0:05
James Giordano here today from Georgetown University he is a professor
0:10
I have to read this because it's a lot he's professor in the development of neurobiology and biochemistry he's a
0:16
chief of neuro ethics Studies program and the co-director of the O'Neil Pellegrino program in brain science and
0:23
the global health law and policy at Georgetown University he served on the
0:29
Joint Staff of the Pentagon and in this area he heads up the EU human brain
0:36
project he's going to talk a little bit about that today he's tasked with stand
0:41
his his work is dedicated to the studying and defining of current and political dual-use capabilities and
0:48
neuroscience and neuro technology it's an extremely in-depth discussion I
0:53
encourage you guys to ask ask questions questions at the end his area as his
1:02
expertise is in brain science and can be developed and engaged in military applications warfare applications bio
1:10
weapons both by state and non-state actors so I'm gonna head it over so Jim
1:18
I think it's really a pleasure to be
1:24
here it's my second or third time being out at Livermore I've been working for a while with with Zack and that's been a real pleasure and of course my ongoing
1:29
work with with Paris and a company as Paris mentioned one of the things that I do is I do brain science I worked in the
1:35
area of translational brain science which is bringing brain science from the research bench to the bedside for about
1:41
the past 32 years so I've been doing this for a while brain science as you may know has also had a fairly rapid
1:48
development and trajectory of its capabilities moving from fairly simple
1:54
approaches to studying the brain to far more complicated approaches that I'll talk to you about today but like with so many other areas of science and
2:01
technology the capability that is conferred by the science that is the knowledge and it's techniques and its
2:07
technology therefore its tools giving us implements to affect in some way a biological system renders it relatively
2:13
powerful to a whole host of things now as Paris mentioned of course I also work as the
2:18
chief of an ethics Center at Georgetown I'm working within the Pelligrino center for clinical bioethics and what I do is
2:24
an area called neuro ethics a relatively new field but not per se the idea is that the title of neuro ethics has only
2:30
been around since about 2002 informal use but the idea of understanding the ethics legal and social issues
2:36
regulatory issues that arise in many science and technology are quite old what makes neuroethics a bit more
2:43
interesting and perhaps unique is that the thing that we use is the focus of our study the brain and those techniques
2:49
and technologies that go into studying the brain and in some ways affecting the brain remain relatively unknown to us I
2:55
don't care how you twist this there's really none of us in this room and I've been a brain scientist for over three
3:00
decades who could tell you how the great stuff cognition motion and even behavior arise
3:06
in and from that gray stuff of those squirting living cells that exist in your head we don't know that but we're
3:13
going to be Aristotelian for a moment and sort of wax philosophically what I could tell you enjoyed it that's good so
3:19
is I always look for the Philosopher's in the car out who gets the Aristotelian gig the issue is very simple we don't
3:25
understand what's called the efficient cause of what the brain does we know how it works as a basic
3:32
biological system we might even speculate and very realistically why it's important to a biological system
3:38
but do we know how the brain makes quote mind no we don't yet that doesn't stop
3:44
us because there's something called the mechanistic paradox which is although we need to understand the mechanism of how
3:51
and why something works we also fall victim to the fact that very often we use what's called satisficing
3:56
information in other words good enough for government work and we'll just proceed on smartly moreover what that
4:02
also does is raises the intersection of a host of unknowns if we don't know how the thing that we're affecting works well the beauty of it is the tools that
4:08
we develop help us to understand that but then we have to revise what we think are the key issues that come from our
4:14
tool use on that thing this is not what's called a reductio ad absurdum this is not reductive thinking it's real
4:20
that said let me take a little trip in time in the bane sciences what they really do move this here because I'm so short you can't see
4:27
me over the bottle of water so this slide I think very nicely
4:32
demonstrates for you a relative hundred year history of the brain sciences going back to an anatomical diagram that was
4:38
pioneered right after the advent of anaesthesia in the middle of the 1800s to be able to allow direct access to the
4:45
living brain neurosurgical II now what that allowed us to do is to manipulate the structure of the brain and as a
4:51
consequence of that see what artifacts occurred with regard to individuals thought emotionality and behaviors of
4:57
course we all know the prototypic example being Phineas Gage the railroad
5:02
worker I've got a tamping iron through his frontal lobes and as a consequence of that survived but as the adage says
5:08
Phineas was Phineas no more so the issue here is that there's something ticking away within your cranium that makes you
5:15
you that renders the brain science is exceedingly important not anymore
5:21
perhaps in certain ways than other areas of the biomedical sciences but in ways that are both practical and
5:27
philosophical in other words if I'm able to in some way assess and effect this
5:32
thing that is in at least some way demonstrable II end perhaps to a large
5:40
extent responsible for making you you your persona your thoughts your hopes
5:45
your dreams well look at the power that that can yield we like to talk about
5:51
influencing hearts and minds but this is a question of influencing brains to influence hearts to then influence minds
5:57
continue to look at the slide because what you see is the interesting dance that essentially technology has allowed
6:04
the brain sciences to advance with we've gone from these rather rudimentary examples of utilizing these techniques
6:11
of surgery during the beginning of the last century the 1900s to being able to
6:17
utilize ever more sophisticated anatomical and molecular probes to understand the brain at a variety of a
6:22
more nuanced and granular levels and ultimately to not even have to intervene with the actual structure of the brain
6:28
but to be able to assess the brain in real time utilizing convergent forms of
6:34
neuroimaging couple to a host of neuro electrophysiological techniques it's been very very important because what this allows us to do is
6:41
essentially something akin to this both literally and metaphorically which is to essentially put the brain at our
6:47
fingertips this is my brain I take it out nightly and floss it with my hair cut it makes it rather easy but there is
6:53
something I want you to also understand about this if you were to do exactly as I'm doing here in this slide but you're gonna put your brain in front of you
6:59
first of all the mere size of it I think is somewhat interesting to people we tend to think it's a lot larger it's not fits in the palm of your hands
7:06
but now let's wax a little more philosophical but very practical with that same analogy if this is something that fits in the palm of your hand every
7:12
hope every dream every thought every aspiration everything you love everything you hate fits in that organ
7:19
and if I really wanted a wax philosophical everything that humanity has ever done and will be as a
7:25
consequence of that organs function once again we're talking about power but let me tell you a little neuroanatomical and
7:32
neuroscientific adage we have a saying in the brain sciences see one brain see
7:37
one brain which means that despite the fact that if I pulled my brain out of my head and his brain out of her his and
7:43
her brain out of hers it would basically look like that with regard to its gross architecture the doubles and deities lie
7:48
in the details our brains develop as a consequence of their embodiment in me and you and as a
7:55
consequence of the environments we work in which means that what the brain sciences are helping to do is to figure out both what brains have in common and
8:02
what brains have in difference the beauty of that is through the interviews of big data but were able to do is to
8:08
create large-scale patterns maps atlases of not only individual brains but groups
8:13
of brains and use these things comparatively in normatively the more we know the bolder we go puts the brain in our fingertips but
8:21
what you want to see is that the brain sciences have in fact created a tremendous amount of momentum and
8:27
potential and that is the momentum to be able to assess access and effect and
8:32
we'll talk a little bit more about that what it really does is it creates an opportunity to affect the way humans
8:40
think feel and behave on a variety of levels and those levels don't only
8:47
extend within the individual organism in other words being able to affect the emotion behavior with regard to ranging
8:54
all the way from the synaptic to our social interactions individually but it
9:00
also allows us to then exert certain levels of intellectual assessment knowledge acquisition and control about
9:07
human relations on the individual to cohort to group to community to local regional even global scale and obviously
9:14
we can in fact use that information and arguably the capacity to be able to not
9:21
