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US Army To Push X-Files Tech Development
An anonymous reader writes "The US Army is ramping up the development of technology right out of the X-Files; 'making science fiction into reality' as Dr. John Parmentola — Director of their Research and Laboratory Management — puts it. The list of things currently in the works is amazing: regenerating body parts on 'nano-scaffolding,' telepathy through electronic impulses in the scalp, and self-aware virtual photorealistic soldiers that can be deployed in the battlefield through 'quantum ghost imaging.' To test these they want to use them into a massively multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft or Eve online."
I would like a footlong - pecker - to go please.
I'll only believe it when I see it.
*whistles the X-Files theme*
How can a virtual photorealistic soldier also be self-aware?
Wow, a 7 digit ID - let that be a lesson in the perils of procrastination.
stargate tech is better but some of it needs zpm's or some other high power source to use them.
I for one, would like to welcome our new Quantum Ghost Imaging Overlords...
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
X-Files is dead, it's Fringe now. Get up to speed or turn the cite over to someone up a current nerd and geek culture~
Also
Dr. John Parmentola is a total villain~ just look at him:
http://www.nano-dds.com/Pics/Parmentola-Bio.pdf
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
They're working closely with J.J. Abrams to identify the source of the Pattern.
Yeah? Try logging onto World of Warcraft without either running into gold farmers or getting whispers with prices of the latest susanexpress offer. I think those quantum ghost imaging things are already there, just that the folks in China beat us to it.
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
There is a word for what they are doing but it isn't telepathy
And is it really that necessary?
Throat mikes are plenty sensitive as it is and either way, you're going to have to send out RF to communicate.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
> To test these they want to use them into a massively multi-player online games like World of Warcraft or Eve online."
Doesn't that violate the TOS?
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I believe the director of DARPA typically leaves with a change in administration, and it wouldn't surprise me if that was the case in other such agencies. Then there's the whole change in funding thing that may happen.
I know a lot of people in the defense research community are a bit nervous now. Be interesting to see what happens after January.
Step 1: Read theoretical physics journal
Step 2: Claim principles could be adapted to military uses in unrealistic time frames
Step 3: Profit!
No ??? even needed.
Just FYI: Obama doesn't become president till January.
So you know...
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_vril04.htm
Sure, what the scientists are doing might one day turn into something that saves a soldier's life, most current soldiers would probably prefer to see some of that rather go towards funding more down-to-earth spending on basic stuff like body armor etc.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
George W. Bush: What do you want me to do? I thought this was being handled. The truth is out there now. Toothpick Man: The truth has always been out there Mr. President. The people just don't want to believe.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
"No, you get money by saying "we are on the verge of being able to make our soldiers capable of three currently humanly impossible things that would have our enemies cowering before us--- if only we had the funding...""
Maybe the porn industry should write the proposal?
Quantum ghost imaging is a real effect that is potentially useful, but there is skepticism that it's an "entangled photon" quantum effect and not just an effect that is due to the ordinary interference of light waves (which is also ultimately quantum of course but can be predicted with classical physics).
"The US Army is ramping up the development of technology right out of the X-Files, "making science fiction into reality"
I can't be bothered reading the article. This is slashdot after all. So can someone please tell me whether they're manufacturing the aliens or they've created some kind of reality distortion machine that literally makes science fiction real? I hope it's the later so we can all like like James T. Kirk and mate with green and blue alien women with excess body parts.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
...before we have enough troops to deal with the situation in Afghanistan. Now, if we can only get the Taliban to watch CNN.
So wait, the army wants to test super sophisticated equipment... in WoW? Um, why? And how? Not only are they comparing apples to oranges, they are publicizing it to laughable proportions. This is the stupidest thing i've heard from the army all month, and this month just started!
good move ace. Let me know how that works out for ya.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Faced with cuts in military funding by the upcoming Obama administration, this is deigned to convince people that the defense department comes up with a lot of gee-whiz things they really shouldn't let their representatives eliminate.
If your theory is different from practice, then your theory is wrong.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present
* and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientifictechnological elite.
It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system -- ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.
I always thought it was CPMs, until someone reminded me that Americans can't pronounce "Z" correctly. Then it made sense...
I don't remember an episode of the X-files featuring an oversize penis. Can you point tell me the series and episode number? It sounds intriguing. Or have you just been watching your XXX-files again?
To test these they want to use them into a massively multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft or Eve online.
Does this remind anyone else of Ender's Game? Hmmm...
