US Army To Push X-Files Tech Development 139
An anonymous reader writes "The US Army is ramping up the development of technology right out of the X-Files; 'making science fiction into reality' as Dr. John Parmentola — Director of their Research and Laboratory Management — puts it. The list of things currently in the works is amazing: regenerating body parts on 'nano-scaffolding,' telepathy through electronic impulses in the scalp, and self-aware virtual photorealistic soldiers that can be deployed in the battlefield through 'quantum ghost imaging.' To test these they want to use them into a massively multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft or Eve online."
Order Up!! (Score:1, Funny)
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sweet, i can finally get my own holoduke. too bad there's no shrink-ray on that list.
Episode no. please... (Score:2)
I don't remember an episode of the X-files featuring an oversize penis. Can you point tell me the series and episode number? It sounds intriguing. Or have you just been watching your XXX-files again?
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I think his name was David Duchovny.
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"Flamebait"?
You guys have no sense of humor whatsoever.
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Not a problem! I'll just forward on some of the thousands of e-mails that offer just that and can purportedly make it prehensile like a monkey's tail. Here ya go...
Well... (Score:5, Funny)
I'll only believe it when I see it.
*whistles the X-Files theme*
It's already here! (Score:2)
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Maybe the US army bought a chinese wow farming bot and modified it somewhat to react on the maps / whatever sent by them instead for RL usage? :D
Sucks if they run away to pick up flowers or corpse camp though.
Re:Well... (Score:5, Funny)
To test these they want to use them into a massively multi-player online games like World of Warcraft or Eve online.
There's no science here... they just want to play more games. I can imagine the staff meeting :
Any ideas how we can get more time off to farm uber gear?
No sir, all our team are working on high tech projects, sir!
Any chance we could combine my WoW playing with these "hitec" projects, and everyone will be happy?
Sir yes sir!
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Re:Well... (Score:5, Interesting)
Not sure how easy it is to turn up the gain but how hard can it be to strap a can-tenna to one of the new mind controlled video game controllers?
CNN [cnet.com] already uses holograms.
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I'll believe it when they manage to do it on the budget they're gunna have in a few months.
My guess is it will be paying for
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I really *want* to believe!
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I want to disbelieve.
Sadly, I can't.
Mutually exclusive? (Score:4, Interesting)
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In the same way as the matrix representation of people? ;)
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How can a virtual photorealistic soldier also be self-aware?
Virtually, of course!
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Re:Mutually exclusive? (Score:5, Funny)
How can a virtual photorealistic soldier also be self-aware?
Please state the nature of your battlefield emergency.
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... You Have 15 Seconds To Comply.
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"The enemy is shooting at us Sarge! And they're using live rounds as well!"
stargate tech is better but some of it needs zpm's (Score:2)
stargate tech is better but some of it needs zpm's or some other high power source to use them.
Re:stargate tech is better but some of it needs zp (Score:4, Funny)
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But the Scottish dude always pronounces it "zed-P-M". That should have given it away.
I heard that guy pronounce it first, and as an ignorant American, it actually took me a couple of minutes to figure that it was an acronym for "zero point module" and not some made up alien words.
As a total aside, how do you teach the alphabet to children? The end of the alphabet song doesn't rhyme if you pronounce it "zed".
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Britain just has/had a different alphabet song, though really Sesame Street has been shown on English TV for so long now (since 1969) the american one has long since "won". You just learn the american song says "zee" but the correct name is "zed", and learn to blame the "dumb americans", too (gotta start indoctrinating kids with prejudices early, you know!)
Note that and (&) used to be the last "letter" of the British English alphabet, so the old english alphabet song used to end "and per se and" (not "
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In Canada, the alphabet song on Sesame Street ended in zed
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He's not Scottish, he's Canadian
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Sorry, I don't actually watch the show, I had a roommate who was into it, so I've seen a few episodes.
I thought there was both a Canadian guy and a Scottish guy. The Canadian guy was a physicist and the Scottish guy was a medical doctor. He may have been Welsh or Irish or something, like I said, I don't watch the show, so I don't remember exactly.
They may both pronounce it "zed", though I've never heard any of the real life Canadians I know say "zed". They may just be humoring us Americans.
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Zed's dead baby, Zed's dead.