just use the information but to actually physically affect the brain through these techniques and tools in ways that
9:27
are important to meaningful for and highly leverageable within national security intelligence and defense agenda
9:35
this is no different than other forms of Science and Technology arguably one could say that the individual with the
9:41
most sophisticated science and technology has always looked to bring those into those agendas to defend kin
9:48
and kith to be able to advance an ideology to be able to defend those things we hold dear history teaches us
9:54
that latest and greatest tools are very often incorporated into these large-scale agenda particularly by
10:00
mechanized and technological countries we've seen this historically throughout the ages this being no different so the
10:07
idea that we're able to say is that the leverage ability of the brain sciences extends from the synaptic to the social
10:12
from the individual to the global is not just a lot of fancy rhetoric it is in fact real and realizable moreover in
10:21
utilizing the brain sciences in these ways I think it becomes important to understand a formal definition of the
10:27
term that I will use repeatedly throughout this lecture this term a weapon as directly cited from the Oxford
10:35
English Dictionary there are two interactive and I think important definitions of a weapon you need to understand the first is as a means of
10:41
contending against another we hear this colloquially you know someone who has a great sense of humor
10:47
so oh there's sense of humors a real weapon in other words they can use it well to interact with others positively
10:53
and in some cases arise ibly the old sort of film noir movies where i showed
10:58
the sultry woman sitting in the blonde in the bar and she'd show some legging like those gams are a weapon those kind
11:03
of things yeah it's a means of contending against another for those of you who are younger than I gams is a
11:09
slang for legs it doesn't necessarily have to be in a derogative ad integrative way it is a way of
11:16
contending against another I can use humor as a weapon to disarm someone I can use a bility as a weapon to make
11:22
what may have been a potential foe or hostile my friend but I think the way
11:28
that we use the word weapon more colloquially is the one that comes to mind and should not be ignored in this context which is this something that can
11:34
use to injure defeat and/or destroy another a potential enemy put them both
11:40
together you have this wonderful twenty five buck definition and I usually impugn anyone who reads off a PowerPoint
11:45
slide but I just want to reinforce the definition something that mitigates aggression and fosters thoughts and feelings of affiliation or passivity Oh
11:52
in other words if I make my enemy my friend not my enemy any longer that's still weaponize Abul and or something
11:58
that incurs burdens of morbidity and to immortality the idea of this is something not only used to implement and
12:04
deter but actually to in some way mitigate or prevent an individual from exercising those actions towards me and
12:10
mine if we look at weapons and we were to trace these historically I think rutting Tunisia stirry of weapons there
12:18
are a number of different books that could ride this for you everything from somebody picking up a rock and using it a la 2001 a Space Odyssey all the way up
12:26
to the contemporary use of very very sophisticated forms in S&T what we see is as the momentum of S&T increases the
12:34
weaponize ability of that science and technology in a variety of realms also increases it used to be that I need to
12:41
be exceedingly close to someone to now influence them with a weapon and now we see as we create both distal potential
12:47
as well as much more capable potential to affect them in a variety of different ways ranging from the sublime all the
12:53
way up to the severe so we know this to exist there are two types of weapons those that are called soft weapons and
13:01
those that are called hard weapons if we now take a look at the brain sciences as
13:06
weaponize a bowl a real word by the way we can see that in fact the brain
13:12
sciences are weaponize abaut across both dimensions soft weaponize ability
13:18
hard weaponize ability and the former sense we're seeing that the Aleut neurosciences can be used to gain
13:24
economic leverage not least of which is because neuroscience and Technology commands and captures 175 billion with a
13:32
be dollar annual market space there's a tremendous amount of global economic
13:38
leverage that can DB occurred and affected but can also be used for somewhat softer applications in the
13:44
national security space inclusive of intelligence purposes and the use of neuro and cognitive sciences to develop
13:51
insights to and techniques for psychological operations and information systems what is referred to in military
13:57
parlance as psyops and me so if we now transition that into more hard forms of
14:03
weaponize ability these are the areas where we're actually looking to exert physical not just cognitive influence
14:08
and or deterrence these are your more classical forms of weaponization where you actually see things like guns
14:15
bullets bombs etc but now when confined to the biological space we see chemicals
14:20
such as drugs and other chemical agents biological such as the use of various microbes with bacteria and viruses and
14:26
toxins and increasingly devices which up until quite recently we're not even considered to be in the
14:32
weaponize Abul space and only very recently with regard to the last review conference of the international
14:38
biological toxins and weapons convention last december did the australia group raise the possibility that certain
14:44
devices namely neuro technology and hybrid cyborg type devices which we'll
14:49
talk about should be considered within the largest scale of what might be a potential biological so we're seeing is
14:55
we need to cast a broader net as we increase broader never more sophisticated capabilities still with me
15:01
okay in fact what we're doing here is just this we're targeting the brain and
15:07
we're talking the brain a variety of levels now like any good target what I have to be able to do is I need to put
15:12
the Pipper on point in other words I need to put this gun site so to speak where I want it to be otherwise what I'm doing is I'm just
15:18
hosing a target indiscriminately that's not what I look to do I don't want buckshot I want sharp shine so the first thing
15:24
that I need to do as anyone will tell you is I have to recon my target area quite well so as to be able to acquire viable targets and also to avoid cloud
15:32
will damage the assessment neuro technologies do a very good job doing that with increasing sophistication
15:37
they're not used individually they're used in a way that's called Co registered I can use forms of neuro
15:42
imaging and these are diverse they run the gamut from the older forms such as things like computerized tomography and
15:48
single photon emission tomography to the much newer forms that utilize a highly specific electromagnetic pulse signal
15:55
not only to be able to image certain brain areas but also to image tracts communicating networks and nodes within
16:02
the brain in a directional way and in rather rapid time I can utilize near a physiological recordings such as
16:08
electroencephalography and I've dialed in the specificity of that as well through the use of quantitative
16:13
techniques I can also look at neuro genomics and neurogenetics taking a look at genetic profiles of
16:19
individuals and groups to be able to determine what genes may be in fact coding for certain structures and
16:25
functions of the brain I can utilize proteomics and other forms of biomarkers and I can utilize Neurosci BER
16:31
informatics in other words I can harness all of these forms of assessments to a
16:36
big data approach that allow me to make both comparatives and normative indices not only within an individual but
16:42
between individuals not only between individuals but within and between groups on a variety of scales so the
16:48
idea of assessment technology in many ways combines each and all of these and the combinatorial Rattus facilitated and
16:55
fortified through the use of big data we've written comprehensively about the use of big data as a force multiplier in
17:01
neuroscience and neural weapon ology and if you're interested I'll be happy to provide that to you but the idea here is
17:07
like so many other forms of recon and evaluation and assessment we as humans
17:13
tend not to turn rocks over just to look what's under side we turn rocks over so we can use what's under there the brain
17:19
is no different if what I'm doing is I'm trying to put a Pipper on target and make sure it's we're on points I want to
17:25
do something with that this is not just a let's go see mission this is a let's
17:31
go see so that ultimately we can translate this into some viable effect either of the knowledge or to actually
17:36
target these things to the use of some technique or technology now we're looking at is the interventional
17:42
techniques do not ignore cyber because power some knowledge and information and if I
17:47
understand how a brain works and how neurocognitive mechanisms are operative in the various impressions we then gain
17:55
in our thoughts emotions that may ultimately feed into behaviors I can manipulate the type of information and
18:01
its delivery so as to be able to influence brain state this is part of the incentive and underlying rationale
18:08
and methods that were employed in a DARPA program called narrative networks that was led by a colleague of mine dr.