Dr. Alan Russell is the Distinguished University Professor of Surgery and the Founding Director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. He has published more than 125 articles in refereed journals, one book, and 10 book chapters. Dr. Russell holds 14 patents, with 13 additional pending patents. Dr. Russell has given more than 250 national and international invited lectures, and has received numerous prestigious awards for his contributions to research, teaching and public service. For more information on Dr. Russell and the Russell Lab, please visit his website at http://www.mirm.pitt.edu/russell/.
I had the opportunity to attend a lecture entitled "The Hope and Hype of Regenerative Medicine" last Wednesday evening in Cambridge, MA (10/29/2008) hosted by Vertex Pharmaceuticals. This lecture was profoundly interesting and awe-inspiring. Simply amazing what can be done for people in need of replacement of internal organs: bladders have been successfully grown and implanted in 6 children, both a vagina and uterus have been replaced in in pigs, and the tip of a human finger grew back after being accidentally amputated by the propeller of a small model airplane engine. The photographs and videos were quite graphic but show the power of this new type of medical research, some based on stem cell research. Current research is directed at replacing damaged cardiac tissue and the replenishment of islet cells to the pancreas to treat diabetes.
From what I read it should be possible to create images from paired photons over any distance. If we can read a photon a meter distant by observing its entangled twin, can't we just as easily do the same trick with photons from the edge of the visible universe?
-Joe
Get off my virtual lawn, you damned virtual kids!
has found another way to advertise to gamers! Ugh!
But the Scottish dude always pronounces it "zed-P-M". That should have given it away.
I heard that guy pronounce it first, and as an ignorant American, it actually took me a couple of minutes to figure that it was an acronym for "zero point module" and not some made up alien words.
As a total aside, how do you teach the alphabet to children? The end of the alphabet song doesn't rhyme if you pronounce it "zed".
They're going to seem like they have a plan when they develop this tech but we'll be strung along for ten years before we realize they're pulling everything out of their asses?
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Britain just has/had a different alphabet song, though really Sesame Street has been shown on English TV for so long now (since 1969) the american one has long since "won". You just learn the american song says "zee" but the correct name is "zed", and learn to blame the "dumb americans", too (gotta start indoctrinating kids with prejudices early, you know!)
Note that and (&) used to be the last "letter" of the British English alphabet, so the old english alphabet song used to end "and per se and" (not "zee"), which was then corrupted into "ampersand" ...and then dropped from the alphabet: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ampersand
He's not Scottish, he's Canadian
Here in Australia, we sing the same song, but we say "zed" at the end. Screw the rhyming :P
How will developing flashlights which constantly have smoke or dust in the path of the beam help the army?
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
Sorry, I don't actually watch the show, I had a roommate who was into it, so I've seen a few episodes.
I thought there was both a Canadian guy and a Scottish guy. The Canadian guy was a physicist and the Scottish guy was a medical doctor. He may have been Welsh or Irish or something, like I said, I don't watch the show, so I don't remember exactly.
They may both pronounce it "zed", though I've never heard any of the real life Canadians I know say "zed". They may just be humoring us Americans.
Bin Laden is out there...
Hadn't encountered "Quantum Ghost Imaging" before. (If it provides a practical system for imaging a objects without exposing that an observer exists and/or without the observer having a clear line-of-sight for ordinary optics, the military applications would be obvious.)
But building replacement body parts and organs on nano-scaffolding is working fine in the laboratory. It's just a little engineering development and regulatory approval from deployment. The military knows how to fund and direct practical engineering development, can fast-track or sidestep regulatory approval, and has a continuing supply of people who need replacement body parts or substitutes to recover function. It makes perfect sense for the military to drive the final development and deployment of this technology, bringing their wounded back to full health rather than giving them a prosthetic and a pension.
The military is already flying and driving vehicles and aiming and firing weapons in difficult environments using "mechanical telepathy" - magnetic sensors in a helmet detecting the fields from the currents from the firing of nerves in - guess where - the speech center (among others). (While you're strapped into a fighter plane doing a 5-G maneuver or a helicopter shaking from flack: Look at a target and/or point a finger at it. When the targeting marker in the heads-up goggles is on it, think "BANG!". Just for one example.) Meanwhile the same technology is doing a very good job of speech recognition on subvocalization. So why not use it to drive a radio to "think-talk" to another guy in the unit?
