Novel Neuroweapons Neuroethics Education Module Unit 9

OBJECTIVE Unit 9 begins by noting that a wide range of modern neuroscience could be used for military purposes before some questions and ethical issues are raised about the impact such uses might have on the International Law of Armed Conflict. Attention is then turned to some of the history of the misuse of neuroscience in the development of chemical weapons in the last century and of how we might best think about the present threat that such history might be repeated by the misuse of modern neuroscience.

OUTLINE A. Modern Military Applications Slides B. Prospects and Constraints – Slides C. Relevant History – Slides Thinking It Through – Slides

A1. Neuroscience Forecast 2001 “…We are at present in the midst of a golden age of biomedical research….We are simultaneously mapping the human brain and the human genome….The achievements on these two levels will meet one another sometime within the next decade or two. When they do, the payoff will be impressive. We will understand how the cells in our brains go bad when their molecules go bad, and we will understand how this is expressed at the level of systems such as attention and memory…”

A2. Neuroscience Forecast 2010 (i) Chapters in The Scientific American: Brave New Brain – Boosting Your Brain Power [Drugs] – Manipulating Your Memory [Mechanisms and Control] – Looking Inside Your Brain: The Magic of Neuroimaging – The Possible Dreams: Stem Cells, Gene Therapy and Nanotechnology

A3. Neuroscience Forecast 2010 (ii) Chapter 1: Your Changeable Brain: Neurogenesis, Neuroplasticity, and Epigenetics – “…In the 1990s, scientists rocked the field of neurobiology with the startling news that the mature mammalian brain is capable of sprouting new neurons….Scientists also confirmed what was long suspected: your brain is not hardwired. It can reinvent itself. As it were, by creating new pathways….then they discovered that your actions, thoughts, feelings, or environment can change your genes – more specifically, whether certain genes are expressed – altering brain function; character traits; and the risk of some diseases…”

A4. Neuroscience Forecast 2010 (iii) Further Chapters that are Different in 2010 – Digital You: What the Digital Explosion is Doing to Your Brain – Rewiring Your Brain Electric [Precise Brain Stimulation] – Your Bionic Brain Electric: The Merging of Brains with Machines – Neuroethics: Facing the Dark Side

A5. Modulating the Brain at Work? “…These techniques are perhaps best suited for career fields where certain cognitive skills such as vigilance and threat detection are essential in preserving human life. Because such jobs are plentiful in the military, it is no surprise that the US Air Force has recently begun investing in noninvasive brain stimulation for its efficacy in benefiting human cognitive performance…”

A6. Combat Air Patrols “…Each combat air patrol (CAP) currently consists of 4RPA [Remotely Piloted Aircraft], 43 personnel for mission control, 59 for launch and recovery and 66 for processing, exploitation and dissemination. Not surprisingly, the strain on manpower is one of the major challenges facing the Air Force in coming years…”

A7. Telepresence “…three-dimensional movement of a virtual helicopter…is fast, accurate, and continuous. In this system, the virtual helicopter’s forward- backward translation and elevation controls were activated through the modulation of the sensorimotor rhythms that were converted to forces applied to the virtual helicopter…and the helicopter’s angle of left or right rotation was linearly mapped…from [other] sensorimotor rhythms…”

B8. International Law? “…An aircraft, whether manned or unmanned, is commanded and therefore its use is governed by the law of armed conflict (LOAC) in two ways. Firstly, weapons law guides whether a weapon and its generic uses are lawful; secondly, targeting law determines whether the use of a particular weapon is lawful on a specific mission or in specific circumstances….There are elements of the LOAC that have specific consequences for unmanned aircraft, as compliance will become increasingly challenging as systems become more automated…”

B9. Autonomous Weapons “…The pace of technological development is accelerating and the UK must establish quickly a clear policy on what will constitute acceptable machine behaviour in the future; there is already a body of scientific opinion that believes in banning autonomous weapons outright, countered by an acceptance in other areas that autonomy is inevitable….There is a danger that time is running out – is debate and development of policy even still possible, or is the technological genie already out of the bottle, embarking us all on an incremental and involuntary journey towards a Terminator-like reality?”

