A moth which has a computer chip implanted in it while in the cocoon will enable soldiers to spy on insurgents, the US military hopes

From Times OnlineMay 24, 2007

Can cyborg moths bring down terrorists?

A moth which has a computer chip implanted in it while in the cocoon will enable soldiers to spy on insurgents, the US military hopes

Scientists are growing flesh around computer parts to create cyborg moths, which can be controlled remotely

Jonathan Richards
At some point in the not too distant future, a moth will take flight in the hills of northern Pakistan, and flap towards a suspected terrorist training camp.

But this will be no ordinary moth.

Inside it will be a computer chip that was implanted when the creature was still a pupa, in the cocoon, meaning that the moth’s entire nervous system can be controlled remotely.

The moth will thus be capable of landing in the camp without arousing suspicion, all the while beaming video and other information back to its masters via what its developers refer to as a “reliable tissue-machine interface.”

The creation of insects whose flesh grows around computer parts – known from science fiction as ‘cyborgs’ – has been described as one of the most ambitious robotics projects ever conceived by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), the research and development arm of the US Department of Defense.

Rod Brooks, director of the computer science and artificial intelligence lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which is involved with the research, said that robotics was increasingly at the forefront of US military research, and that the remote-controlled moths, described by DARPA as Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems, or MEMS, were one of a number of technologies soon to be deployed in combat zones.

“This is going to happen," said Mr Brooks. "It’s not science like developing the nuclear bomb, which costs billions of dollars. It can be done relatively cheaply.”

“Moths are creatures that need little food and can fly all kinds of places," he continued. "A bunch of experiments have been done over the past couple of years where simple animals, such as rats and cockroaches, have been operated on and driven by joysticks, but this is the first time where the chip has been injected in the pupa stage and ‘grown’ inside it.

“Once the moth hatches, machine learning is used to control it.”

Mr Brooks, who has worked on robotic technology for more than 30 years and whose company iRobot already supplies the US military with robots that defuse explosive devices laid by insurgents, said that the military would be increasingly reliant on ‘semi-autonomous’ devices, including ones which could fire.

“The DoD has said it wants one third of all missions to be unmanned by 2015, and there’s no doubt their things will become weaponised, so the question comes: should they given targeting authority?

“The prevailing view in the army at the moment seems to be that they shouldn’t, but perhaps it’s time to consider updating treaties like the Geneva Convention to include clauses which regulate their use.”

Debates such as those over stem cell research would “pale in comparison” to the increasingly blurred distinction between creatures – including humans – and machines, Mr Brooks, told an audience at the University of Southampton’s School of Electronics and Computer Science.

“Biological engineering is coming. There are already more than 100,000 people with cochlear implants, which have a direct neural connection, and chips are being inserted in people’s retinas to combat macular degeneration. By the 2012 Olympics, we’re going to be dealing with systems which can aid the oxygen uptake of athletes.

“There’s going to be more and more technology in our bodies, and to stomp on all this technology and try to prevent it happening is just? well, there’s going to be a lot of moral debates,” he said.

Another robot developed as part of the US military’s ‘Future Combat Systems’ program was a small, unmanned vehicle known as a SUGV (pronounced ‘sug-vee’) which could be dispatched in front of troops to gauge the threat in an urban environment, Mr Brooks said.

The 13.6kg device, which measures less than a metre squared and can survive a drop of 10m onto concrete, has a small ‘head’ with infra-red and regular cameras which send information back to a command unit, as well as an audio-sensing feature called ‘Red Owl’ which can determine the direction from which enemy fire originates.

“It’s designed to be the troop's eyes and ears and, unlike one of its predecessors, this one can swim, too,” Mr Brooks said

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article1831494.ece

6/19/2007 11:32:52 AM

THIS IS MONEY PEOPLE

new toys and i want one

6/19/2007 11:42:53 AM

Didn't they do that on The Venture Brothers?

6/19/2007 11:43:48 AM

Is this really what they're pinning their hopes on?

