DARPA Investing In Electric Brain Stimulation To Train Snipers Quickly

New submitter Morganth writes "According to New Scientist, researchers at DARPA are investing efforts in transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) machines to cut the time it takes to train snipers. From the article: 'a 2-milliamp current will run through the part of the brain associated with object recognition — an important skill when visually combing a scene for assailants.' The story also gives a nice explanation on the psychology of 'flow' — the state that experts tend to enter (e.g. programmers, tennis players, pianists) when focusing on their work." We covered similar research done on mice to improve their memory in September.

Comments

Obligatory Matrix quote

[dkleinsc]

"I know kung fu."

Re:Obligatory Matrix quote

[geekoid]

Me too, and that guy owes me money!

Re:Obligatory Matrix quote

[Captain Spam]

I was going to go with "Snipin's a good job, mate. Challengin' work, out of doors, and besides, the chip in my head says so!"

Re:Brain Stimulation Research

[trum4n]

The brain isn't the part of the anatomy that politicians need electrodes hooked to....

Electroshock Therapy

[PolygamousRanchKid]

I knew there would be a use for that old Electroshock Therapy machine that I picked up dirt cheap from military surplus.

If you wait long enough, wacky medical treatments become in vogue again. Like leeches, that are used for skin grafts.

My original plans of using the Electroshock Therapy machine to keep the neighborhood kids off my lawn did not go down too well with the neighbors, the police, and various other government agencies. Until they found no law against owning an Electroshock Therapy, and threatening to use it on kids on my lawn.

By then the neighbors wouldn't let their kids anywhere near my ranch anyway, so I guess it was effective after all.

Now about my plans for opening a private sniper school . . .

Re:And That's Why

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

I want to see dead, burnt baby bodies. I want to see veins in my teeth.

This is why we're not here for the long haul

[Angst Badger]

We figure out a way to enhance human mental acuity, and the very first thing we apply it to is training snipers. Interspecies communication? Military dolphins. Never mind nuclear physics.

If we were as good at anything as we are at killing each other and stealing each other's stuff, we might have a chance. Hell, if we were even more interested in something else -- and no, screwing doesn't count.