At Last, Something We Really Need -- Cybernetic Sharks

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Everyone will be happy to know that the U.S. military is making great progress on its efforts to turn sharks into controllable cyborgs. The article on LiveScience.Com notes:

DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) has taken another page from science fiction writer William Gibson's book by creating a neural implant to enable engineers to remotely manipulate a shark's brain signals. This would eventually allow them to control the animal's movements and possibly decode their perceptions.
Given that sharks have senses that humans don't have (like the ability to sense electromagnetic fields), it could open up some interesting uses.

So if you happen to be devoured at the seashore by a particularly cunning and persistent shark after saying (or thinking) something politically questionable, you can thank your swift execution on the progress of military science.

Seriously, though, the scientific domination of animals for the sake of utilizing their senses opens up fascinating new realms of research and data collection. Imagine, for example, that the implants and their installation were cheap enough to put into masses of flying insects such as hornets. And imagine if the senses of these swarming creatures could be modified to take an interest in unusual compounds -- such as the chemical components of plastic explosives.

Imagine then deploying swarms of these insects to examine shipping containers arriving at seaports, possibly having them enter each container through a special inspection opening (they only need an inch or two). A swarm with a sufficiently broad range of chemical triggers, or made up of enough hornets sensitive to each kind of element or compound, might well be able to provide thorough yet affordable vetting of every container being shipped into the U.S. or the EU. Imagine if you had hornets capable of detecting explosives, neurotoxins, bio-weapons and radioactive materials -- or at least of raising red flags when the presence of such substances was probable.

One major advantage of using scarcely modified cybernetic animals (particularly simpler animals with limited pain sensors) to do this scouting is that a healthy animal (including one recovered from minimal surgery) keeps itself alive and automatically repairs its own injuries through natural healing. You don't have to figure out how to simulate a natural brain, you don't have to teach it how to swim or fly or avoid walking into doors. You just have to figure out how to direct it and how to make sure it senses the kinds of things you need it to detect.

Live Science also has some articles on scientists "jacking in" to a cat's brain to see the world from its perspective and on a proposal to give birds biothermal RFID chips to detect avian flu. Which may turn out to be the most important "bio-weapon" we could possibly detect in the coming decade.


Future Imperative