DARPA, on the back of the US governments BRAIN program, has begun the development of tiny electronic implants that interface directly with your nervous system and can directly control and regulate many differentdiseases and chronic conditions, such as arthritis, PTSD, inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohns disease), and depression. The program, called ElectRx (pronounced electrics), ultimately aims to replace medication with closed-loop neural implants, which constantly assess the state of your health, and then provide the necessary nervestimulation to keep your various organs and biological systems functioning properly. The work is primarily being carried out with US soldiers andveterans in mind, but the technology will certainly percolate down to civilians as well.
The ElectRx program will focus on a fairly newarea of medical therapies called neuromodulation. As the name implies, neuromodulation is all about modulating your nervous system, to improve or fix an underlying problem. Notable examples of neuromodulation are cochlear implants, which restore hearing by directly modulating your brains auditory nerve system, and deep brain stimulation (DBS), which appears to be capable of curing/regulating various conditions (depression, Parkinsons)byoverriding erroneous neural spikes with regulated, healthystimulation.
A state-of-the-art retinal implant and its controller/battery. Current implants are not particularly small things.
So far, these implants have been fairly big things about the size of a deck of cards which makes their implantation fairly invasive (and thus quite risky). Most state-of-the-art implants also lack precision the stimulating electrodes are usually placed in roughly the right area, but its currently very hard to target a specific nerve fiber (a bundle of nerves). With ElectRx, DARPA wants to miniaturize these neuromodulation implants so that theyre the same size as a nerve fiber. This way they can be implanted with a minimally invasive procedure (through a needle) and attached to specific nerve fibers, for very precise stimulation.
Read our featured story:Brown University creates first wireless, implanted brain-computer interface
While these implants cantregulate every condition orreplace every medication at least not yet they could be very effective at mitigatinga large number of conditions. Basically, a large number of conditions are caused by your nervous system misfiring most notably inflammatory diseases, but also potentially brain and mental health disorders. Currently, a variety of drugs are used to try and cajolethese awry neurons and nerves back in-line by manipulating various neurotransmitters but the same effect could be created with an electronic implant that catches themisfire, cleans up the signal, and then retransmits it.
DARPAs ElectRx program
The technology DARPA plans to develop through the ElectRx program could fundamentally change the manner in which doctors diagnose, monitor and treat injury and illness, says DARPAs Doug Weber.Instead of relying only on medication we envision a closed-loop system that would work in concept like a tiny, intelligent pacemaker. It would continually assess conditions and provide stimulus patterns tailored to help maintain healthy organ function, helping patients get healthy and stay healthy using their bodys own systems. [Read:Brave transhumanist pioneer self-implants a computer into his arm.]
Despite requiring a lot of novel technological breakthroughs, DARPA is planning to perform human trials of ElectRx inabout five years. The initial goal will be improving the quality of life for US soldiers and veterans though theres no word on which condition DARPA will focus on. Something simple like arthritis is most likely, but Im sure theres a lot of interest in curing/regulating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as well. Earlier in the year, DARPA announced a similar program to develop a brain implant that can restore lost memories and experiences.
While DARPAs ElectRx announcement is purely focused on the medical applications of miniatureneural implants, there are of course a variety of other uses that might arise from elective implantation both for soldiers, but also for civilians. With a few well-placed implants on your spine, you could flip a switch and ignore any pain reported by your limbs, allowing you to push your body harder and faster. With precision-placed implants around the right nerve fibers, youcould gain manual control of your organs you could slow down or speed up your heart, turbo-charge your liver, or tweak just about any other function of your body. Transhumanism here we come.
