Mind Wars, Brain Research, and National Defense October 12, 2006

Jonathan Moreno (Biomedical Ethics, University of Virginia) will discuss the highlights of his new book Mind Wars: National Security and the Brain (2006), in which he investigates the deeply intertwined worlds of cutting-edge brain science, US defense agencies, and a volatile geopolitical landscape where a nation’s weaponry must go far beyond bombs and men. From neuropharmacology to neural imaging to brain-machine interface devices that relay images and sounds between human brains and machines, Moreno shows how national security entities seek to harness the human nervous system in a multitude of ways as a potent weapon against the enemy soldier. Moreno charts such projects as monkeys moving robotic arms with their minds, technology to read the brain’s thought patterns at a distance, the development of “anti-sleep” drugs to enhance soldiers’ battle performance and others to dampen their emotional reactions to the violence, and advances that could open the door to “neuroweapons”—virus-transported molecules to addle the brain.