Since at least the Vietnam era the US military has been a consumer and designer of role-playing game system products and video games, for good reason and with very good results. After noting that the soldiers who played the most on the video games in the PX were also some of the best shots, pilots, tank drivers and gunners, etc. they commissioned videogames with realistic weapon characteristics as training aids: Fun and effective, and a LOT cheaper than full-blown simulators. Role-playing game systems, meanwhile, greatly improved "war games" strategy practice and military planning, and they stay current with developments in the field (and are a major customer of some of the companies as well). Using a MMORG to do a Turing test, along with further development, on a computer-simulation of a soldier (in preparation for deploying AI weapon systems) fits right in and makes perfect sense to me.
So it looks to me like somebody is "pulling a Proxmire" - finding some government research that SOUNDS screwy and characterizing it to make it sound as ridiculous as possible in the public press.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
The doctor with the Scottish flag on his uniform is a Scott both on the show and off.
Can someone please exlplain how it is that a bunch of irregulars with poorly maintained AK-47 rifles and surplus Katyusha rockets that date back to the cold war can keep us on our toes in Afghanistan when we have all of this high tech and expensive army gear? Heck, the amount that we spend to equip and train one US soldier would probably equip a whole company of Taliban. If the army wants more and better soldiers then how about doing simple things like raising base salaries for our military, improving the quality of our training programs, and taking back control of supply and logistics from Halliburton and KBR who seem to be much more interested in how much they can possibly bill the government and much less interested in actually helping our fighting men and women.
"self-aware virtual photorealistic soldiers that can be deployed in the battlefield through 'quantum ghost imaging.'"
What the hell is this project - Artificial Intelligence? Virtual Reality? Robotics?
Its time to end this out of control military complex before automated robots come and kill us in our sleep for dreaming the wrong way.
As a Linux user, I appreciate the Army wanting to push X-files tech development. I know Xorg.conf could use some cleanup, Xsession.options, Xresources, Xsession and Xsession.d, Xinit and Xkb have been around for quite some time, and anything the Army can do to make them 'uber' would be great. Oh wait...
Yeah.....I don't see that happening.
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
This won't happen. Obama is gonna cut funding to all unnecessary programs and that means the military. Costa Rica doesnt have a military they never get attacked why should the United States have a military? We no longer live in a world where cannibal nations attack each other. The world is a peaceful place except for some freedom fighters who feel oppressed. If we dismantle the military we'll save billions that can fund our schools and health care. Plus the world will no longer see us as a threat so they'll leave us alone and there will be peace in our time. Its like that episode of Star Trek TNG where the kid from another ship pretended he was like Cmdr Data. His parent's died when their ship blew up in an energy field. They kept putting more power to the shields, more power to the weapons, and the more power they put the worse the situation got. When they stopped teh power and lowered the shields the problem went away. The forces ripping the ship were only reflections of their own weapons power. Also like the episode where they find this awful weapon that was used in ancient times. Only Picard finds out it is useless unless the person your attacking with it feels anger and hate towards you. Because they drop their phasers and stand calmly the ancient weapon is powerles against them. This is how we can bring real change to America and hope to the world. That is what Obama must do for the good of the world and the freedom fighters will stop fighting once there is no military to fight against and th oppression stops.
Soldier 1: :::Enemy behind the wall on the left by the palm tree.:::
Soldier 2: :::Enemy behind the wall on the left by the palm tree.:::
Soldier 3: :::Enemy behind the wall on the left by the palm tree.:::
Soldier 4: :::Enemy behind the wall on the left by the palm tree. Hey, wait a minute! That reminds me, the mailman and my wife were pretty friendly last time I was home...:::
Soldier 5: :::Enemy behing the wall on the left by the palm tree:::
Soldiers 1, 2, 3: :::WTF?! Enemy behind the wall on the left by the palm tree!:::
Soldier 5: :::I'll bet he's got a package for her!:::
Soldier 4: :::What's THAT supposed to mean?:::
Soldier 6: :::Dude, your wife's bangin the mailman!:::
Soldier 5: :::HE'S GOT AN RPG!!!:::
Soldier 4: :::Dude, that's not funny!:::
Soldier 5: :::NO! THE GUY BEHIND TH-.....
Fwishhhh! BOOOOOM!
Soldiers 1, 2, 3, 4, 6: :::Oh... *That* guy.....:::
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
In any counterinsurgency, if the enemy has a sanctuary to run to, you're going to have a tough time. It doesn't matter how badly you kick his ass every time you meet - he gets to retreat, regroup, resupply, retrain, and reattack at the time and place of his choosing. The VC had North Vietnam, the Taliban have Pakistan. If you cannot enter a sanctuary area, you'll likely never knock them out completely. I find it humorous that BHO and the Democrats pledged to really go after Bin Laden rather than wasting time in Iraq - well, if Osama is alive the smart money says he is in Pakistan. Are we supposed to invade them now?