18:14
William K's beer exactly a doing that the more we know about the way a brain works the more we can utilize said
18:21
information to develop key narratives of psychological and miso operations that are then viable to be able to then be
18:27
used to influence individual and group brains we've done this for a long time this is also referred to incidentally as
18:34
neuro marketing and ordinarily I kind of just kind of shy away from that neuro prefix because people tend to use it
18:41
literally nonsensically and in fact a quick homework assignment for those of you who are students in the room I never
18:47
lose my professorial demeanor for those of you who are students in the room after the lecture today sometime maybe
18:53
over the week or weekend they just go to a magazine store a book store and pull out a few magazines they don't even have
18:58
to be science magazine they can be like fitness magazines Wine Spectator whiskey
19:04
advocate my god I sound like an alcoholic whiskey okay shape Vanity Fair
19:09
I guarantee you I guarantee you that there's gonna be some discussion there
19:15
with a picture of a neural imager said this is your brain fill in the blank drinking beer this is your brain in love
19:21
this is your brain after a breakup we like to use the brain sciences to sort
19:26
of import this type of information and moreover the idea that we're able to utilize us in a way to understand how
19:33
brains work to influence various marketing strategies is becoming ever more than norm I have a colleague of
19:38
mine who makes big six figures working for a marketing firm to be able to intuit these types of studies bringing
19:44
people into a scanner and seeing what they respond to and then developing verbiage and image to be able to do just
19:50
that that narrative extends beyond the commercial space also stay extends into the defense space and I refer you to a
19:57
group of reports that we've been putting out over the past week years through the strategic multi-layer assessment group that's headed by a
20:02
fellow named akka began at the Pentagon that looks exactly at that the neurocognitive dynamics of deterrence
20:09
this is still somewhat soft we still tend to rely more and more on the older
20:15
forms of get in there and do the job and now we're looking at basically are things like drugs
20:20
bugs toxins and devices one more time drugs bugs toxins and devices each and all of these
20:27
being capable eyes by ever more sophisticated ever more advanced and iteratively more capable doable forms of
20:36
neuroscience and technology we'll talk about each of these in some detail but we're able to do with these is not only
20:42
develop better drugs but more specific drugs had the opportunity and the pleasure to interact with some from the
20:48
research groups here this morning who are working in the area of nano pharmacology the idea of harnessing nanoscience to be able to make the drugs
20:55
more penetrable more accessible and more selective in their capability to do just this target key brain sites and networks
21:02
that have shown to be operative and functional in certain forms of our thoughts emotions and behaviors moreover
21:09
to be able to develop new forms of biologicals not necessarily that are lethal but that are morbid and one of
21:17
the more successful approaches to doing this is through utilizations of genetic modification of these microbes so as to
21:23
take those microbes that were relatively benign and make them somewhat more morbid in their profile make them more
21:28
virulent or to allow them to be more capable over a longer period of time so they can be used against various
21:33
individuals and populations with the greater level of efficiency we can also develop new forms of neurotoxins and
21:40
since neurotoxins for the most part are peptides they degrade fairly rapidly but here are two forms of genetic
21:45
modification forms of nano micellar encapsulation and delivery can allow these to become newly available and
21:52
newly more potent and viable for the use in the weapons space and once again we're now exhibiting a new horizon of
22:00
possibility which is the neuro technological device space each and all
22:05
of these what I should let you understand is engaged by this particular process which is a real term integrative
22:11
scientific converge it is a term that a colleague of mine formerly at the State Department named dr. Shaka the Shasta has been working
22:17
very very closely to advance and understand and it's essentially represented by this neat little cartoon
22:23
it's a design of the capability space it's also add asylum give the
22:29
opportunity space both for problems and problem resolution and problem generation yet again in the past when I
22:36
grew up in science as many of you have grown up in science doing for those of more of my generation you recognize he
22:42
had fairly discrete silos of disciplinary operation those of us in chemistry who talked to those of us in
22:48
biology and there was some cross talk across fertilization but very often they occurred at the top and the bottom of
22:54
the silo things that occurred within the silo occurred within the silo sort of like what happens in Vegas stays in
23:00
Vegas what happens in your department stays in your department more and more however we're moving towards this conjoin
23:06
mentality silos the operation and opportunity space and allows for a much
23:11
more convergent engagement of what the brain sciences can do and in fact for those of you working in the brain
23:17
sciences you recognize that there's a relatively sort of fluid dynamic that occurs between physics and chemistry
23:23
chemistry and biology biology and behavioral science and undergirding and
23:29
perhaps overseeing all these are both engineering models and computational models these have been capable eyes by
23:35
this so it allows us to conjoin cyber science and tech the anthro and Social
23:41
Sciences Natural Sciences biotechnology and nanoscience and technology in a large integrative model that then
23:48
increases the viability validity and ultimately perhaps value of what the brain sciences can achieve in a fairly
23:55
short period of time and in national security intelligence defense agendas
24:01
more and more this type of convergent approach is being harnessed upon assessment access and targeting of
24:07
neurological structure and functions so as to be able to get a better insight to an influence of individuals and groups
24:13
on a whole host of levels one of the things that makes this work as I alluded to earlier is the use of large scale
24:19
data banking and data utilization what's referred to as Big Data not to belabor the point too
24:25
or in extremis understand it is used as a force multiplier in other words it takes the forces that are there and it
24:31
multiplies both their capability and ultimately their value and utility as a consequence of being able to utilize
24:36
large volume data banks which then are able to engage assimilate synthesize and
24:42
pull down in real time individual coordination all data tiers and in so doing allow multiple tier integration
24:49
multi modal multi level and then also allow real-time access requirements that
24:54
can be utilized in practice in other words we can use these large scale data integrators to be able to pull
25:00
information about him and her and him in a comparative way in a normative way and
25:05
also in a way that allows us to then develop various tools to be able to understand how better to access him and
25:11
her and him and all of as you could tell from my New York accent use yeah this
25:18
has to be scalable in many cases check it is has to be customizable we're still
25:23
working on that one it has to be accessible clearly because multiple user groups shareholders and stakeholders
25:29
have to get to it and it has to be shareable there are some issues that go along with that and for those of you
25:34
working in the neural engineering space this has been a long-standing issue I would say in some cases problem with
25:41
regard to developing the right types of big data tools and techniques specifically for large-scale integrative
25:46
projects such as those that are being funded by DARPA subnets systems based neuro technology for merging therapies
25:52
Ram restoring active memory haptics etc multi multi multi levels of different
25:57
types of data coming from different types of engineering and science that have to be pulled together to make a cogent picture but we're doing that
26:04
we're moving in those directions and in some cases you also want to anonymize or D anonymize these data and there are
26:10
some security issues that you would imagine go along with that but the other issue that goes along with this is that
26:15
at least on the research to translation side of the house you see these increasing needs for what we call
26:21
security and I mean real security you want these things to be secure in terms of their use because I'm providing a lot
26:27
of information about the units of you perhaps your life long history your medical records things about your brain
26:32
what they infer and the nature of these systems is so you have to stack different types of day
26:38
platforms and use platforms and although I am not particularly a cyber technology
26:43
mogul my colleagues who are tell me that if something is stackable its hackable I
26:49
tell you from my own experience what I am is a longtime judo player and wrestler and I know if you want to knock
26:54
somebody down even the biggest guy goes down at the weak points and that's their joints and this is no different and so
26:59
the issue here is yes we need this tool we're developing this tool we see the viability and value of this tool but we
27:06
