The Real Reason The Military Is Developing Brain ChipsJoshua Krause Last February, DARPA announced that they were working on a black box brain chip to install in the brains of Americas soldiers. Like the black box of an airplane, the device would record the memories of the victim patient. This would ostensibly be used to help treat the memory loss of soldiers with PTSD, or perhaps even civilians with Alzheimers. DARPAs PTSD gospel continued last month when they were reportedly working on a different brain chip that would be used to monitor brain activity, as well as influence sections of the brain by stimulating them with electricity: According to DARPA, this research is all about helping our gallant soldiers as they return home, treating their PTSD so they can live normal lives again. How noble of them. Theyre just oozing with flowers and rainbows at DARPA. Look, the D in DARPA stands for DEFENSE. This think tank is the premier research arm of the military-industrial complex. They shouldnt be allowed anywhere near someones brain. If this research still sounds harmless to you, you should know that the same research that involves repairing memories is directly related to the knowledge of erasing memories as well. Shortly after asking Ledoux about the brain prosthesis, the reporter then asked Messing with memory is a huge deal. It goes to the core of who we are. Treating PTSD would be wonderful, but isnt it also possible to make people artificial Pollyannas? Ledoux replied: This research is a backdoor to controlling our thoughts and memories, and nothing more. I feel bad for the victims of PTSD, and even though I can never truly feel the pain they carry with themselves every day, I sympathize as much as I can. But this is just wrong. Memories are painful for a damn good reason. Youre not supposed to forget these things. Scars exist not only to heal, but to remind us of what happened. Pain in all of its forms is there to force us to address the cause of the pain. Its the alarm system of our body and mind, telling us that something isnt right. You should see what happens to people who cant feel physical pain. It isnt pretty. I doubt erasing the agony of the mind at the flick of a wand is a good idea either. As debilitating as the pain can be, it exists to help us heal and grow. This isnt something the military-industrial complex is interested in. So what are they aiming for with this research? They want brain chips for the same reason they love robots. Given the rapid growth of automated war machines in our military, I suspect they want to replace our soldiers at some point. They dont want an army of human beings, for the same reason a factory might replace humans. They dont want to deal with the sensitivities of working with people. Except in this case, it isnt about cutting health insurance and payroll costs. Its about creating an army of unthinking trigger pullers. If anything, thats what it has always been about. If there are any veterans reading this, you know what Im talking about. Before the age of robotics, there was boot camp. The meat grinder. The institution responsible for bringing in individuals and cranking out yes-men that follow orders. Its proven to be rather successful, but its impossible to fully program some people. In the future, boot camp will be replaced with an assembly line that cranks out killer autonomous machines that will always follow the orders of the elite, no matter how heinous, and without discrimination. Fortunately that day hasnt fully arrived. Only a select few military jobs have been automated so far, and it may be some time before the military can truly replace their divisions with machines. Until that day arrives, DARPA has a solution. If they can find a brain chip, or even a pharmaceutical that allows them to erase the memories of our soldiers, they might have their robot army ahead of schedule. Think about it. If you can erase the dreadful memory of a battle, you can have that soldier enter each fight with the same naivete each time. You could throw him into a thousand battles without breaking him. You could arm the most moral and righteous person imaginable, and all youd have to do is convince him to kill once and erase the memory. Rinse and repeat until his parts wear out. You could get soldiers to follow orders through anything, now matter how unethical, and have the benefit of erasing those memories so no reporter or family member ever hears about it. And like a robot, the soldier would never have the self awareness to know hes become a fleshy automaton. I confess I dont know how this will all pan out, or how successful the research will be. But I do know this: DARPA may succeed in removing the memories from our brains, but theyll never erase them from our souls. Related selfnews Post Articles: Joshua Krause is a reporter, writer and researcher at The Daily Sheeple, where this first appeared. He was born and raised in the Bay Area and is a freelance writer and author. You can follow Joshuas reports at Facebook or on his personal Twitter. Joshuas website is Strange Danger 