- Green Goblin, the Hasty Transhumanist - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- Your Favorites Radio | All your favorite songs and artists - iHeartRadio - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- Can't Miss Indie Press Speculative Fiction for November and ... - tor.com - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- What is posthumanism? And should you worry about it? - Aleteia - November 8th, 2023 [November 8th, 2023]
- Ray Kurzweil Predicts: The Singularity by 2045 - Discovery Institute - November 8th, 2023 [November 8th, 2023]
- A Conversation About God | Dr. John Lennox - The Daily Wire - November 8th, 2023 [November 8th, 2023]
- 'Billions' of megalomaniacal humanoids could, one day, ambush the ... - Robotics and Automation News - November 8th, 2023 [November 8th, 2023]
- 3rd Annual ELTS Graduate Student Conference: Speculative ... - UCLA International Institute - November 8th, 2023 [November 8th, 2023]
- Donna Haraway's Children: Meet the Dynamic Young Artists Who ... - Cultured Magazine - November 8th, 2023 [November 8th, 2023]
- Scary Movies for Anarchists to Watch at the End of the World - CounterPunch - November 8th, 2023 [November 8th, 2023]
- Data Summit 2023: shaping the future of AI and Data - Scottish Business News - November 8th, 2023 [November 8th, 2023]
- Ghost Work and the Enduring Necessity of Human Labor - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence - November 8th, 2023 [November 8th, 2023]
- Alien TV series: Plot, cast, release date and everything we know - Yahoo Lifestyle UK - July 27th, 2023 [July 27th, 2023]
- Traditional Perspectives on Philosophy - pt. 1: Voluntarism - OnePeterFive - July 27th, 2023 [July 27th, 2023]
- Accusations of a Government Cover-Up Dominate Congressional UFO Hearing - Decrypt - July 27th, 2023 [July 27th, 2023]
- Elon Musk Appoints Dan Hendrycks as Advisor to xAI Startup - Fagen wasanni - July 27th, 2023 [July 27th, 2023]
- Anton Vidokle on the Cinema of the Stars - Ocula Magazine - July 27th, 2023 [July 27th, 2023]
- The day the bubble burst: Akira and Japan's economic 'miracle' - Canadian Dimension - July 27th, 2023 [July 27th, 2023]
- Ex-Google engineer says humans will achieve immortality in 7 years; here's how netizens reacted - Business Today - April 6th, 2023 [April 6th, 2023]
- Super-intelligence and eternal life: transhumanism's faithful follow it ... - March 31st, 2023 [March 31st, 2023]
- Pioneering Transhumanism: a conversation with Natasha Vita-More - February 5th, 2023 [February 5th, 2023]
- 4 Problems with Transhumanism - Human Life International - February 2nd, 2023 [February 2nd, 2023]
- Transhumanism: Examining the risks, benefits, and ethical implications ... - January 25th, 2023 [January 25th, 2023]
- Noted Transhumanist Now Targeting Our Children: Whats inside Yuval ... - January 10th, 2023 [January 10th, 2023]
- Humans Will Never Colonize Mars - Gizmodo - January 10th, 2023 [January 10th, 2023]
- Ghost in the Shell (1995) - IMDb - December 28th, 2022 [December 28th, 2022]
- The Transhumanist Agenda Behind Bidens Executive Order on Advancing ... - December 28th, 2022 [December 28th, 2022]
- The Missing Plan for Alien First Contact to Pro-and-Anti-UFO Factions in U.S. Government (Planet Earth Report) - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries... - November 8th, 2022 [November 8th, 2022]
- Biden Signs Executive Order Designed to Unleash "Transhumanist Hell" on ... - November 7th, 2022 [November 7th, 2022]
- Biden transhumanist executive order: We need to program biology ... - November 7th, 2022 [November 7th, 2022]
- Meaning of life - Wikipedia - November 7th, 2022 [November 7th, 2022]
- Take years off your age: this Israeli expert says its all up to you - Haaretz - November 7th, 2022 [November 7th, 2022]
- Transhumanism: advances in technology could already put evolution into ... - October 30th, 2022 [October 30th, 2022]
- Bidens Executive Order Designed to Release Transhumanist Hell on ... - October 30th, 2022 [October 30th, 2022]
- Biden's Executive Order Advances Biotech-Transhumanist Agenda ... - October 23rd, 2022 [October 23rd, 2022]
- Elon Musks Neuralink allegedly subjected monkeys to extreme suffering - October 23rd, 2022 [October 23rd, 2022]
- Doomsday bunkers, Mars and 'The Mindset': the tech bros trying to outsmart the end of the world - The Conversation Indonesia - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Is the body key to understanding consciousness? - - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Nvidia and the 3D Future of the Internet - TechNewsWorld - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- I have to ask: Did anything happen to you with the 0010110 social media mystery? Are you still with us? - Alan Cross - A Journal of Musical Things - August 30th, 2022 [August 30th, 2022]
