News

Uncle Sam Wants To Know What You're Thinking

I am: demiurge, incipient storyteller and honourary mamacat. Occasionally acid. Prone to biting. Given to bouts of TMI (you've been warned). Language is important. Words are important. Use them well, please. At least it's not dogs and pigeons this time.

While I'm uncertain whether this falls more neatly under Paranormal or Science Fiction, this little tidbit of news was far too fascinating -- and mind-boggling, if you'll forgive the weak pun -- to pass up: the military has just given research scientists a grant of four million dollars to figure out how to read minds.

The technology hasn't quite reached Mr. Spock levels of sophistication yet, for which I suspect we can all be grateful. Thus far testing is, according to John Pike of defense research firm GlobalSecurity.org, "still in the proof of principle stage." It involves a lot of electrodes, go figure, and the easy task of thinking of a preset word, with scientists analysing the test subject's brainwave activity, searching for the patterns that will unlock the mysteries of the mind.

Government research into the possibility of telepathy is nothing new. For example, in the early 1950s, Dr. Joseph B. Rhine (Duke University) was contracted by the government to examine ESP (extra-sensory perception) in animals (in fact, Dr. Rhine coined the phrase). The results were, it seems, largely inconclusive: for example, the dogs used in testing did well at first, but ultimately obtained "no better than chance" results.

Project STARGATE is probably the most famous example of governmental poking about in the minds of mere men.

Begun in 1971 at Stanford University Institute, STARGATE operated under various names until the project was officially ended in 1995. In 2001, Navy SEAL L. R. Bremseth published a paper offering a summary of work done under STARGATE auspices. The project was, it seems, largely concerned with the possibility of remote viewing, particularly with its potential applications for warfare. Given that the entire thing was apparently launched in response to rumors of Soviet research into the same idea, this hardly seems surprising. The document's claims are backed by still-classified information, so independent verification is tricky at best, True or not, the conclusions drawn are interesting to consider. While the official consensus seems to have been 'well that was several million dollars wasted,' there were some successes reported, with varying degrees of accuracy.

Given this latest bout of research into how to read minds, this is apparently a topic the US government can't quite seem to leave alone. Like poking a bad tooth, perhaps, it seems determined to unravel the mystery and make ESP of some variety yet another useful tool in the official arsenal. I remain unconvinced. ESP may or may not be a real thing, but I'm not going to sleep any less restfully at night for fear that someone in a bunker in DC is watching me dream.

After all, that's what satellites are for.

G'night, y'all!