Sounds pretty stupid imo.

6/19/2007 11:45:51 AM

Quote :

"Sounds pretty stupid imo"

how so....it sounds pretty cheap to get moving comparing this to the costs of other developing technologies

plus, as mentioned in the article...the DOD wants to have 75% of its missions unmanned and this type of technology would go a long way in meeting that goal.

i do worry about the governments misuse of technology of this kind. before you know it...there will be all types of remote control cyborg animals.

researchers have already been toying w/ roaches, birds and rodents with this type of cyborg tech.

[Edited on June 19, 2007 at 11:52 AM. Reason : sdf]

6/19/2007 11:51:59 AM

just kill all the moths, not that hard.

6/19/2007 11:54:00 AM

A moth which has a computer chip implanted in it while in the cocoon will enable soldiers to spy on insurgents, the US military hopes

From Times OnlineMay 24, 2007

Can cyborg moths bring down terrorists?

A moth which has a computer chip implanted in it while in the cocoon will enable soldiers to spy on insurgents, the US military hopes

6/19/2007 11:55:21 AM

there's only one moth that can stop terrorists...

6/19/2007 11:55:51 AM

i'll take a box, or a bag, or...just gimme!

6/19/2007 11:57:14 AM

Quote :

"just kill all the moths, not that hard. "

so, what you are saying is that a country is going to fuck up its eco system and kill all the moths they can find to deter this come on man...give me a real arguement

the point is that the moths are not suspect at all leaving an open window for using bugs as eyes and ears in the field. Not to mention, this type of technology can and will be used in other species.

considering the life expectancy of moths ... im not sure if this is the right way to approach the problem

6/19/2007 11:59:04 AM

Quote :

"The moth will thus be capable of landing in the camp without arousing suspicion, all the while beaming video and other information back to its masters via what its developers refer to as a “reliable tissue-machine interface.”"

hmm... if this is for real, it's going to be jungle, b

6/19/2007 12:03:16 PM

Quote :

"so, what you are saying is that a country is going to fuck up its eco system and kill all the moths they can find to deter this come on man"

as opposed to what the countries we're in war with now are doing (killing their own citizens to stir up conflict) I don't think wiping out a species of moth would be that hard for them....not to mention wiping out a species doesn't fuck up the whole ecosystem (we've been doing it for centuries).

6/19/2007 12:05:48 PM

Quote :

"not to mention wiping out a species doesn't fuck up the whole ecosystem "

You just lost all rights to argue this point

6/19/2007 12:24:00 PM

do androids dream of electric sheep?

6/19/2007 12:44:10 PM

i want a remote controlled porcupine

6/19/2007 12:59:14 PM

It'd almost be funnier if this was complete bullshit and the turrists were sitting around terrified of moths like hippies on a bad acid trip.

This reminds me, I need to read The Singularity Is Near.

In all seriousness though, by the middle of this century, you can pretty much assume all your privacy will be non-existant. Will the government dedicate resources to monitoring each citizen? Probably not. Will it have the capability? Yes.

[Edited on June 19, 2007 at 1:35 PM. Reason : .]

6/19/2007 1:12:21 PM

RAAWWRR!

6/19/2007 1:13:10 PM

Quote :

"You just lost all rights to argue this point "

species have been wiped out of every ecosystem in the world, and it didn't wipe out the whole ecosystem.....i'm not sure what you're trying to prove here, but maybe that's because you're not sure either.

6/19/2007 1:19:29 PM

Quote :

" “The DoD has said it wants one third of all missions to be unmanned by 2015"

33% not 75% are suppose to be unmanned.

And this type of technology, while really cool, won't help us out too much. Look at Iraq for example, the problem there has nothing to do with our military strength and technology, it has to do with failed planning and diplomacy.

Moths with cameras are cool, and should be researched for what we'll learn, but it's relatively unimportant in the long run.

I'm skeptical about the claims of the moth being able to relay video too, we'd have to be somewhat close to pick up any video relayed back, assuming they can even get video out of the moth.

