Download new skill, please

Download and use it immediately – just like this. We saw it in Matrix. That’s what DARPA’s Targeted Neuroplasticity Training (TNT) is all about. To use their language, they want to achieve “the precise activation of peripheral nerves that can in turn promote and strengthen neuronal connections in the brain.” Of course, since it is funded by the Defense Department, the goal is to improve the defense related training, specifically “to train foreign language specialists, intelligence analysts, cryptographers, and others.”

I have spent many years learning English, now Spanish too! I wish the technology were accessible for me. Oh, well.

The main idea behind this program is to facilitate the release of brain chemicals, such as acetylcholine, dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine (that would make the brains highly receptive – similar to the early childhood state) and then to “download” necessary knowledge. The boost of the brain chemicals release they seek to stimulate by the signals sent to the peripheral nerves via implants or non-invasive devices.

TNT is part of the White House BRAIN initiative, created on April 2, 2013, with the stated goal to understand the brain function and to develop the corresponding technologies. To explore ethical aspects of neurostimulation, potential risks, and side effects is a big part of the program too, but I doubt it will stop anybody from pushing the boundaries further.

The revelation about Russian covert activity in social networks and other media in 2016 is just a tip of an iceberg of the new kind of war going on. It is not visible in the fog of the noise, but can plow any Titanic that was careless enough to expose itself. This war requires new kind of much more sophisticated and highly skilled warriors.

The good news, the spill out from the defense research will eventually reach us too. And I will be able to learn a new language (Italian, probably) much quicker.

– Doctor, my husband completely exhausted. He is just a wreck. Where would you advise us to go? To the sea or to the mountains?

– You go to the sea, he – to the mountains. Or the other way around.