Securing and Training the Human Mind

Mr. Buckle was well versed in this type of person. A person who was evil, straight from hell. A person who thought his cunning and charismatic persona showed compassion and empathy. Mr. Buckle would play the game. This man had bad intentions, and Mr. Buckle needed to get the information.

At that moment, Mr. Buckle knew something had gone wrong, very wrong. His heads-up brain feed for the AQAC system faded to black…

The scenario played out in the above narrative happens every day to millions, if not billions, of people who play video games. This scenario, in one form or another, is also common in war zones or other violent arenas. To some, death is a game. People, seemingly, enjoy the activity of simulated killing. It has been argued that this contributes to the mass killings we see today and many of society’s ills. Securing the influences of the mind and training the mind properly is, arguably, the most pressing issue we as a society face today.

And if the dam breaks open many years too soon
And if there is no room upon the hill
And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon

The lunatic is in my head
The lunatic is in my head
You raise the blade, you make the change
You re-arrange me 'til I'm sane
You lock the door
And throw away the keyThere's someone in my head, but it's not me

The problem definition, as explained above by Pink Floyd, is that someone is watching your every thought and could drive you insane by manipulating your brain. In fact, this is occurring today to thousands, in not millions, of people. There is a shadow war brewing that must be won to ensure freedom, specifically freedom of thought. The war must be won. Failure is not an option.

Played out in the introductory narrative is a brain machine system. The system relies on a brain feed in real-time or AQAC, As Quickly As Conceivable. In the narrative, Mr. Buckle is an agent that has a heads-up brain display that links his brain to a central, but networked, system that is used to communicate, target, provide reconnaissance, and manipulate peripheral devices, among other uses.

Brain machines, sometimes referred to as neuroweapons, psychotronics, or biohacking, are basically communications via the brain, helped by technology. We have recently seen some applications of this technology in the commercial sector, such as robotic manipulation via the brain, typing via the brain, controlling drone swarms, and most interesting, reading the thoughts of an individual.

Reading from and writing to, the brain results in the telepathic-like transference of thoughts. Each word in a language can be mapped to a specific and unique region of the brain. Once each word has been mapped to the individual brain, algorithms, and computers monitoring the brain can interpret the brain's regions that "light up" into the actual thoughts and language of the subject.

The problems and opportunities that this technology solicits become enormous and very, very dangerous. In the extreme, the brain could be hacked and, with some basic tweaking to the system, literally explode the brain, resulting in the above scenario Mr. Buckle experienced. This is a real scenario. This technology exists. Securing the technology is of the utmost importance.

Currently, this technology is being tested in covert government programs. Not all covert programs are illegal, but these covert programs do not adhere to any regulations, ethics or human testing laws and thus are extremely illegal and, again, very, very dangerous.

“Justin Sanchez, director of the Biotechnologies Office for DARPA, is changing the future of how humans use their brains. By harnessing the powers of neurotechnology, Sanchez and his team at DARPA have been able to help people overcome paralysis and gain independence. Sanchez believes the applications of neurotechnology can be expanded even further to include how we tell stories and share memories––transforming at a fundamental level what it means to be human” (Sanchez, Justin).

“Our brains are stuck in our head, and everything that we do in our lives comes out of our brain through the nerves, and our spinal cord, and our hands, and our bodies, and we interact with the world that way. A number of years ago, scientists said, ‘Well, what if there is another way? What if we could develop a technology and create a new communication channel out of our heads?’” Sanchez said. “It’s not a dream. It’s not science fiction. It is possible to create a direct interface to the brain.”

There appear to be two basic structures for solving the problem, one from a technology perspective and one from a social perspective.

Socially, it is imperative to teach people what is described as basic human values. Training and equipping, the next generation of leaders to perform at high-levels, is imperative. This process involves many aspects of society. We must train our leaders and instill in them correct values. This will inoculate individuals from negative patterns and influences of media and information, such as the video games and the violent experiences of war, as described above in Mr. Buckle's narrative.

Diversity in natural systems enhances the system's resiliency. This idea may also be applied to social systems and cultural norms unless the idea, custom, or social norm are in disagreement and conflict with the infringed-upon society's values. To theorize, those values that are in disagreement or areas of conflict are basic human values. These basic human values are social norms that are not negotiable, and the infringed-upon society has the right and the obligation to make sure the values do not change. It is posed these values are:

If an individual does not hold the above values and behave in that manner at a minimum, that person should be taken out of society. “At a minimum" is highlighted because holding the above values will automatically predispose an individual to be what we see as normal.

For example, generally speaking, someone who holds the above values will not think murder is an acceptable form of negotiation or action. We have our justifications for killing a human, such as war and espionage. Those that engage in those activities generally speaking are not perverts and attempt to limit the number of dead.