Great
As if we didn't already have enough problems with chinese goldfarmers and bots on World of Warcraft, now the USArmy wants to put in goverment sanctioned bots.
I can't wait to see Blizzard try and enforce their no-bots terms of service on the USArmy.
--- This meme is memory intensive
...printed on a T-shirt.
No... really... look at it...
Obama will fix the universe and end the wars with "change" - check.
Spewing nonsense about "them there jungle country that lives in peace with everyone" while comparing it to a global superpower - check.
No idea about the real world - check.
Not one but TWO Star Trek references - check and check.
" The world is a peaceful place except for some freedom fighters who feel oppressed " - this line is just pure gold.
" Plus the world will no longer see us as a threat so they'll leave us alone and there will be peace in our time. " - another pure goldie.
Presenting all of the above as a viable plan for " bringing real change to America and hope to the world " - fucking beautiful.
" That is what Obama must do for the good of the world and the freedom fighters will stop fighting once there is no military to fight against and th oppression stops. " - you just can't fake this level of crazy.
Haven't seen these kind of lines since the Star Wars prequels dialogs.
Not only is Obama Jesus-elect, but " the freedom fighters will stop fighting once there is no military to fight against and th oppression stops ".
STOP th oppression!
FREE them freedem fighters from fighting fer freedem!
Screw the paragraphs and the ENTER key!
Anonymous Cowards FTW!
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Zed's dead baby, Zed's dead.
Did anyone else read the name "Dr. John Parmentola" in the summary as "Dr. John Paranoia"?
In Canada, the alphabet song on Sesame Street ended in zed
Obama has already committed to significantly slowing down the development of new military technologies.
Barney Frank suggests this means a 25% cut in the entire defense budget.
This stuff will never happen. Research on it will be cut in a matter of months.
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
I'm disappointed with the Slashdot community for not immediately recognizing that most of this is hogwash. Photons reflecting off other photons? Please. Quantum ghost imaging is real, sure, but only to project an image in a controlled manner onto a specified detector. That's a far cry from creating a physically displaced entity that's visible from all points of view. Selective memory deletion seems to work in mice, sure, but if you look at the method, you'll wonder how you can erase a particular bad memory and all associated memories and ill effects. Mice have much simpler brains than people. Reading minds? Who expects a person to control his thoughts? Try not thinking out any words in your head for a minute. Five minutes. An hour. Good luck. It'll take some special kind of expensive training to get this system to work. Not worth it. These projects are worse than pork. Funding should be eliminated immediately. Would you invest in research to build an invisible James Bond car? How about a perpetual motion machine?
I never knew that "zed" was a letter until I started watching the show. I was just like zed p m...whats zed suposed to mean its Z not zed!
If it provides a practical system for imaging a objects without exposing that an observer exists and/or without the observer having a clear line-of-sight for ordinary optics, the military applications would be obvious
It does not, and anyone who implies it does is either ignorant or a liar.
Quantum ghost imaging requires a light source and detector that both have line of sight to the object being imaged. The "magic" comes from the second detector, where the image is formed, NOT requiring line of sight to the object, although it does require line of sight to the light source, and it also requires a classical communication channel to the detector near the imaged object.
So given you have to have a detector near the imaged object anyway, why not make that detector a camera, and dispense with the millions of dollars being wasted on this research?
The simple question for anyone advocating the use of quantum ghost imaging for stealth purposes is, "Are you claiming that quantum ghost imaging requires NO DETECTOR OF ANY KIND that has a clear optical path to the object being imaged?" If they say YES they are either a liar or an ignoramus.
Why is it that the army would waste their time on such ridiculous research? I think they should spend more money on teaching Westpoint grads physics. Sure science has given us powerful weapons that decades ago would have seemed like science fiction. But damn, you think they would at least try to get an understanding of what they want to develop instead of throwing money at any institution that promises them an edge. Shows what you can get away with when you have a virtually unlimited amount of money.
So this means I can join an Army research project and get paid to play Eve Online all day?
Where do I sign?
HTML is obsolete. It's time for a new, simpler and richer markup language.
Nearly. It's 'Z', not 'Zee'.
The X-Files is the greatest show in television history.
The British Parachute Regiment in Afghanistan had over 700 confirmed kills on their last tour alone.
The British forces have lost of 122 men since the start of the conflict.
Their strategy may be cheap in money but is costly in casualties.
Ye gods. I know Cyberpunk is dead, but what does any of the tech mentioned have to do with The X-Files at all?