Happiness Brigades could soon be part of every town and smart city –
making us brimful of sunshine to fulfill the United Nations’ mandate for
Gross Global Happiness. Tracked and monitored, the “not-yet-happy”
could be brought up to spec with a specialized brain zapper, such as the
ultrasonic neural interface funded by DARPA.
‘Pfff!’,
you may be thinking – ‘I just won’t use it!’ … but smart ID chips are
already being phased in as part of the global “federated identity
ecosystem”, and chances of avoiding these are looking slim. The ID
proposals include hackable biometrics, which will push us closer to
“passthoughts” that rely on our unique, live, brainwave patterns;
DARPA’s “portable brain recording device” (EEG) could be used for this.
So can heartbeat sensors (ECG).
The smartphones which we’ll be expected to use for ID, payment, health
services, and life-logging, are ridiculously prone to loss and theft, so
by the time ubiquitous surveillance, implants, and neural interfaces
have become normal, connecting your brain to the Internet might seem
like a natural step. This, of course, would then make us the most
vulnerable we could ever be. So just what are these ‘brain zappers’, and
what do we mean when we talk about ‘mind control’?
Zapping
the brain can have a great many good uses, but these have to be weighed
against the equal number of potential bads. Scientists have discovered
it’s possible to send signals to the brain to control a person’s
movements, just like voodoo. They can cure or cause addiction. They can
make you happy, or they can make you sad.
As for mind control, times have moved on, and the new methods of public
manipulation are slicker than ever. Ye Olde Propaganda has always been a
political tool, such as spreading rumors about adversaries, and
‘winning hearts and minds’ by guile. The early days of scientific
propaganda, though, can be traced back to Edward Bernays, and a ‘story’
he created, using his media connections, to get women to start smoking.
This was also the beginning of branding – the women on TV were said to
be smoking ‘torches of freedom’. Time moved on, the Internet arrived and
big data took over. There was so much data they didn’t know what to do.
They had to put it into an understandable format, to be able to
analyse, communicate and act upon the data being gathered. So in the
last decade, intelligence agencies, and even corporations, have begun to
frame their reports as narratives which shape, explain, and make sense
of the data.
Cognitive computers themselves can do this – creating news articles from
pooled data, just like I’m doing here, but with no human being
involved. These computer-generated narratives are also on DARPA’s wish
list, along with sensors to monitor people’s reactions to stories, in
real-time.
As for propaganda, now called ‘strategic communications’, the
powers-that-be see it all in terms of ‘telling a story’. Defence
departments are now focused on creating ‘counter-narratives’, i.e.
stories they believe will counteract the effects of ‘radicalism’.
DARPA’S “Narrative Networks” program made the news in 2011 – the link to
propaganda was clear to all.
So it’s important to understand that the program is still going!
Moreover, stories can be used to affect changes in a person’s beliefs,
their sense of identity, and even memory, partly because they stimulate
the release of brain chemicals. So can neural interfaces. And DARPA’s
funding of neural interfaces – and storytellers – is part of this
program.
There
are several ways to zap the brain – usually involving electrical and/or
magnetic energy. The most common is transcranial magnetic stimulation
(TMS) – when targeted at a specific area in the brain, TMS can create a
variety of effects, including emotional changes, and even bodily
movement. As reported by Activist Post, DARPA funded a study at Arizona
State University, which aimed to, (i) map out the precise areas of the
brain that are affected by stories; (ii) analyse how people respond to
specific stories; and (iii) test ways of changing their response to a
story, i.e. by altering the story format, and/or zapping their brains
with TMS.
This technique is more properly referred to as neuromodulation, and
involves stimulating the release of neurotransmitters by targeting
specific areas of the brain with electromagnetic pulses; it’s being used
to treat neurological and psychiatric disorders, in place of
medication. Whilst more serious conditions have been treated with deep
brain stimulation, using implanted microchips, people with pain and
depression can be treated with TMS using a headset for the duration of
the therapy. Unlike EEG recording devices (read-only), this headset is a
computer-to-brain interface (CBI), since signals are sent to the brain,
from a computer (i.e. write-only).
