Brain Brinksmanship - Neurotechnology in National Security and Defense - page 124

in neuroscientific research—the assessment of control networks within the brain.
While there remains much to discover, the question is whether the pace of research
will prompt global interest in advancing neuroscience to the extent that the likelihood
of incurring risks of incipient neuroweapons has rendered neuroethical preparation
and prevention to be little more than a race against time.
Following Richardson's theory, the seventh dimension tackles metathought and
strategic analysis issues as its fundamental driving force: it is cumulative, derivative,
and hierarchical in nature. Here, an argument can be made that there are no bound-
aries, geospatial limits, or shielding zones to perimetize defending the “mind.” The
extent to which the mind is unprotected, open, and exploitable by external elements
is as the body was before the invention of armor, sword, and shield.
Neuroweaponry makes the global landscape a potential level playing field. It is
no longer an inherent strategic advantage to possess killer satellites, long-range mis-
siles, laser weapons, and advanced weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) if cog-
nitions, emotions, and behaviors can be accessed and channeled toward outcomes
independent of other extant weapons system. The global battlespace will be dra-
matically altered and in light of this, it will be necessary to design and implement
systems to protect humans from neural interference if impending neurowarfare is to
be regarded as realistic and eventual.
A paper by Tim Thomas (1998) of the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff
school entitled “The mind has no firewall” delved into the degree to which Russian
military scientists and a specific researcher, Chernisev, had focused upon what was
termed “psychotropic weapons.” Such weapons included the following:

• A “psychotropic generator,” which produced a powerful electromagnetic

probe capable of being sent through telephone lines, TV and radio net-
works, supply pipes, and incandescent lamps.

• An autonomous generator device that operated in the 10-150 Hz band,

which at the 10-20 Hz band formed an infrasonic oscillation destructive
to living creatures.

• A nervous system generator, designed to paralyze the central nervous sys-

tems of insects, which—upon further development—could exert similar
effects on humans.

• Ultrasound pulses, which were supposedly capable of effecting bloodless

internal manifestations without leaving external evidence.

• Noiseless cassettes that placed infra-low frequency voice patterns over

music that could be subconsciously detected and which were claimed to be
used as “bombardments” with computer programming to treat alcoholism
or smoking.

• A “25th-frame effect,” wherein each 25th frame of a movie reel or film

footage contained a message that would incur subconscious effects on cog-
nition, emotions, and/or behavior. This technique was advocated to curb
smoking and alcoholism, but was also noted to possess wider applications
if applied on a TV or movie audience or a computer operator.

• Psychotropic drugs as medical preparations used to induce trance, eupho-

ria, or depression. Referred to as “slow-acting mines,” such agents could