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Oblig (Score:4, Funny)
I for one, would like to welcome our new Quantum Ghost Imaging Overlords...
Fringe (Score:4, Funny)
X-Files is dead, it's Fringe now. Get up to speed or turn the cite over to someone up a current nerd and geek culture~
Also
Dr. John Parmentola is a total villain~ just look at him:
http://www.nano-dds.com/Pics/Parmentola-Bio.pdf [nano-dds.com]
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I've watched Fringe. It's garbage.
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Right, though I think Anna Torv [wikipedia.org] is quite hot in an athletic girl-next-doory sort of way. Of course, they have her gratuitously strip and climb into a tank of water in like, the first or second episode, that's how I know she has a really hot body. And that fringe was utter garbage, granted. But I'll still watch it because, hot.
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Fun fact: Anna Torv was also the motion-capture model and voice actress for "Nariko", the main character in recent computer game "Heavenly Sword". That much hot can make up for a lot of shitty nonsensical antiscientific plot.
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I haven't watched this Fringe thing, but I get the sense that a third X-Files movie is more likely than a second Fringe season.
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Please. Fox Mulder couldn't heft Kolchak's camera. Now get off my lawn.
Old News To FOX Viewers (Score:1)
!telepathy (Score:2)
There is a word for what they are doing [wikipedia.org] but it isn't telepathy
And is it really that necessary?
Throat mikes are plenty sensitive as it is and either way, you're going to have to send out RF to communicate.
Re:!telepathy (Score:5, Insightful)
technology-enabled telepathy, techlepathy, or whatever you want to call it, is still manipulating objects with your mind. and there are many instances where directly transmitting commands with neural impulses would be preferable over verbal commands. for instance, if you were trying to control a UAV drone it would be far more intuitive to be able to make the plane turn via thoughts than with clumsy voice commands. you'd have a much wider range of control that's both, more natural and also quicker, than voice commands.
i'm more disturbed by this:
--yea, that and carrying out cover ups.
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i don't think an Army Ranger or Delta Force soldier is going to pull out a laptop and mouse/joystick in the middle of enemy territory during a combat mission. the whole point of voice/thought commands is to keep the soldier's hands free and allow him to issue commands while on the move.
and muscle memory is still the result of neural signals sent from the brain. for controlling things like unmanned drones you can still exploit a soldier's fast reflexes or autonomic reactions. with training, it'd be possible
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That is because a joystick is a very easy device to manipulate. Correctly reading a brain as quickly is not nearly as simplistic as a pair of physical sensors.
Once we can trivially read the mind and interpret what that means, I sincerely doubt that a joystick will remain faster.
Joysticks/muscle memory comes with practice. Once reading the brain becomes practical, given time and practice...
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i'd believe that. i've taken high doses of benzodiazepines that completely blacked out my memory of the night before.
it was really strange waking up the next morning and finding a pack of cigarettes that i couldn't remember buying (or who gave them to me) and also finding blog entries that i didn't remember writing. i basically had to talk to all of my friends to piece together what happened the night before, since i had no recollection of talking to anyone, people coming over to my apartment, or going out
robots in WOW? (Score:4, Insightful)
> To test these they want to use them into a massively multi-player online games like World of Warcraft or Eve online."
Doesn't that violate the TOS?
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Re:robots in WOW? (Score:5, Funny)
Doesn't that violate the TOS?
I'm sure Blizzard would love to have a higher level of AI for its npcs. It would give the players something to aspire to.
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Blizzard don't negotiate with terrorists :D
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DOD trumps TOS
or
Cruise Missle hitting the server(s) makes problem go buh bye
Change in administration (Score:5, Insightful)
I believe the director of DARPA typically leaves with a change in administration, and it wouldn't surprise me if that was the case in other such agencies. Then there's the whole change in funding thing that may happen.
I know a lot of people in the defense research community are a bit nervous now. Be interesting to see what happens after January.
Re:Change in administration (Score:5, Funny)
It's called February.
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Yes, I sort of meant what happens during the Obama administration, with a particular emphasis on the time shortly after the inauguration, and was using "January" in that context as a metonym.
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I was going for the synecdochal aspect myself.
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I was going for the synecdochal aspect myself.
