafinil/Provigil… 60-70 hours of alertness (can also make you sort of an asshole after the first 20… experience)

Oxytocin… used to increase compliance

– used in delivery rooms

– what methods exist for delivery of Oxytocin? aerosol? injection? patch? water-soluble?

Visual cortex is well-studied and physically large. Hence: over-represented in neuroscience.

Deep brain stimulation for treating Parkinson’s Disease.

– for depression? reset switch for emotions? would you take it if it existed?

– story idea: self-constructing brain implants, introduced orally, for the purposes of intelligence gathering and manipulation. data retrieved via sewage system (peed out)

Look up RoboRat video: training with pleasure center e-stim

 

Trancranial Magnetic Stim

– TMS DIY/DIY tDCS (direct current stimulation) video  consumer product

– Can change attitudes, perceptions, learning, reaction time, mood, downregulate stress hormones.

Ethics: Cognitive liberty. Reversability.

Quote from a defense contractor: “stupid people are really hard to interrogate.”

Mental disease/delusions of grandeur are common among terrorist operatives… makes them hard to interrogate, delusions interfere with accuracy.

Look up: neuroskeptic