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FILE PHOTO. \u00a9 Reuters \/ Amir Cohen<\/p><\/div>\n
RT.com<\/p>\n
The gradual merger of man and machine is not only inevitable, but \u201cimperative\u201d in the Pentagon\u2019s drive to outdo US adversaries, the Space Force\u2019s top scientist said, hailing a new era of \u201chuman augmentation\u201d in military tech.<\/p>\n
At an\u00a0event<\/a>\u00a0hosted by the Airforce Research Laboratory (AFRL) on Wednesday, Dr. Joel Mozer, chief scientist for the Space Force, said\u00a0\u201csuperhuman\u201d<\/em>\u00a0technologies are on the horizon, insisting\u00a0 the US\u00a0\u201ccannot afford to lag in this area.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIn the last century, Western civilization transformed from an industrial-based society to an information-based society, but today we\u2019re on the brink of a new age: the age of human augmentation,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he said.\u00a0\u201cIn our business of national defense, it\u2019s imperative that we embrace this new age, lest we fall behind our strategic competitors.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Combining man\u2019s ingenuity with\u00a0\u201cmachine efficiency and power and speed\u201d<\/em>\u00a0will\u00a0\u201ccreate capabilities that are more than human,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Mozer continued, predicting\u00a0\u201cunimaginable\u201d<\/em>\u00a0advances over the next decade. He cited progress in artificial intelligence, pointing to an AI program developed by a Google subsidiary, AlphaGo Zero, which was able to train itself to play the game of Go at a master level in just a few weeks, without using any data from real human matches.<\/p>\n By integrating AI into warplanning, the Pentagon could\u00a0\u201cdevelop strategies and tactics that no human could,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Mozer said, suggesting that, eventually,\u00a0\u201cautonomous\u201d<\/em>\u00a0programs could advise commanders in real time.<\/p>\n \u201cThis will extend to the battlefield, where commanders and decision makers will have at their disposal multiple autonomous agents, each able to control the execution of things like reconnaissance, or fire control, or attack,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0the Space Force scientist went on, though warned that\u00a0\u201cwe must think carefully about the ethics of this, and how we will trust these autonomous agents, especially in an era of lethal autonomous warfare.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Automated AI has its risks as well, Mozer added, saying that advanced programs can come up with lines of attack so innovative they escape human comprehension,\u00a0\u201cand that is a little bit scary.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Perhaps even more distressing, he urged for an expansion of augmentation tech beyond the military, suggesting it could produce\u00a0\u201csuperhuman workforce,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0presumably voluntarily<\/p>\n \u201cUsing technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality and nerve stimulation, you could put [an] individual into a state of flow, where learning is optimized and retention is maximized,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he said.\u00a0\u201cThis individual could be shaped into somebody with very high-performing potential.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Though it sounds like a work of science fiction, Mozer\u2019s vision is fast becoming reality. The Pentagon\u2019s advanced research wing, DARPA, has embarked on numerous projects aiming to augment the human organism in even more radical ways. The agency recently made headlines after it revealed work on a\u00a0skin implant<\/a>\u00a0that can detect dangerous viruses and infections, while its\u00a0Neural Engineering System Design<\/a>\u00a0program seeks to create a neural interface that allows\u00a0\u201ccommunication between the brain and the digital world,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0one among\u00a0several<\/a>\u00a0brain implant projects.<\/p>\n