also recognize the vulnerability of this tool as do others key point which means
27:11
that as we're beginning to look at the potential weaponization weaponize ability of neuroscience we also have to recognize the vulnerability of the tools
27:18
we're developing to make it work those are not only our own vulnerabilities but those are the vulnerabilities of those
27:24
other groups that may be engaged in this but now let's move a little bit more into the more direct applications of
27:30
viable neuroscience and Technology with regard to battlescape use battlescape applications i've given lectures over
27:37
the past couple of years and written chapters that have directly attributed the brain as the next battle scape and I
27:42
truly believe that as do a number of my other colleagues I'm not alone in that belief the idea of developing a much
27:48
more punctate much more clear definition of what dual use constitutes and recognizing that this is in fact a very
27:54
usable domain of the brain sciences I think is a reality we must face so much
28:00
so let me give you a little bit of history as an aside and not to bore you in 2008 a convening group of the
28:08
National Academies of science created a special commission a task force to take a look at the viable military use of the
28:15
brain sciences in 2008 they said yeah there's a lot of stuff going on there but it ain't ready for primetime yet 2008 in the interim there was an ongoing
28:23
study being conducted in Europe by the Nuffield Council of bioethics that devoted a specific chapter to the weaponize ability and dual use potential
28:29
of brain sciences and said you know we're getting very close and they estimated that within about a year or two this would in fact be translatable
28:35
and ready for primetime in the United States the same convening power panel of the National Academies reconvened and in
28:44
2014 wrote a second report that said yes indeed the brain sciences have matured to a point not only where they are ready
28:51
for primetime national security intelligence and defense applications but are currently being investigated in some cases are being used in such
28:59
endeavors not only domestically but worldwide 2008 to 2014 what happened to
29:05
tell you what happened it reflected the transitional pace of progress in the brain sciences which has gone from
29:11
between 15 and 20 years down to a translational space of about 60 to 72 calendar months in five-year windows of
29:19
opportunity the brain sciences are able to make ardent strides and as a consequence of that are now moving
29:24
rapidly for their consideration into this operationalize double space evermore what I caution against very
29:31
strongly is two things number one crying wolf and number two we call Chicken Little phenomenon the first is wolf wolf wolf
29:39
there's no wolf there so finally when there is a wolf there we're caught with their knickers down around our knees and
29:44
the second is the Chicken Little phenomenon the sky is falling the sky is falling that's exaggerative claims that there's nobody any good and it wastes
29:51
resources this is not crying wolf and this is not chicken mental there's a
29:57
wolf there and although it may not be that the sky is falling yet folks it
30:03
looks like rain bring an umbrella that said what's gonna rain down this various
30:11
uses of neuroscience and technology and intelligence security and defense operations so for example if we take a
30:17
look at the intelligence and surveillance space our group has been very focused upon the capability of
30:22
something called nur int neurocognitive intelligence which really represents not
30:28
only assessing various neuropsychological factors that are operative in narratives of individual and group activities and the cognitions
30:34
that underscore them but also harnessing intelligence operators to brain machine interface in systems so as to allow an
30:42
increased capability through reciprocal dynamic robotics whereby the system is
30:47
doing certain things quite well the human operator is doing things quite well and they reciprocally learn from each other
30:53
demonstrated shifts in performance curves to the left in other words improvement in capability has been
30:58
demonstrated through some of these techniques and the use of large-scale databasing that's able to present and
31:03
engender certain patterns of salience to pull signal from noise has been very helpful in this is
31:10
this a work in progress yes absolutely is it in progress very absolutely moreover we can utilize various types of
31:17
brain assessment and access approaches for forms of bio tracking getting what's called neurological signatures or brain
31:25
signatures on key individuals that then may be representative of whole groups this speeds back to we discussed earlier
31:31
the neural narratives if I understand how his brain works and how her brain works and they're able to do that on a
31:37
broad enough scale I can develop patterns and as a result I may be able to use that in ways that inform my
31:43
intelligence it synergizes and false most force multiplies like human intelligence humans my signal
31:50
intelligence SIGINT and my communications intelligence comment neurons coupled with assessment and
31:56
access gives me said capabilities but i can also begin to utilize this for
32:01
intelligence acquisition in different ways I can for example utilize neuro
32:06
pharmacologic and various forms of brain stimulation to be able to extract information from key intelligence
32:14
targets in ways that are far less deleterious and or harmful to said targets and as a result uphold a higher
32:20
if you will moral conduct in the face of various forms of intelligence operations now that I said that I should tell you
32:27
that this is not without argument because there are those that think wait a minute wait a minute wait the last
32:32
sanctified space is that of my consciousness and you're using this stuff to invade that you're right
32:39
there's an ethical argument there is this more or less harmful than other means of information extraction well I
32:47
mean clearly I think this is not only a debatable point but an importantly debatable point which forces us to
32:53
essentially set parameters and limits and ask not only can we use this the
32:59
answer is yes should we use this and if the answer there appears to be yes then
33:04
the far more granular specific and ever more important question is really how when under what circumstances I'll keep
33:13
you poised and excitement and anticipation on the ends of your seat for the answer to that which comes later in this lecture for those of you
33:19
watching on video standby so what we understand is is this possible yes it is in fact it came up in our discussions
33:25
this morning might it be possible to utilize these techniques and technologies for information acquisition
33:30
particularly in those ways that are be far more efficient without incurring quote burdens and harms on those or
33:37
interrogating and what are the scenarios into which they could be used again the short answer the question is yes the
33:42
long answer the question is how when why these are percolating and certainly I
33:49
don't think there's a necessarily definitive answer although there seems to be at least an ethical posture that may be useful in trying to adjudicate
33:56
the approach moreover we can also utilize something called Titan which is tiered integrative tracking and access
34:02
networks that utilize biologically implantable chips to then track key
34:07
individuals in a variety of circumstances and then yoke these to known information about the way brains
34:12
work to create narratives and behaviors and essentially what this does is this adds to what's called Human Terrain
34:17
teaming this feeds back to an older idea called naked man approaching in other
34:23
words I don't need to identify you by your uniform by your clothes but perhaps by certain anthropometric
34:28
characteristics and in this case biological signatures so the idea of indwelling biosensors that are able to
34:34
then upload remotely tell it tell it remised tell it telemetry this is what happens in the
34:39
coffee where's help telemetry information is quite real those of you working in the area of biosensors RFIDs
34:46
understand the potential power here this is a key area for dual use because these types of sensors are being developed for
34:54
populational monitoring of key biological variables that can be then up taken into health and information
34:59
databases the same type of thing can be used for other forms of information not least of which is tracking an
35:05
identification the idea to then be able to take a key individual set of biological metrics and immediately in
35:11
real time pull them into a large-scale data analytic to say this is who this person is and this is where this
35:17
person's been and this is who this person has been interacting with could be very very useful it also obviously
35:24
opens the specter it clearly opens a Pandora's box of potential neuro ethical
35:30
legal and social issues once again it refers the context of use and how we define what is good not only what is right and
35:36
capable we can also utilize neuroscience and technology to augment the capability
35:42
of potential war fighters not just intelligence operators this sort of gets into some of the discourse that had been
35:48
bantered around previously in the field with regard to quote super soldiers and what we're able to do with regard to
35:53
capable izing functions of the brain to then increase our cognition our emotions
35:58
and our behaviors in a variety of war fighting type tasks can you do this well this is the area of neural enablement
36:03
yes of course you can within certain parameters and like so many other things
36:09