Obviously,
this is where we start to get on very dodgy ground indeed. Especially
when we find out that DARPA’s interest in narrative networks extends to
the way both stories and TMS affect a person’s brain chemistry: they
stimulate the release of profoundly important neurotransmitters (and/or
hormones), especially dopamine and oxytocin. DARPA’s research, led by
General Casebeer, has found that stories affect our emotions, our
cultural and religious beliefs, and even memory. In other words, the
narratives we hear (on TV, in the news, blogs, tweets, etc) affect
important brain chemicals, and therefore our very identities. And so do
pulsed electromagnetic fields – such as TMS.
TMS can only be delivered via either a CBI or implants. As noted in my
last article, BCI headsets, such as those made by Emotiv and Neurosky,
are well-developed and becoming popular amongst neuro-gamers and
quantified-selfers.
CBIs are less advanced, as their use is far more complicated. However,
neuromodulation is being used to treat a wide range of problems
(including depression, and chronic pain), which is likely to stimulate
growth in the market[1] for personal brain zappers. DARPA is clearly
aware of the vast range of possible applications for these devices, and
have also been funding a new way of altering brain chemistry, called
pulsed ultrasound, along with the US Department of Defense, and the US
Army. Often referred to as focused ultrasound (FUS), this technology
made the news in 2010, when William J Tyler, whilst at Arizona State
University, won an award from DARPA for research into CBIs which use
ultrasonic pulses[2] to effect a variety of changes in the brain. Tyler
has also worked with the Army Research Lab to look for ways to encode
“sensory data onto the cortex using pulsed ultrasound” which can be
“focused through the skull to any discrete region of the brain with
millimeter accuracy.”
Tyler has published several papers showing the effects achieved using
pulsed ultrasound, and has a company called NeuroTrek (formerly
Synsonix, Inc.), which has received substantial sums from government
funding. NeuroTrek sees its device as having applicability beyond
serious medical conditions, and beyond the battlefield, claiming it
could be used by gamers, the communications industry, and the
entertainment industry.
Researchers at Arizona State University have also published several
papers on pulsed ultrasound, as well as several patent application. Last
year, Tyler filed a patent application for "Devices and Methods for
Modulating Brain Activity" and another one this month (“Optimization of
Ultrasound Waveform Characteristics for Transcranial Ultrasound
Neuromodulation”), with two of his colleagues (one of whom includes
Daniel Wetmore, who has contributed to the submission of several FUS
patent applications; see also D P Jang, et al,in Korea).
An article in popsci.com quoted Tyler as saying,
Maybe the next generation of social entertainment networks will
involve downloading customized information or experiences from
personalized computer clouds while encoding them into the brain using
ultrasound. I see no reason to rule out that possibility.
Focused ultrasound can deliver, “complex spatiotemporal patterns of
acoustic waves” to achieve similar results to TMS, but has a spatial
resolution which is five times greater, and can reach far deeper into
the brain, meaning a lot more can be done with it, such as:
neurological/psychiatric intervention
cognitive enhancement
behavioral reinforcement
TBI (traumatic brain injury) protection
pain intervention
anxiety/stress reduction
long term alertfulness/wakefulness
navigational commands/assistance
Ahem! Did you notice “behavioral reinforcement” on that list? Are you
thinking Pavlov’s dogs, aka operant conditioning? You’d be right –
ultrasound delivered via a CBI can be used to activate reward pathways
(dopamine) in the brain, which,“may be used to condition and/or
reinforce certain desired attributes and/or to motivate specific
behavioral actions . . . rats conditioned to press a bar to receive
intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) of [specific parts of the brain]
will lead to reinforcing behaviors such that the rat ignores all other
environmental cues and will engage in repeated bar pressing behaviors in
order to gain the reinforcing/pleasure inducing ICSS of those brain
nuclei.”
Sure sounds like addiction to me.
Soooo . . . Just stay away from them there mind-machines, eh? Errrm,
well, that might not save you from having your brain messed with, I’m
afraid. You see, propaganda has taken an entirely new turn. It’s gone
from putting a spin on things, to an attempt to oversee the stories we
all hear, whether it’s the news, or blogs we read, and even Tweets, or
posts on Internet forums. DARPA has spent several years analysing
universal narrative structures, and the physiological effects they have
on people, as well as tracking popular narratives (and the memes they
produce) in social media. (I’ll explain this more in a separate
article.) General Casebeer, who is leading the research on narrative
networks for DARPA, notes the sense of ‘reward’ is linked to the
production of dopamine, a neurotransmitter which can affect whether you
like or dislike a story, and which also “enervates several important
parts of the brain responsible for memory, drive, judgment”.