Do you mean synecdochical? http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/synecdochical [wiktionary.org]
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The fiscal year for the military is October - October. Their jobs should be safe until Christmas 2009!
They can always join Obama's 'civilian national security force' [wnd.com]
Project funding (Score:5, Funny)
Step 2: Claim principles could be adapted to military uses in unrealistic time frames
Step 3: Profit!
No ??? even needed.
Re:Project funding (Score:5, Insightful)
Step 1: Read theoretical physics journal Step 2: Claim principles could be adapted to military uses in unrealistic time frames Step 3: Profit! No ??? even needed.
Heh. You're modded "funny", but you're right on the money (so to speak). This is typical [grant|budget|*] fishing behavior. Nobody's department ever gets funded by saying "we think we may be able to develop and field a 15% lighter combat boot in the next 5 years". No, you get money by saying "we are on the verge of being able to make our soldiers capable of three currently humanly impossible things that would have our enemies cowering before us--- if only we had the funding..."
!funny (Score:2)
Sure, what the scientists are doing might one day turn into something that saves a soldier's life, most current soldiers would probably prefer to see some of that rather go towards funding more down-to-earth spending on basic stuff like body armor etc.
I like Ike! (Score:2, Informative)
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex [msu.edu]. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our pe
What about VRil Flying Disks? (Score:1)
Alternate Ending (Score:2)
George W. Bush: What do you want me to do? I thought this was being handled. The truth is out there now. Toothpick Man: The truth has always been out there Mr. President. The people just don't want to believe.
Quantum ghost imaging not "really" quantum? (Score:5, Informative)
Wouldn't astronomers want this? (Score:4, Interesting)
-Joe
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In the experiment mentioned by New Scientist, note that the setup uses an external light source. Some of the photons hit the object, while others are captured at the same time (but
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This article from 2001, "Teach Photons to Tango", described how high-powered lasers could be used to bounce photons off each other and make then collide (a theory from QED). [aps.org]
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In addition to the other responses, a photon here isn't going to be entangled with any distant photons. Entanglement is delicate to maintain. Other particles can't be allowed to interact randomly with the entangled pair. Even in the vacuum of space, over light years, there is plenty of dust, other photons, etc. to ruin the entanglement.
They're manufacturing aliens??? (Score:2)
"The US Army is ramping up the development of technology right out of the X-Files, "making science fiction into reality"
I can't be bothered reading the article. This is slashdot after all. So can someone please tell me whether they're manufacturing the aliens or they've created some kind of reality distortion machine that literally makes science fiction real? I hope it's the later so we can all like like James T. Kirk and mate with green and blue alien women with excess body parts.
It's only a matter of time... (Score:3, Funny)
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Once we perfect the killer robot police, we won't need so many troops.
Great - the gov't is bankrupt... (Score:2)
good move ace. Let me know how that works out for ya.
RS
This is a press release (Score:5, Insightful)
wait, hold on a moment... (Score:2)
To test these they want to use them into a massively multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft or Eve online.
Does this remind anyone else of Ender's Game? Hmmm...
The McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine (Score:4, Interesting)
I had the opportunity to attend a lecture entitled "The Hope and Hype of Regenerative Medicine" last Wednesday evening in Cambridge, MA (10/29/2008) hosted by Vertex Pharmaceuticals. This lecture was profoundly interesting and awe-inspiring. Simply amazing what can be done for people in need of replacement of internal organs: bladders have been successfully grown and implanted in 6 children, both a vagina and uterus have been replaced in in pigs, and the tip of a human finger grew back after being accidentally amputated by the propeller of a small model airplane engine. The photographs and videos were quite graphic but show the power of this new type of medical research, some based on stem cell research. Current research is directed at replacing damaged cardiac tissue and the replenishment of islet cells to the pancreas to treat diabetes.
So here's how it's going to go (Score:2)
They're going to seem like they have a plan when they develop this tech but we'll be strung along for ten years before we realize they're pulling everything out of their asses?
X files technology eh?? (Score:4, Funny)
"X files" my butt. They're being Proxmired. (Score:5, Insightful)
Hadn't encountered "Quantum Ghost Imaging" before. (If it provides a practical system for imaging a objects without exposing that an observer exists and/or without the observer having a clear line-of-sight for ordinary optics, the military applications would be obvious.)