it's less than ideal and less than complete but can we target key neurological substrates change the
36:16
function of those substrates and in so doing approach various trajectories of improving individual's cognitive skills
36:22
on key tasks emotional capabilities on the key circumstances and behaviors and actions and key performance parameters
36:29
yes we can are there limits other constraints yes absolutely how can we do this well I think one of the easiest
36:35
ways although not necessarily the most effective is through the use of advanced the rough lock illogical agents and
36:41
there are a host of them certainly we hear a lot of the discourse about performance-enhancing drugs not only in
36:46
terms of the military but for a variety of other uses inclusive the civilian side of the house are people looking to take a variety of drugs stimulants
36:54
yuujiro accent's and anti sedative drugs
36:59
to be able to then increase their capability to study to function to be better at work cognitive enhancers could
37:08
these be used within military and security intelligence frameworks yes absolutely we could could we also use computational brain machine interfaces
37:15
without a doubt could we use closed and open loop brain stimulation approaches not necessarily through some indwelling
37:21
devices such as implants but also perhaps the use of non-invasive brain
37:26
stimulation such as transcranial magnetic and electrical stimulation the answer appears to be yes the short
37:32
answer the long answer is that it is exceedingly context dependent it's based upon brain state based upon tasks and we
37:39
have to define what exact parameters of performance we're looking to affect and what changing the function of
37:45
nerve and brain does to change the relative outcomes with regard to these performances but that doesn't mean we
37:50
can't do it the question is should we and how the same is true with regard to neuro sensory augmentation here I'll
37:57
speak very specifically to some of the program's you have ongoing there have been some bioengineering programs here at this laboratory that has looked at
38:03
the capability to increase visual acumen if not restore sight to individuals who've lost their sight increased
38:09
capability to create second and third generation cochlear and auditory implants these are not limited to the
38:15
usual range of the human sensorium but can in fact be used to get increased focus but sometimes where to is eagle
38:20
eye or something referred to as bats ear so the ability to then extend the
38:26
sensorium and modify human capability outside what falls within the Gaussian distribution of what is human clearly is
38:34
capable here and may be paired to other forms of neurological intervention to
38:39
create open and closed loop brain systems to really expand not only the
38:45
capacity of the human system within its functional range but to go beyond that now have something called exceptional
38:51
modification no sci-fi here folks only facts then we get into the real form of
38:58
a weapon and we're talking about a real form of a weapon remember this is a means of contending against another in
39:04
each and all of these dimensions assess and predict their escalations to
39:10
violence so that we may be able to intervene perhaps mitigate those mitigates that aggression directly or
39:15
indirectly incur certain burdens of morbidity that makes them less likely to engage in combative or violent activity
39:22
and in some cases induce mortality these are all viable operational definitions
39:27
of a weapon and can neuroscience and technology be employed for these each and all one of the areas where we're
39:34
looking to refine the capabilities of neuroscience and technology something we referred to as non-lethal or less lethal
39:40
weapons and while one might think that the ethical argument strongly supports these direction here to there is in fact
39:47
a strong discourse that pushes back against any potential military of warfare applications of the brain sciences that I think you need to
39:53
understand the reason I bring that up is that this can do two things number one creates a posture where the
39:59
neurosciences cannot and should not ever be used for these types of operations please understand life feeling on that
40:06
is wouldn't that be a wonderful thing if we could in fact look ourselves in our eye as humanity and say we shall never
40:13
employ science and technology for those means that may be destructive against others irrespective of whether or not
40:18
those individuals are aligned with our ideology and our beliefs yes that would be the reality the situation posed
40:25
itself as something quite differently however and the problem we need to face is that certain prohibitions if not
40:31
frank prescriptions against using brain science in these potential ways even defensively may create an opportunistic
40:37
window for others to be able to then pursue these approaches more vigilantly and more aggressively it's a balancing
40:44
act folks I'm not going to tell you how to resolve it because I don't know and it becomes difficult there are certain things we can do on the research side of
40:50
the house to dial back who does the research what type of research is done and what it's used for but this is a cat
40:56
that's already out of the bag and as I hope to demonstrate to you in a moment this is being conducted on an international scale and so it may be a
41:02
little late to start thinking about we're never going to use it like this and what happens if we do or we don't what types of kind of neuro weapons can
41:09
we engage and develop well I provide them for you I don't want to go down into specific granularity with each one
41:16
of them do because I don't want to give you bad dreams and you're not gonna blame me if you wake up in a cold sweat scream in the middle of the night but
41:22
this is what we can do with these things again let's think here about drugs and bugs if we're looking at drugs we're looking at what we call any closed
41:29
pharmaceuticals these are not weapons of mass destruction these are weapons of
41:34
mass disruption but they can be used to do is create particular yet highly
41:40
selective effects in individuals so that they can be livid at very very low doses yet deliver a high amplification effect
41:46
that's called a hormetic potential to be able to alter cognitions emotions and behaviors how do you do that well you
41:51
can work on key operatives in other words this individual is sitting before me maybe a diplomat they are now coming
41:57
to interact with me they may have a posture that does not necessarily align with mine can i alter their cognition
42:03
can i alter their affiliation can i alter their emotionality and in such a way might I be able to alter their behavior yeah I can
42:09
and if in fact this individual possesses political or charismatic capability charm charisma leadership potential -
42:17
then stand before their people and say this guy's my best buddy now they might go well I'm following this guy or they
42:24
might think he's stalk raving mad and I've created social disruption within his political ranks I can do that on a
42:29
variety of levels from individuals who were head of a small family or group to the tribal to the community to the
42:35
large-scale population so we can utilize these things to be able to affect key
42:40
operators and dynamic individuals who may charismatic Lipa lytic ly or through other means of power be able to affect
42:46
groups it's a ripple effect it is a ripple effect moreover we can induce a number of neural microbiological agents
42:52
to then incur something called high morbidity these are not necessarily mortal agents we can modify the existing
42:59
palette of bacteria and viruses through the use of gene editing techniques very viable this is missile a ongoing work
43:05
that my colleague Diane D Ulis at National Defense University and what we can also do is recognize that there are
43:11
existing microbiological that can be harnessed to then induce the effects we
43:16
can also engage certain chemicals that way what we want here is a morbidity factor not necessarily a mortality
43:23
factor I want to make people sick and what I do here is the virus is not necessarily the bug the virus is what I
43:29
put over the internet let me show you how I can crash a system pretty easily I affect key individuals here here and
43:36
here and then I take another community in the back of the room I affect key individuals there and then I take
43:42
another community after key individuals there and then I do what every good attributional group does I beat my chest
43:48
and take credit for it and what I put out over the Internet is this is a virus bacteria an agent that I have
43:55
infiltrated into your fill-in-the-blank I say it's a weapon of mass destruction and what I tell you it's going to do is
44:01
it's going to produce paranoia anxiety and sleeplessness what I have just done is I've recruited every paranoid
44:07
hypochondriac to think that they have whatever that is I've used salient than Sentinel cases and I create essentially
44:14
a legion of what's known as the worried well they now flood emergency rooms they
44:20
flood their clinicians the CDC responds back and says no no there is no such a thing and I've
44:25
created a schism of trust between the population in the polis it's both a
44:30
short and a long Wars effect moreover I can create particular neural microbiological as that may have a much
44:36
longer duration of action for example modified Zika virus and what I can then do is as a consequence of that is I can
44:42
affect subsequent generations to incur a Public Health morbidity and mortality effect that then creates an increased
44:49
economic and perhaps social burden long war scenario if I wanted to do something