- If the US is Nineveh, Then Canada is Sodom - The Stream - August 30th, 2022 [August 30th, 2022]
- Gaming Adventures You Don't Want To Miss In 2022 - Gamesreviews - August 30th, 2022 [August 30th, 2022]
- The theory behind conspiracy - The Spectator Australia - August 30th, 2022 [August 30th, 2022]
- What is Creation? | What is Creation? - Patheos - August 30th, 2022 [August 30th, 2022]
- Transhumanism Humanity+ - August 25th, 2022 [August 25th, 2022]
- Become your true self - Freedom of Form Foundation - August 25th, 2022 [August 25th, 2022]
- Ghosts, Mummies, and Robots in Buddhism - Buddhistdoor Global - August 25th, 2022 [August 25th, 2022]
- The Biggest Threat to Humanity? Black Goo - WIRED - August 25th, 2022 [August 25th, 2022]
- You Cant Back the Murder of Alexander Dugin Then Whine About Salman Rushdie Or Attacks on American Neocons - The Stream - August 25th, 2022 [August 25th, 2022]
- Android app deals of the day: Codex of Victory, Scalak, Reminder Pro, more - 9to5Toys - August 25th, 2022 [August 25th, 2022]
- Whatever happened to transhumanism? - BioEdge - August 23rd, 2022 [August 23rd, 2022]
- Who needs religion when you've got these clowns promoting bad ideas? - Freethought Blogs - August 23rd, 2022 [August 23rd, 2022]
- The Importance of Medical Ethics Highlighted During the 75Th Anniversary of the Nuremberg Code - The Epoch Times - August 23rd, 2022 [August 23rd, 2022]
- History of a hard man: Neil Balme memoir stands out from the pack - Sydney Morning Herald - August 23rd, 2022 [August 23rd, 2022]
- Henry Kyereme: Could advances in technology undermine the future of humans? - Myjoyonline - July 7th, 2022 [July 7th, 2022]
- Iris Van Herpen Explores Life Beyond the Physical Realm for A/W 22 Couture - vmagazine.com - July 7th, 2022 [July 7th, 2022]
- Virtual Beauty, Virtual Freedom, Virtual Love: Is the Metaverse Our Future? - PRESSENZA International News Agency - July 7th, 2022 [July 7th, 2022]
- Network TV Hasn't Been The Same Since This Sci-Fi Drama Left The Air - Looper - July 4th, 2022 [July 4th, 2022]
- The myth of 'artificial intelligence' - spiked - Spiked - July 4th, 2022 [July 4th, 2022]
- Fulton Sheens July 4 Declaration of Dependence - National Catholic Register - July 4th, 2022 [July 4th, 2022]
- All Agents Defect: Espionage in the Films of David Cronenberg - CrimeReads - June 22nd, 2022 [June 22nd, 2022]
- Tune In: The Art of the Videogame Soundtrack - Highbrow Magazine - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- It's been 10 years since Prometheus, what can the reboot teach the Alien TV show? - TechRadar - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- Religious Transhumanism 11: What about the body? | cybernetic immortality - Patheos - May 28th, 2022 [May 28th, 2022]
- Elon Musk is promoting transhumanism as part of Agenda 2030. - Logically - May 28th, 2022 [May 28th, 2022]
- PEW and transhumanism: Public has mixed concerns about arriving era of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and human enhancement - Genetic Literacy Project - May 28th, 2022 [May 28th, 2022]
- David Cronenberg Gets Back to Basics in Crimes of the Future - Vanity Fair - May 28th, 2022 [May 28th, 2022]
- Painting on Another Plane: Mandy Cao - MutualArt.com - May 28th, 2022 [May 28th, 2022]
- Have Authoritarians Used 1984 as a Handbook? - Verve Times - May 28th, 2022 [May 28th, 2022]
- How to Grow and Forage Without Owning Land - Verve Times - May 28th, 2022 [May 28th, 2022]
- Meet the Human Battery, a New Source of "Green" Energy - Verve Times - May 20th, 2022 [May 20th, 2022]
- This Years Venice Biennale is Full of Surrealism and Stark Reminders - Yahoo News - May 20th, 2022 [May 20th, 2022]
- Is it possible to transplant heads? - BioEdge - May 20th, 2022 [May 20th, 2022]
- The Best Movies Of 2022 So Far - /Film - May 20th, 2022 [May 20th, 2022]
- Future of work: the top careers of the next decade - The Age - May 17th, 2022 [May 17th, 2022]
- Kriya Announces $270 Million Series C Financing to Advance Fully Integrated Gene Therapy Engine - Business Wire - May 17th, 2022 [May 17th, 2022]
- Five Standout Films Coming To Cannes This Year [Trailers] - 2oceansvibe News - May 17th, 2022 [May 17th, 2022]
- Cannes 2022: 10 movies to watch out for in this years festival - The Guardian - May 17th, 2022 [May 17th, 2022]
- On the Gnostic Ironies of Poets Nathaniel Mackey and Fanny Howe - Literary Hub - May 17th, 2022 [May 17th, 2022]
- Dismantling the Transhumanist Agenda - The Post & Email - May 6th, 2022 [May 6th, 2022]