6/19/2007 1:37:59 PM

Quote :

"And this type of technology, while really cool, won't help us out too much. "

I disagree. This kind of intelligence would be a gold mine for military operations. It would allow more precision and efficency in the use of force on the ground.

Of course, that does assume competent people are making competent decisions based on this intel.

6/19/2007 1:49:55 PM

don't the unmanned spy planes already serve this function anyway?

6/19/2007 1:51:20 PM

Not completely. If this moth delivers, it could pick up audio from inside safe houses, underground, etc. We might already be able to do that, I don't know, but this would add that dimension. Thermal sensors, for example, are of limited use in the desert when its in the 100s every day. The heat has a habit of washing out the screen. Video sensors can't see inside of a building. The moth could, theoretically, land on an IED and determine its composition, trigger mechanism, etc. all while listening to the discussions of where it was going to be emplaced.

6/19/2007 1:58:38 PM

just seems like a stretch to me.

6/19/2007 2:01:47 PM

i bet next are simple beings like drunknloaded

6/19/2007 2:11:03 PM

"At 1535 hours the moths became self-aware. . . ."

6/19/2007 2:11:47 PM

Quote :

"just seems like a stretch to me. "

omg, we landed on the moon?

6/19/2007 2:12:18 PM

steel trap logic right there.

6/19/2007 2:25:37 PM

It only seems like a stretch because this kind of stuff isn't broadcast every day. A small cadre of technologically elite are creating things that we, as average citizens, just don't hear about every day. That is loaded terminology, but it is the truth. As technology advances, further and further, it becomes harder and harder for the layman to grasp all of its developments. This doesn't mean that specialists aren't advancing it day by day Thirty years from now, this will seem like no big deal.

Part of the issue is that technology is advancing faster than we're really able to digest its reprecussions. Add that to the fact that specialists only see their small field, and not perhaps the wider picture. Inventors 200 years ago were philosophers as well as scientists, todays scientists are specialists, not generalists. I'm not saying that this is a doomsday situation, but we're hurtling down the technological highway at speeds which make it harder and harder to react to new developments.

6/19/2007 3:05:21 PM

some of you dont watch enough Star Gate

6/19/2007 3:07:05 PM

apparently, some watch too much.

6/19/2007 3:19:20 PM

^^ It's true. I'll bet many don't know that insects have been a military weapon for decades--biological agents can be released through swarms of insects. In my US Army SMART Book this was standard information.

PS: Hey, gunzz, when're there gonna be some more Dresden Files episodes?

[Edited on June 19, 2007 at 3:30 PM. Reason : .]

6/19/2007 3:26:52 PM

Quote :

"It only seems like a stretch because this kind of stuff isn't broadcast every day."

I'm not doubting they could create something like this, i'm doubting its ultimate effectiveness/worth.

6/19/2007 3:32:15 PM

How much is this worth? How much did it cost? Granted, the Predator drone is an effective platform for weapons and surveillance.

But what if--for the cost of the computer chips, the receiving equipment, and somebody to monitor and service it all--you could release thousands of little, disposable surveillance platforms into hard-to-reach and dangerous areas? Wouldn't that be worth a try?

6/19/2007 3:40:39 PM

gah! I actually agree,

But yeah, it is cheap, disposable, unobtrusive, and hard to detect. It isn't like they'll be flying from LA to Kandahar, but an SOF unit could easily dispatch them. Although it is humerous imagining an A-Team humping it through the Hindu Kush just to pull out a mason jar with some holes in the top of it and release a few dozen ugly butterflys.

In other news, the newest terrorist weapon:

[Edited on June 19, 2007 at 3:49 PM. Reason : .]

6/19/2007 3:46:12 PM

^ LOL! We might agree on more than you think--as long as you don't go way out in left field on me.

PS: Did they still have the SMART Book when you went through basic?