Socially, the solution to the problem, in the long-term, is an educational and economic issue. In the short-term, the solution is a political, military and policing issue. Most people would not negotiate with a terrorist, pedophile, or traitor. We house our sex-offenders in segregated prison confinements for a reason: the other prisoners will kill them.

Zac Rogers is a research lead at the Jeff Bleich Centre for the U.S. Alliance in Digital Technology, Security and Governance at Flinders University of South Australia. His research combines a traditional grounding in national security, intelligence and defense with emerging fields of social cybersecurity, digital anthropology and democratic resilience. He has an interesting perspective on social problems, challenges and issues.

“Trust is a strategic resource, not an auxiliary luxury. The world of digitally manipulative cognitive warfare is profoundly complex. Effects vary—side effects and accidents are impossible to control. Interventions in complex human systems involve deep uncertainty and should be approached with extreme caution. In the haste to react, the risk of undermining the very thing we are aiming to defend is real. Which would amount to doing the adversary’s job for it. There are ways and means of acting defensively in the digital age. Many of them have little to do with technology."  

“Adversarial information operations aimed at sowing discord and disruption in open societies create a narrative signature that can be modeled and mapped as it transits the digital terrain. We currently have the technology to identify and track these signatures, but we are yet to put it to full use. Full control of the narrative in the digital terrain is, however, a fantasy. Open societies like Australia’s can pursue denial of hostile narratives transiting cyberspace without harboring hubristic expectations about ‘winning’ the cognitive contest."

“We already know what the fabric of open society is made of: human relationships. Understanding how these are being warped and transformed by digital technologies, with or without an adversarial narrative attached, is the key to democratic resilience. A little-acknowledged strategic capability of great importance for Australia as it navigates its digital future will be the transformation of our current societal approach to the development and deployment at scale of technologies with immense implications for the lives of individuals, families, communities and the nation” (Rogers, Zac).

From a technological perspective, the question becomes how to use technology to address the stated problems and challenges. First, the problem must be known, validated and recognized. Governments and agencies throughout the world must recognize the problem and the technologies involved.

It is known that the heads of governments and agencies are active participants in controversial special access programs that are unlawfully testing these technologies. The governments feel the ends justify the means. In other words, torturing someone is justified in the name of science. This is not a new problem among the governments of the world. This has been a mode of operation for a long time and is a systemic failure brewed out of sociopathic, amoral, perverted thinking and people. The system is extremely corrupt, and the people responsible are just as corrupt and are not accountable to anyone. This needs to be addressed and changed.

What can we do to change the current trajectory of this issue and stop the governments of the world from using this technology for nefarious reasons? People need to be aware of what is going on, which is one purpose of this article. Ambivalence is a major problem. People who are not influenced by this technology will not touch it because of various reasons, being called crazy probably the biggest reason, fear being a close second. They don't want to be on the "list" of people who are affected. Those people who know, but do not do anything, from one perspective, are just as culpable as the people who are actively testing this technology on unsuspecting people. This needs to change. Heads need to roll, and people need to bring these perverts to task.

Recognizing this technology, and addressing these concerns, will be the first step in using this technology for the betterment of humanity while eliminating the unlawful, unethical and evil uses that are currently being employed.

One of the biggest challenges facing society is from insider threats and the abandonment of the stated values and missions. The current system for national security and national security interests allows for corruption and criminal behavior through the use of covert actions, plausible deniability, and special access programs, among other areas. Although some actions may be justified, other actions are questionable.

Unbiased and informed leadership is, arguably, the most important solution to many of the challenges humans, the federal government, the Department of Defense, and the world as a whole face. The solution to political and institutional stagnation and abandonment of responsibility and accountability is, in part, dealing with potentially corrupt or perverse persons. Criminal and perverse behavior can be detected at all levels of government and in all agencies of government. The federal government must take this seriously and re-evaluate this important undertaking.

To conclude and be clear, a shadow war is currently being waged and is addressing the above problems, challenges and solutions. This war cannot fail. It must be won. Cicero stated 2000 years ago:

"A nation can survive its fools and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly. But the traitor moves among those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not traitor, he speaks in the accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their garments, and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared." - Cicero, 42 B.C.

Mr. Buckle has a lot on his plate to deal with.

Lucas W. Pomeroy is an MBA and Partner at Buckle & Bernard Agency Developers.

Rogers, Zac. “Information Warfare and Neuro-Weaponry.” The Strategist, 26 Sept. 2019, https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/information-warfare-and-neuro-weaponry/.

Sanchez, Justin. “Justin Sanchez - Director of Biological Technologies Office, DARPA.” Future of StoryTelling, https://futureofstorytelling.org/speaker/justin-sanchez.