There
are numerous other hugely influential neurotransmitters[3] than can be
modulated by both neural interfaces and stories, including oxytocin (the
‘love hormone’). This powerful brain chemical is linked to the
modulation of trust. Paul Zak, who has worked with General Casebeer on
creating persuasive narratives, even believes our level of morality is
dependent on the level of oxytocin we produce (psychopaths have little
of it in situations that make other people release loads!).
Zak and Casebeer contributed to a high-level meeting on the use of
narratives to ‘stop terrorism’. This meeting, attended by researchers,
and military and federal agencies, was convened to examine the
‘Neurobiology of Political Violence’, including discussion of TMS, which
can “turn parts of the human brain on and off”. Casebeer noted, “There
is some emerging work being done on how Tweets can create a rise in
oxytocin release based on message content.” We should bear in mind here
the US Government’s Strategic Communications plan, which involves
sentiment analysis, the use of counter-narratives, and ‘downvoting’
stories which it does not approve of, preventing discussion of certain
‘banned’ topics, as well as using “persona management software” to
create false identities, and thus manipulate public perception of news
and fool people into believing in a false ‘popular consensus’. This
astroturfing technique has become common, and is just one part of the
new Psy-op strategy – controlling the conversation.
By manipulating the news we hear, our primal responses can therefore be
influenced, without us even knowing it. Obviously this has been going on
for years, in the form of propaganda and reputation control, but the
methods just keep getting slicker, and all the more insidious.
Narratives are becoming the weapon of choice, said to be capable of
nipping ‘radicalisation’ in the bud. Terrorists are said to ‘be
radicalised’ by influential others, as if it were something done to
them, and bit by bit, radicalisation is being defined as ‘mistrust of
government’, which could one day mean little indignant nobodies such as
myself being listed as ‘dangerous’!
I
digress…. The point is that CBIs could become commonplace, given the
huge range of potential applications, such as moderating the production
of brain chemicals involved in emotion (e.g. serotonin), much like
psychotropic drugs.[4]
Brain-to-computer interfaces (BCIs) are already being used to link
people’s minds/feelings to a movie they’re watching. MyndPlay have
devised an EEG headset (using Neurosky’s microchips) which monitors the
viewer’s emotional reactions to the movie, and changes the ending
accordingly. (As a side note, analysing their state of mind also
provides an insight into the kind of personality they have!)
Maybe
some people would want the signal to work the other way as well, so
when they’re watching a movie, their brain chemicals can be boosted to
give them a more immersive experience. How about a boost of adrenaline
for the fight scenes, or a dose of oxytocin to ‘feel’, empathically,
what the characters in the film are ‘feeling’? What could be better?
(says she, sarcastically). Both ‘narrative therapy’ and TMS are now
being recommended for the treatment of depression. How long till
Hollywood gets hold of it?
It’s a lot harder to bring a CBI to market than it is a BCI, because of
the direction in which it works! There will always be issues with
insurance, and brain zapping techniques are still in the early stages of
development/understanding.
Should the use of CBIs become widespread, they could be used to
condition people in almost any way imaginable. What is perhaps even more
frightening is that it is now technically feasible that ultrasound
techniques could be used,
… to activate sensory or motor brain regions of the subject to
produce movement or to create synthetic brain imagery. For example ….
projections of visual sounds to auditory regions of the brain, ability
to generate virtual maps/images onto visual brain regions, ability to
control body movement patterns of an individual. Such brain stimulation
may …. cause the subject to make a turning motion in order to guide that
subject via GPS or other feedback from navigation technology, or
stimulate motor areas of the subject's brain to cause the subject to
make a motor action. Such methods and devices may be used for any
application, including but not limited to, recreational, entertainment,
and/or video gaming applications. (my italics)
In fact, this was done with a brain-to-brain interface(BBI) earlier this
year! By the power of thought, and the use of transcranial focused
ultrasound (FUS), a researcher was able to cause a rat’s tail to move.
(Video of this on YouTube has a strobe in it.) Even more astounding is
the announcement this week that human-to-human neural interfacing has
been achieved, as shown in the video below:
Neural dust (powered by ultrasound), which was proposed last month,
remains an undeveloped concept, whilst research into optogenetics has
made significant progress. The mind boggles.