6/19/2007 3:50:00 PM

maybe nanotechnology could allow us to grow flu virus cells with nanochips so we could go inside terrorists repiratory systems and then self destruct

or maybe just trigger certain internal bodily mechanisms like give osama bad diarrhea

6/19/2007 3:51:21 PM

^^ I was an ROTC commission, so no, but all the Joes I asked did.

^ There is already talk about using nano-robots to do the exact opposite. That is, hunt down viruses in the blood stream and destroy them.

A lot of this stuff is covered regularly in the Economist's Technology Quarterly section. I highly recommend picking up the E when they come out with that every three months.

[Edited on June 19, 2007 at 3:55 PM. Reason : .]

6/19/2007 3:53:02 PM

6/19/2007 3:57:00 PM

Quote :

""At 1535 hours the moths became self-aware. . . .""

thats exactly what i thought, this is the beginning of humans versus a minorty of humans with rediculous technology, who will lose control of that technology and screw all of humanity

if we're gonna stop this fate then we must act now!

6/19/2007 4:07:09 PM

^ BTW, I picked that time because it's the name of an old Chicago song.

6/19/2007 4:13:07 PM

Quote :

"thats exactly what i thought, this is the beginning of humans versus a minorty of humans with rediculous technology, who will lose control of that technology and screw all of humanity"

Thats what the Luddites thought in the 1800s, and look where we are now. A large part of me agrees, actually, but I'm not sure there is anything we can do about it.

In the words of the late, great, HST, "Fuck it, we'll just have to ride this strange torpedo to its logical conclusion."

If all else fails, just pull a Hemingway and be done with it.

6/19/2007 4:25:08 PM

Quote :

"Hey, gunzz, when're there gonna be some more Dresden Files episodes? "

its either Dresden or Eureka that starts back in a few weeks

6/19/2007 4:39:49 PM

^^ no! i refuse, although it seem futile to try and stop the advancement of knowlege, it would be like the romans trying to stop christianity, although i can envision a time when rogue non-goverment scientists will be hunted down like criminal,

i mean there are scientist doing some crazy sh$t in their garages, like creating miniture universes, and one of them will have a bad accident one day and that will change everything

6/19/2007 5:06:00 PM

I can't stop thinking about what the moth would be thinking...

"Dammit! I wanted to turn right back there! What the hell..."

6/19/2007 5:14:59 PM

this will be a spectacular failure

we can't even get a manned anti-air gun to decide if it's looking at a tree or a russian Hind chopper

at the very least, any estimate of this being even barely usefull in less than 15 years is pretty hilarious

it does bother me though.
Seeing as how Uncle Sam no longer cares to tell the difference between kids doing kid-things, and Mohakmed Mohokmadon gassing a pre-school, we, sir, are completely fucked

6/19/2007 6:21:31 PM

Quote :

"A moth which has a computer chip implanted in it while in the cocoon will enable soldiers to spy on insurgents, the US military hopes"

Sounds kinds scary to me. What stops the US gov't from turning this against it's own people??
The gov't has already shown it is willing to shit on the constitution in the name of "anti-terrorism."
Already provisions of the patriot act that were created to "stop terrorism" are being used against avg Americans to go after drug dealers and god knows what else.

I think 1984 is coming it is just a matter of time

6/19/2007 7:00:16 PM

cyborg mothra would be a lot cooler.

6/19/2007 7:03:26 PM

ssssshhhhhhhh, we need to keep this a secret

6/19/2007 7:25:24 PM

^ well exactly.

this is a great scientific achievement, and it is highly stupid to release this info to the public. eventually it will make its way to terrorists, and everytime a moth lands in their camp, they will clobber it. moths are not hard to see.

why would they release this to the public? doesn't make sense.

6/19/2007 8:48:24 PM

also, generally speaking, if we hear about something the US military is doing that "Isn't yet operational", it's a pretty safe bet that this means it will fucking NEVER be operational and is simple scare-tactics.

Counter-examples include the B-2 and SR-71

those are fucking TWO, and one of them was because Nixon was tired of hippies bitching

6/19/2007 9:22:38 PM