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Brain Research and National Defense
Dana Press
November 2006
On Sale: November 17, 2006
225 pages ISBN: 1932594167 EAN: 9781932594164 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction History | Non-Fiction Political
In his fascinating new book, Jonathan D. Moreno investigates
the deeply intertwined worlds of cutting-edge brain science,
U.S. defense agencies, and a volatile geopolitical landscape
where a nation's weaponry must go far beyond bombs and men.
The first-ever exploration of the connections between
national security and brain research, Mind Wars: Brain
Research and National Defense reveals how many questions
crowd this gray intersection of science and government and
urges us to begin to answer them. 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. "As new kinds of weapons are added to the arsenal already at
the disposal of fallible human leaders," Moreno writes, "we
need to find new ways to address the problem"--of the
ethical military application of so powerful and intimate a
science. This book is the first step in confronting the
quandaries inherent in this partnership of government and
neuroscience, serves as a compelling wake-up call for
scientists and citizens, and suggests that, with
imagination, we might meet the needs of both security and
civil liberty.
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