44:54
that's a little bit more proximate I can utilize nano particulate matter now we can utilize nano science to create much
45:00
better drugs to get them where they gotta go in the brain I can create nanoscience and nanotechnology to be
45:06
able to escort certain drugs across the proliferate barrier which is the blood-brain barrier and Blood Center super spinal fluid barrier so I get
45:12
these things where they got to go but I can also utilize nano particulate matter in a very indiscriminate way the idea
45:19
here is that I can get with something called high CNS aggregation material that is essentially invisible to the
45:25
naked eye and even to most scanners because it is so small that it selectively goes through most levels of filter porosity these are then inhaled
45:33
either through the nasal mucosa or absorbed through the oral mucosa they have high CNS affinity they clump in the
45:40
brain or in the vasculature and they create essentially what looks like a hemorrhagic diathesis in other words a
45:45
hemorrhage predisposition or a clot predisposition in the brain what I've done is I've created a stroking agent
45:50
and it's very very difficult to gain attribution to do that I can use that on a variety of levels I'm the individual
45:56
to the group highly disruptive and in fact this is one of the things that has been entertained and examined to some
46:02
extent by my colleagues in NATO and to those who are working on the worst use of neurobiological sciences to create
46:08
populational disruption very very worried about the potential for these nano particular ages to be CNS
46:13
aggregating agents to cause neural disruption either as hemorrhagic and vascular disruptors or as actual neural
46:20
network disruptors because they interfere what the network property is of various neural nodes and systems
46:25
within the brain then I get to the area of devices and this in many ways is
46:32
going to be less than definitive the reason for this is this is highly evolving and I think is limited only
46:37
certain cases by context of imagination what are the devices well I have them here for you here you have neurosensory
46:44
mobilizing agents and to some extent some of these have already been used things like high output sensory
46:51
stimulators that can be administered from unmanned vehicles drones insect borne or larger scale macro scale
46:57
vehicles such as tanks cars etc these are sensory mobilizing agents use high
47:03
electromagnetic pulse energy that may also utilize high levels of sound high levels of light energy and they disrupt
47:09
neurological sensory function already being used now they're being developed with higher specificity the idea of
47:15
intracranial pulse stimulators take this one step further now the idea is to utilize direct electromagnetic pulses to
47:21
be able to disrupt neural network aggregation there been some animal studies that have been done that look at the viability of electromagnetic pulses
47:28
across various distances to essentially disrupt the network properties of the brain and create confusional models so
47:34
these are both individual and group disruptors you also have the idea of the altered reality tactics that is
47:40
primarily used in a regular warfare and here once again when we understand the the construct of the way neural networks
47:46
operate they operate by key controller and influencing nodes that interact with other neural networks within the brain
47:54
electrochemically if we can utilize transcranial mechanisms to be able to disrupt this what we can do is we can
48:02
create disrupted neural network aggregation literally disrupt people's sense of time-space in place and there
48:08
have been a number of experiments that have examined this more in the medical context of looking at how we can try to control epilepsy do recognize that these
48:15
things are viable although they have not yet been translated directly into operational use but they have been entertained for certain forms of special
48:22
operations in a regular warfare and so they're on the palliative possibility although not near term probability yeah
48:29
if we go one step further I think it becomes important for us to also understand that we can utilize devices
48:35
slightly differently this is the idea of the sort of non-human cyborgs and I
48:40
don't use that word in any way colloquially I mean it literally a cybernetic organism that is an
48:45
integration between a biological system and a technological system the pioneering work in this field was
48:53
done years ago was Delgado's work with deep brain stimulation in a bowl he
48:59
utilized deep brain stimulating electrode coupled to a remote device got
49:04
into the bull arena induced the bull to charge press the button and arrested the
49:09
Bulls forward motion stop poised right before him see what I can do through the use of cybernetic interactive systems
49:15
remotely controlled brain systems brain interfacing could we now utilize that on different
49:22
scales well we're not talking about dropping electrodes into people's heads despite what people will say this is not
49:28
a large-scale program to infiltrate the population with indwelling electrodes with all due respect to Elon Musk I
49:35
think the actual translation of that into a broad scale event within the population as it very very least speaks
49:42
of the fantasy if not fictional and I think in many cases are very very difficult to translate will key
49:48
individuals get certain implants yes I believe they will the key individuals also be able to get the benefits of
49:54
translational neurosurgery to decrease some of the risks and burdens yes they will will this be widely seen as a
50:00
mechanism of individual and crowd control no it will not at least not in the immediate future but what has gone
50:06
from the drawing board to the reality is this the use of neural interfacing and
50:13
physiological interfacing through the idea of remote-controlled small-scale systems to be able to modify the
50:19
behavior of non-human animals a variety of scales small mammals and increasingly
50:26
the use of insects the pioneering work was done by DARPA something called the DARPA Beetle the DARPA fly and more
50:33
recently an independent non DARPA funded commercial enterprise calls itself dragonfly has been able to utilize a
50:40
combined set of techniques both direct neural stimulation through the use of what we call macro technology and
50:45
optogenetic control of key neuron firing patterns to be able to direct the
50:51
wingbeats impulses and as a consequence directionality of a dragonfly and characteristically an insect of about
50:57
that big works quite well because it can not only carry this particular payload which is very very light
51:03
and now does not have the burden of the prior DARPA beetle that needed a battery this utilizes a solar rechargeable
51:09
source so it is infinitely powerful but must also be able to bear the burden of now these very very small-scale and in
51:16
some cases they're looking to the high-level nano or at least low-level micro scale use of various electrodes
51:23
that can then both record and perhaps deliver certain types of payloads as well so the idea of now going back to
51:29
these very very low dose nano pharmaceutical delivery of toxins or other chemicals and utilizing this as a
51:36
controlled vector becomes a real possibility note this has not been
51:41
directly addressed nor has it been entertained by any United States government entity in a public forum this
51:48
is not what DARPA has intended this device to be this is supposed to be a surveillance device that could be used
51:53
for Public Health and also to monitor key environmental factors and the same
51:58
is being touted here that this is not a device that is weaponize Abul the reason I tell you about it is that this was a
52:05
point of considerable debate and discourse at the recent meeting of the European Union human brain project
52:11
Subcommittee on dual use and I stood before these people and said to them you know this is not being entertained in
52:17
these ways and the response there was yes but it should and so the fact that
52:23
people are thinking about this but this was not explicit intent means that it is in fact capable to be developed in these
52:30
directions and that becomes a real concern in consideration soon we're looking at this idea of neuroscience and
52:37
technology for national security intelligence and defense I think the take-home message here is that yeah we can access and effect manipulating
52:44
control so to speak neural systems to affect alter change direct minds via
52:52
brains and therefore the hearts in which those minds are embodied we used to talk as I said about hearts and minds now
52:59
through the use of neuroscience and technology lines and hearts is a far more viable description because it
53:04
describes for us explicitly the route of engagement what we can do here I think is very provocative but we should do
53:12
that's still I think a point of contention and represents a work in progress and I think the reason this becomes so
53:19
contentious is that although we may even be able to leverage particular amounts of regulatory pre and prescription troll
53:26
of a large scale governmental agenda that are dedicated to these efforts and may even be able to exercise such
53:32
control onto the commercial interface a growing problem is to do it yourself
53:38
biological market what is commonly referred to as the bio hacking community and it's it's problematic not inherently
53:46
because of what it is they do this is this is public science as a science take it out into the public forum utilizing
53:52
available tools and technologies that indeed allow individuals to create highly valid scientific techniques and