But building replacement body parts and organs on nano-scaffolding is working fine in the laboratory. It's just a little engineering development and regulatory approval from deployment. The military knows how to fund and direct practical engineering development, can fast-track or sidestep regulatory approval, and has a continuing supply of people who need replacement body parts or substitutes to recover function. It makes perfect sense for the military to drive the final development and deployment of this technology, bringing their wounded back to full health rather than giving them a prosthetic and a pension.
The military is already flying and driving vehicles and aiming and firing weapons in difficult environments using "mechanical telepathy" - magnetic sensors in a helmet detecting the fields from the currents from the firing of nerves in - guess where - the speech center (among others). (While you're strapped into a fighter plane doing a 5-G maneuver or a helicopter shaking from flack: Look at a target and/or point a finger at it. When the targeting marker in the heads-up goggles is on it, think "BANG!". Just for one example.) Meanwhile the same technology is doing a very good job of speech recognition on subvocalization. So why not use it to drive a radio to "think-talk" to another guy in the unit?
Since at least the Vietnam era the US military has been a consumer and designer of role-playing game system products and video games, for good reason and with very good results. After noting that the soldiers who played the most on the video games in the PX were also some of the best shots, pilots, tank drivers and gunners, etc. they commissioned videogames with realistic weapon characteristics as training aids: Fun and effective, and a LOT cheaper than full-blown simulators. Role-playing game systems, meanwhile, greatly improved "war games" strategy practice and military planning, and they stay current with developments in the field (and are a major customer of some of the companies as well). Using a MMORG to do a Turing test, along with further development, on a computer-simulation of a soldier (in preparation for deploying AI weapon systems) fits right in and makes perfect sense to me.
So it looks to me like somebody is "pulling a Proxmire" - finding some government research that SOUNDS screwy and characterizing it to make it sound as ridiculous as possible in the public press.
How Does the Enemy Fight our Army on the Cheap? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sanctuaries (Score:2)
In any counterinsurgency, if the enemy has a sanctuary to run to, you're going to have a tough time. It doesn't matter how badly you kick his ass every time you meet - he gets to retreat, regroup, resupply, retrain, and reattack at the time and place of his choosing. The VC had North Vietnam, the Taliban have Pakistan. If you cannot enter a sanctuary area, you'll likely never knock them out completely. I find it humorous that BHO and the Democrats pledged to really go after Bin Laden rather than wasting tim
Re:How Does the Enemy Fight our Army on the Cheap? (Score:5, Insightful)
Those guys have been fighting wars on one front or another for centuries. They are very good at it.
Re:How Does the Enemy Fight our Army on the Cheap? (Score:5, Insightful)
No mod points, too bad.
To make it more clear: they have been fighting modern asymmetric wars for a very long time.
The people doing it now have practically grown up with it.
Even the USSR, with all their resources (and absolutely no qualm or HRW really worrying them) couldn't defeat these people (OK, so they had Uncle Sam's help - but anyway...)
Unfortunately, it also means that a western-style democracy is highly unlikely to work in such an environment.
There's just no concept of a "loyal opposition" in this region.
When you're defeated, it only means you have to try harder to overthrow your opponent next time.
And god forbid you follow the orders he issues from the capital - your peers might think you're a wuss.
Re:How Does the Enemy Fight our Army on the Cheap? (Score:4, Insightful)
Can someone please exlplain how it is that a bunch of irregulars with poorly maintained AK-47 rifles and surplus Katyusha rockets that date back to the cold war can keep us on our toes in Afghanistan when we have all of this high tech and expensive army gear?
Does a bullet from an AK-47 kill any less than a bullet from a hi-tech rifle? Does a Katyusha rocket demolish vehicles and buildings less effectively than modern explosives? Both weapons are basically good enough, especially since the enemy is hardly interested in prolonged battles and control over territory. Their war is mostly one of symbols; have a little bombing here, kill a few people there. It means little in the grand scheme of things, but it locks their respective countries in a state of fear, something from which they ultimately hope to profit as the US inevitably will have to withdraw at some point.