B10. DARPA (i) Neurovision 2 – “Will develop an unattended, standalone system that can recognize relevant military objects in a wide range of ambient and environmental conditions through fusion of neuroscience and engineering. Integration of recent developments in understanding the mammalian visual pathway and advances in microelectronics will lead to the production of new revolutionary capabilities that will provide a new level of situational awareness for warfighters.”

B11. DARPA (ii) SyNAPSE (Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scaleable Electronics) – “Current programmable machines are limited….In contrast, biological neural systems, such as a brain, autonomously process information in complex environments by automatically learning relevant and probabilistically stable features and associations….Neuromorphic electronic machines would be preferable in a host of applications…”

C12. Neuroscience in Nazi Germany (i) “The new nerve agents were discovered… within the context of industrial research on organic phosphoric acid esters as potential pesticides. Their primary effects were originally identified at a branch laboratory of the Military Medical Academy, by Gremels, the Director of the Pharmacological Institute of the University of Marburg…”

C13. Neuroscience in Nazi Germany (ii) “…Proving method and refined neurotoxicological explanation models of the interconnections between the spatial chemical structure of the nerve agents and their biochemical effects on the peripheral and the central nervous system were developed at a department of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg…”

C14. Neuroscience in the Cold War (i) “Virtually every imaginable chemical technique for producing military incapacitation has been tried at some time. Between 1953 and 1973, [in the US military] many of these were discussed and, when deemed feasible, systematically tested. Chemicals whose predominant effects were on the central nervous system were of primary interest and received intensive study…”

C15.Neuroscience in The Cold War (ii) “BZ was first experimentally studied for therapy for gastrointestinal diseases. However, reports were received of confusion and hallucinations, suggesting that even small excesses of doseage were likely to cause problems. BZ was quickly withdrawn from commercial study and turned over to the U.S. Army as a drug of possible interest as an incapacitating agent.”

D16. Nuffield Council on Bioethics, 2012 “…Finally, ‘telepresence’ is where a soldier, whilst physically present elsewhere, has the ability to sense and interact in a removed and real-world location, such as with … [an] unmanned vehicle [drone], through a BCI connection….Military applications are currently being tested….How [should] their use in military settings be evaluated (especially given the need for secrecy in military research and development)…”

D17. UK Paper on Neuroscience Research, 2011 “…Since many of the benefits and risks of advances in neurosciences lie in the future, it is timely to consider issues related to governance of this dual-use technology area, balancing the obligations to take measures to prohibit misuse with the need to ensure that the beneficial development of science is not hampered…”

D18. Meselson, 2000 (i) “…During the century ahead, as our ability to modify fundamental life processes continues its rapid advance, we will be able not only to devise additional ways to destroy life but also be able to manipulate it – including the processes of cognition, development, reproduction and inheritance. A world in which these capabilities are widely employed for hostile purposes would be a world in which the very nature of conflict had changed. Therein could lie unprecedented opportunities for violence, coercion, repression, or subjugation…”

D19. Meselson, 2000 (ii) “…Unlike the technologies of conventional or even nuclear weapons, biotechnology has the potential to place mass destructive capabilities in a multitude of hands and, in coming decades, to reach deeply into what we are and how we regard ourselves. It should be evident that any intensive exploitation of biotechnology for hostile purposes could take humanity down a particularly undesirable path.”

D20. Royal Society ‘Brain Waves’ Neuroscience, conflict and security (2012): Recommendation 1 – “There needs to be fresh effort by the appropriate professional bodies to inculcate the awareness of the dual-use challenge (i.e. knowledge and technologies used for beneficial purposes can also be misused for harmful purposes) among neuroscientists at an early stage of their training.”

QUESTIONS Discuss how a range of advances in neuroscience are being used by modern military forces. What do you understand the Law of Armed Conflict to be and how might it be called into question by military applications of modern neuroscience? Compare and contrast the chemical weapons capabilities of States at the beginning and the end of the last Century. What caused the change in these capabilities? How do you think you might be able to help prevent your work from being misused in the future?

Bibliography Horstman, J. (2010) The Scientific American Brave New Brain. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons. Andreasen, N.C. (2001) Brave New Brain. New York: Oxford University Press. Meselson, M. (2000) Averting the Hostile Exploitation of Biotechnology. The Chemical and Biological Conventions Bulletin, 48: 16 – 19. Available at: b48.pdf Royal Society (2012) Brain Waves 3: Neuroscience, Society and Conflict. Available at: waves/conflict-security/