53:59
technologies in their backyard in their basement I think there's a strong push towards public science that in many ways
54:04
is applauded about and I'm not impugning the community nor its efforts what I am doing is I'm putting out a warning I'm
54:11
giving forth sort of the need to take heed and perhaps take action this is also a very vulnerable community the
54:18
reason for it is twofold number one that there are individual actors as with any community who may have different agenda
54:24
and those agenda may not necessarily be for we consider to be always benevolent
54:30
wanting to do good purposes or let's face it it could be wholly benevolent but my good is not yours and as a
54:36
consequence the ideology purpose and intent of what I seek to do may not necessarily be consistent with you seek
54:42
to do moreover the level of financial base that would allow certain
54:47
distinctions and certain integrity zuv control and safety may not be present in all of these operations and as a result
54:53
accidental contamination accidental spill out of one silo into the public
54:59
silo may be burdensome risky or harmful to the public health and then of course there is the relative corrupt ability
55:06
and diversion of that community by key individuals who may be susceptible to venture capitalists or other state or
55:13
even non-state actors that are very very discrete agenda not all them necessarily benevolent or not all of them aligned
55:18
with the key interests of here in the United States or some other country there is a vulnerability profile that I
55:25
think needs to be made aware and of course there has been a response to this and there has been activity in the direction because this community is also
55:32
dramatically an ongoing dynamically interfacing with the Federal Bureau of Investigation some of our conferences
55:37
here at Livermore have been able to engage these partners and I think a very very meaningful dialogue and I urge our
55:43
just in a public forum that this dialogue should continue not in a suspicious way but in a way that
55:48
protects the individuals who are operating in the do-it-yourself biology community from their relative pro
55:53
linemen and also recognizes that there are potential threats to not only that community but the community at large and
55:59
as a consequence national security and defense the reason I tell you that is that this also speaks to the what can be
56:05
done and what should be done about it and although I'd love to be able to stand before you now and saying here are the answers one by one I can't do that I
56:13
can't not in a definitive way and one of the reasons for that is I think we can certainly talk from our own pulpit and
56:19
we can only discuss the pallet that we have available in which we can manipulate here indeed many of the
56:24
things that I've spoken to you about with regard to biologicals chemicals toxins they're controlled but I think
56:32
that the other issue then becomes twofold number one that signatory treaties do not only guarantee
56:37
compliance in performance and number two not everybody assigned the treaty and if I go one step further not everything
56:44
I've talked about falls under the purview of the existing treaties case in point these biologicals in some cases
56:49
and these technologies and others put them all together I get a much larger grab bag of combinatory approaches that
56:55
can be used that are not explicitly addressed in the current signatory treaties language scope or purpose and
57:02
as a consequence what this does is opens the door for possibility possibility certainly Foster's probability moreover
57:08
this is being conducted on an international scale recent estimates not speculations I
57:14
sound like a broken record I talked about this this morning not speculations by the neuro technologies industries organization has predicted but by 2025
57:22
greater than 50 percent of international neuroscience and technology will be conducted listen to this out side the
57:29
West not outside the United States not outside Europe outside the West now
57:35
that's an important consideration because when it demonstrates is a shift in the capability potential and ultimate
57:40
power that can be yielded by this I'm not saying it's a good thing or a bad thing it's a thing but I'm also I think it becomes important for you to
57:46
understand is that this also needs consideration because of the fact that
57:52
not all philosophies are aligned with our own moreover the needs and values of other cultures may not necessarily be the same
57:58
as ours and they have every right in the world to be able to engage that cosmopolitan viewpoint in other words
58:04
certain cultures have different philosophies that then acknowledge different needs and different values and distinct ways and if in fact you
58:11
recognize this it demands a larger discourse one that brings together international partners and a cooperative
58:17
way to be able to both post the field and in some cases policy the field and
58:22
that's critical because failure to do anything right now leads an opportunistic space wide open and
58:28
moreover overt prescriptions in these areas without consideration for that opportunity space can incur certain
58:34
vulnerabilities this is not something you want to get caught with your pants down about level of proper investment
58:39
attention to detail and engagement I think is important is this the only weapon Aiza before MA Science and
58:44
Technology know is this a huge threat that leverages up there for example with nukes dirty bombs no is this certainly I
58:52
think a growing reality and as such a viability for risk and threat yes does
58:57
the appropriate level of attention need to be dedicated to it an action then need to be articulated thereupon yes absolutely do I have a specific
59:04
number of percentage of time investment in dollars that in fact should be dedicated to this no I don't because I
59:09
think it too needs to be iterative and keeping scope and pace with the science as it develops on the world stage as I
59:16
said you've seen non-state actors you've seen do-it-yourself neuro technologies and increasingly what we find is that
59:21
this is becoming not only I think a valid concern but a viable concern given
59:28
the relative facility of neuroscience and technology we can pull this stuff right off the shelf much of it
59:34
particularly in the direct-to-consumer space then becomes available to do it yourself or as well as a variety of
59:39
state and non-state act moreover there are dedicated efforts by a number of states that are keenly investing in the
59:46
neurosciences and neuro technologies many with explicit dual use capability and potential third this is being
59:52
undertaken not only by nations but by independent actors are than being venture capital funded both explicitly and implicitly by
1:00:00
various nations that have keen interest in developing a disrupted or at least
1:00:05
directional balance of power in this opportunity space and as I tried to show you in this lecture of these past 40
1:00:11
minutes or so this can occur in a variety of applications and the lack of commitment to at least an understanding
1:00:17
and good depiction of it on our side can in many cases not only not preclude
1:00:22
others initiatives but in some case opportunies it so clearly what we see is
1:00:28
that this gives rise to a whole host of neuroethics legal and social issues I'll not bore you with these in detail
1:00:33
but I think we can parse those into those that are focal to the technology intersection of unknowns their capabilities and limitations and runaway
1:00:41
effects not only of the science and technology itself but runaway effects of individuals who recognize its power and
1:00:46
then take this into trajectories that we ordinarily would not assume would be engaged because we may think there are
1:00:52
limits in prescriptions the idea that well we won't go there doesn't mean that someone else won't furthermore I think
1:00:58
that there are some ethical legal issues that need to be raised not only with regard to what we're doing with the science or what can be done with it the
1:01:05
inviolability of mind and self what we talked about earlier could we use these for interrogation could we use these in
1:01:11
warfare yes we could should we mmm but we could argue it well less harm is going to be incurred but really what are
1:01:17
the harms once we get into the relative inviolability of the brain space the last private domain if you will
1:01:22
oh yes I know the counter-arguments as we do that already and perhaps that's valid but I think developing that
1:01:28
discourse in a very very realistic way at the level of granularity that's necessary will be important to each and
1:01:33
every step forward moreover if in fact what we're looking to do is to be able to gain broad base of information and be
1:01:40
able to post that information through relative discrepancies and ultimately transgressions we then get into arguments about what constitutes privacy
1:01:47
what constitutes protection what is mitigation what is manipulation and then how do we entertain these things on the
1:01:53
world stage and if we're looking to say well we understand that perhaps we need to go in this direction as many have
1:02:00
argued well what ethics are we going to use some form of civilian ethics that's operative for example for the life
1:02:06
sciences and medicine perhaps and that may be viable in research but in translating research to operations what do we use then the idea
1:02:14
of justification both in and for war adjust war and just conduct in the war
1:02:19
or perhaps we need to explore yet another ethical principle that was also
1:02:24