How would you win such a war? The only way, I think, is to increase the wealth of that country: give them something to lose. Maybe if all the money invested so far had instead been used to buy agricultural products from them, they would be preparing for the next crop now instead of deciding where to put the next roadside bomb. Of course, there is little profit in that for the very large industry that rides on the back of those wars...
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Another solution is to flatten the place with nukes.
(yeap, I've been watching Sledge Hammer lately...)
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Can someone please exlplain how it is that a bunch of irregulars with poorly maintained AK-47 rifles and surplus Katyusha rockets that date back to the cold war can keep us on our toes in Afghanistan when we have all of this high tech and expensive army gear?
It sounds like you are missing part of the picture. In the first days of Afghanistan, the Taliban forces still attempted to hold territory and maintain a military presence in Afghanistan. They were cut down so badly they have abandoned that notion. That
Depends on how you measure Cheap (Score:2)
The British Parachute Regiment in Afghanistan had over 700 confirmed kills on their last tour alone.
The British forces have lost of 122 men since the start of the conflict.
Their strategy may be cheap in money but is costly in casualties.
I don't even understand what that means... (Score:2)
"self-aware virtual photorealistic soldiers that can be deployed in the battlefield through 'quantum ghost imaging.'"
What the hell is this project - Artificial Intelligence? Virtual Reality? Robotics?
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From what I understand its like a holodeck. (self-aware virtual photorealistic soldiers that can be deployed in the battlefield)
Only without holo-emitters present. (through 'quantum ghost imaging.')
I know about these things... (Score:1, Funny)
As a Linux user, I appreciate the Army wanting to push X-files tech development. I know Xorg.conf could use some cleanup, Xsession.options, Xresources, Xsession and Xsession.d, Xinit and Xkb have been around for quite some time, and anything the Army can do to make them 'uber' would be great. Oh wait...
Combat Telepathy Problems..... (Score:4, Funny)
Soldier 1: :::Enemy behind the wall on the left by the palm tree.:::
Soldier 2: :::Enemy behind the wall on the left by the palm tree.:::
Soldier 3: :::Enemy behind the wall on the left by the palm tree.:::
Soldier 4: :::Enemy behind the wall on the left by the palm tree. Hey, wait a minute! That reminds me, the mailman and my wife were pretty friendly last time I was home...:::
Soldier 5: :::Enemy behing the wall on the left by the palm tree:::
Soldiers 1, 2, 3: :::WTF?! Enemy behind the wall on the left by the palm tree!:::
Soldier 5: :::I'll bet he's got a package for her!:::
Soldier 4: :::What's THAT supposed to mean?:::
Soldier 6: :::Dude, your wife's bangin the mailman!:::
Soldier 5: :::HE'S GOT AN RPG!!!:::
Soldier 4: :::Dude, that's not funny!:::
Soldier 5: :::NO! THE GUY BEHIND TH-.....
Fwishhhh! BOOOOOM!
Soldiers 1, 2, 3, 4, 6: :::Oh... *That* guy.....:::
Bots on WoW (Score:1)
Great
As if we didn't already have enough problems with chinese goldfarmers and bots on World of Warcraft, now the USArmy wants to put in goverment sanctioned bots.
I can't wait to see Blizzard try and enforce their no-bots terms of service on the USArmy.
Dr. John Parmentola (Score:1)
Don't worry about it (Score:2)
Obama has already committed to significantly slowing down the development of new military technologies.
Barney Frank suggests this means a 25% cut in the entire defense budget.
This stuff will never happen. Research on it will be cut in a matter of months.
Good time to join the army? (Score:2)
So this means I can join an Army research project and get paid to play Eve Online all day?
Where do I sign?
'Trode nets, vat-grown limbs, augmented reality... (Score:2)
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Just FYI: Obama doesn't become president till January.
So you know...
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Yeah.....I don't see that happening.
I want the parent post... (Score:2)
...printed on a T-shirt.
No... really... look at it...
Obama will fix the universe and end the wars with "change" - check.
Spewing nonsense about "them there jungle country that lives in peace with everyone" while comparing it to a global superpower - check.
No idea about the real world - check.
Not one but TWO Star Trek references - check and check.
" The world is a peaceful place except for some freedom fighters who feel oppressed " - this line is just pure gold.
" Plus the world will no longer see us as a threa