It used to be that people had to guess what the public wanted; they
could do polls and ask around people in the know, or even rely on
hunches, but now things are very slick and super-sneaky. The definition
of propaganda will, in fact, need to change; data from mass surveillance
is being used to create targeted messages, which could be embedded into
news articles, movies, TV shows, blogs, online forums, speeches, etc,
for both political and commercial purposes, whilst our brains are
monitored for our reactions, and possibly even neuromodulated to ensure
our well-being, as each nation strives for Gross National Happiness. The
new propaganda is sooooo subliminal, you and I might not notice. It may
even be that events are being engineered over time to create the
narrative that will be our history; perhaps people like me are being
framed as ‘conspiracy theorists’ to serve a future purpose, as the
characters in a future ‘story of how we got here’, who threatened the
peace of the world, and had to be ‘made happy’.
It used to be that the study of narrative belonged mainly to the
literary world, encompassing other subjective concerns such as
philosophy, and history. Not any more. Forever in the name of ‘fighting
terrorism’, the scientific study of stories breaches our last frontier,
and could be used to reveal, and possibly even directly control, our
unconscious minds.
It used to be that we’d worry about what would - one day - be possible,
and we’ve grown up on a diet of media memes that help us imagine
Orwellian scenes. Now we know how we can be controlled, even from a
distance - and we can even list the brand names. The next step is mass
production, the essence of mission creep.
Here endeth yet another sorry tale of a nightmare life, another
affirmation of the craziness of the world. Perhaps the alternative
media-sphere, just by trying to understand what is going on, has come to
function like predictive programming! So much doom and gloom. Lots of
newsworthy possibilities, waiting in the wings to become our future
reality, as if there’s no alternative.
But really, it needn’t be so. There are those among you with creative
flair, visions, and ideas. Storytellers and artists.
So help us please with tales of brighter imaginings, sing us songs and
tell us stories of a better world that’s coming. Dream a dream and
change the narrative so we see the future that you see. A better place
to be.
Footnotes:
[1] As reported by BusinessWire, “Neuromodulation devices have emerged
as one of the fastest growing segments of the medical device market due
to high demand for minimally invasive and non-invasive treatment. With
advancements in technology, neuromodulation is expected to become a
promising therapeutic area and high growth industry in the next decade,
as it offers symptomatic relief mainly from chronic pain, incontinence,
heart failure, headache, depression, epilepsy, etc. The neuromodulation
devices market includes deep brain stimulation, spinal cord stimulation,
vagus nerve stimulation, sacral nerve stimulation and other external
stimulation devices such as transcranial magnetic stimulation, and
transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS).
The neuromodulation technique acts directly upon nerves or the target
area where the activity of nerves is altered due to biological responses
produced by electrical stimulation or drug infusion. These devices
include small electrodes that are attached to the brain, the spinal
cord, or peripheral nerves. These precisely placed leads are connected
by means of an extension cable to a pulse generator to generate
electrical stimulation. Neuromodulation can have applications in any
area of the body and can treat several diseases like chronic pain,
epilepsy, psychiatric disorder, movement disorder, cardiovascular
disorder, genitourinary and colorectal disorder, stroke and brain
injury, and gastric disorder.”
[2] A patent application, submitted on behalf of Arizona State
University, for “Devices and Methods for Modulating Brain Activity”
(2012), stated,“Ultrasound (US) has been used for many medical
applications, and is generally known as cyclic sound pressure with a
frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing. The production
of ultrasound is used in many different fields, typically to penetrate a
medium and measure the reflection signature or to supply focused
energy. ….. A well-known application of this technique is its use in
sonography to produce a picture of a fetus in a womb. ….. US waveforms
can be defined by their acoustic frequency, intensity, waveform
duration, and other parameters that vary the timecourse of acoustic
waves in a target tissue.”
[3] such as acetylcholine, histamine, hypocretin, serotonin, and
norepinephrine.
[4] See, for instance, ‘Transcranial ultrasound (TUS) effects on mental
states: A pilot study’, by Hameroff et al, 2012, University of Arizona
Health Sciences Center, Tucson, AZ, USA
This article first appeared at Get Mind Smart