very well explicator under the Augustinian maxim which is the idea of use contra bellum which essentially
1:02:31
means justification of use to prevent war but how far do you go to what extent
1:02:37
what represents benefit what represents burden what represents harm I don't have
1:02:43
answers but what I can tell you is that this is certainly will we consider to be a science and technological superhighway
1:02:48
it's a Super Speedway and I like that analogy for a lot of reasons because it's true there are multiple lanes of
1:02:54
entry and multiple lanes of competition there are a lot of vehicles that are being entertained there it's a very rapid pace there are hazards there are
1:03:01
certainly race rules and though not everybody obeys the race rules and sometimes if you don't obey the rules you get ahead of the pack and of course
1:03:07
there are big prizes but like any race you know the morbidity and mortality going at this speed with this level of
1:03:15
integrity with this level of momentum is real so to be able to handle the Super
1:03:21
Speedway one of the things that we've suggested is this something we've called on ramp get it Speedway on ramp there
1:03:28
you go it's the operational neuro technology risk assessment management process or paradigm and what it really
1:03:35
does is it embraces I think an older idea that had been advocated initially
1:03:41
by peg Brzezinski essentially in 1970 1972 I won't bore you with the quote you
1:03:47
can read it yourself but essentially the issue here was that the idea that the modification
1:03:53
manipulation through biochemical manipulation of the brain was seen as real in 1970 and has now been realized
1:04:00
some forty years later this is a real Speedway this is not hypothetical this
1:04:06
is the race that was defined and like so many other races that are defined it's simply a question of the technological
1:04:11
and scientific sophistication of the entries on the race it's real what it forces us to do is to evaluate the
1:04:18
neuroscience and Technology with regard to its capabilities and its limits don't make anything up there's plenty
1:04:24
there to really be concerned about this is not a bunch of sit under a tree navel gazing and let's make up these hypothetical fictional scenarios no
1:04:30
neuro science fiction here let's utilize neuroscience fact induced incapable eyes duay evaluate the real parameters of use
1:04:37
how could these be used how could they not be used and as a consequence of that word the real risks and threats really
1:04:44
lie what are the benefit burden harm parameters of using these are not using these and ultimately what are the
1:04:49
contexts of applications intelligence security defense public safety in some
1:04:55
cases looking at the research side of the house and the operational side of the house all these must fit into this quasi calculus of how we then approach
1:05:02
risk assessment of mitigation there's nothing new about this this is a simple tried-and-true risk assessment and
1:05:08
mitigation paradigm that is now being applied to the use of neuroscience and technology in these key domains what
1:05:14
we've tried to do is to dial in the specificity through the use of some key questions how do we do it we identify
1:05:20
the risk scenarios try to model them craft these strategies for preemption and preparation preparation is the big
1:05:26
step strategies that are relevant and durable and identifying the the plan that's necessary what do we try to do
1:05:32
there is we try to develop these contingencies and exigencies and in developing these things it's essentially
1:05:37
a four-step process looking at the technical rectitude the right ways that one could utilize any neuroscience and
1:05:44
Technology and what I mean by the right ways is using the techniques of technologies incorrect ways using them
1:05:49
in ways that are real understanding the capabilities and limitations what are the situational variables that are
1:05:54
germane to their use could they be used this way or not yeah I could say I want a neuro image people left right middle
1:06:00
but I'm going to get everybody in the scanner no I'm not so how am I really going to use these things evaluation
1:06:06
ultimately a revision of these ethical concepts the guide use and framework for establishing and executing ethical engagement very important to do these
1:06:12
last two steps of work in progress but we've cold for in this approach is something called Tasker groups of
1:06:19
individuals can be assembled to look at the problem who are tasks agile scientifically knowledgeable and ethically responsible because we're
1:06:26
trying to do is balance the relative goods of neuro scientific and technological advancement with the
1:06:32
relative burdens risks and harms of potential areas of do that could be employed and how those in
1:06:38
effect national security and defense we've called for a series of questions called W framing questions what can the
1:06:47
technology do when will it be used under which circumstances in whom and then we
1:06:52
framed these and we call C contingencies what is the actual capability of the Science and Technology how will affect
1:06:59
the character of those upon which it is used what are the consequences that its various use or non-use will occur what
1:07:06
are the context in which it may be employed not employed and what are the contingencies that go into that and ultimately are there issues of consent
1:07:13
or non consent that need to be defined because the thing you don't want to do
1:07:18
and the thing that we're arguing against is doing this in getting this is
1:07:24
unraveling the potential Gordian knot of what the brain is only to open a can of
1:07:30
worms by so doing it's not a question I'm not going forward it's a question of
1:07:35
looking at we call footfall effects it's not a prohibition or prescription against putting one foot in front of the
1:07:40
other but it's recognizing of where those feet are going to fall and what the consequences are where you put them down and also recognizing we're not
1:07:47
walking alone because ultimately by taking that approach which is a preparedness approach what it allows you
1:07:53
to do is to remain steady irrespective of your gait or your stance and do so
1:07:58
irrespective of who's pushing and who's pulling work in progress I wanted to be
1:08:03
aware of the work that we're doing in neuroscience and technology can certainly be leveraged and I think advance for good within biomedical and
1:08:10
even broadly non biomedical arenas with regard to public use lifestyle use and occupational use but as with so many
1:08:17
other things this is a double-sided blade that can be leveraged not only for good but for different definitions of
1:08:22
good that in some cases can incur harm no no this is not cry wolf certainly the
1:08:28
sky is not falling but be able to differentiate a puppy from the dog from a wolf recognize that wolves have teeth
1:08:36
recognize that wolves have claws recognize that wolf have a pooper on the back end and all those can get you in
1:08:41
trouble and no as I said before skies not fallen but certainly looks like rain bring an umbrella because as I like to
1:08:49
say so many times with neuroscience and neuro technology comes great knowledge and great capability with great capability comes
1:08:56
tremendous responsibility those of you who are working in the field bear this responsibility you know my dad was an
1:09:03
engineer I say this but at the end of every year every lecture I give it I'll say it here unapologetically and one of the things we used to like to do when I
1:09:09
was a little kid I sort of like father-son activity was to build things and fix things and I still like to work on airplanes and motorcycles and when I
1:09:16
was a little kid my father had this this thing he used to do every month he'd give me a brand new tool he was teaching
1:09:22
me how to use tools I got really excited after the first few tools I thought I knew exactly how to use tools I was a
1:09:27
little kid what did I know and I remember once very very vividly he gave me this new tool I want to run off and
1:09:33
use it he put his hand on my shoulder and he says Jim slow down measure twice cut once sometimes you can't go back Wow dad
1:09:40
great advice neuroscientists neuro engineers colleagues friends those of
1:09:47
you working in national security intelligence defense those of you working on the policy side of the house let's measure twice
1:09:52
let's cut once because sometimes all of us won't be able to go back it's a
1:09:58
difficult field if you want to get in touch with me you know where I live it's
1:10:03
right there hold on boom boom boom it's right there if you want more readings in the field I'll provide these for you
1:10:08
certainly this PowerPoint is available to you this is the part of the lecture that is the unabashed itself emotional
1:10:14
plug if you'd like to read more deeply about the uses of neuro cognitive sciences and national security
1:10:19
intelligence and defense I recommend this there are other books certainly the reason I give you this is because I'm
1:10:25
proud of it not because I did it but because it was an effort and bringing together great minds from international perspective to be able to look at the
1:10:31
field and at least illustrate some of the ethical issues if not solved the ethical questions that go along with it and once again I think the thing that we
1:10:37
need to understand is that realistically
1:10:45
the futures in our hands here the brains at our fingertips the last thing the world we want to do with this capability
1:10:51
is fumble it so with that I'll end my presentation I'll thank you for your attention I hope I didn't bore and
1:10:57
there's plenty of time for questions thank you very much [Applause]