Hussain Saqib
The conqueror of the world is the one who conquers hearts-Iqbal, poet philosopher
Winning hearts and minds has always been
the ultimate objective of any war because without winning hearts and minds, the
victory cannot become sustainable. A rough translation of the poetry of great
Oriental poet philosopher quoted above says it all in a poetic manner. By conquering
hearts, he definitely meant winning hearts and minds. In Oriental poetry heart
always meant mind.
Experts have been working on this
enterprise for a fairly long time. They don’t call it winning of hearts and
minds; in their own lingo they describe it as hacking of human brain. In this,
they are not talking about winning hearts and minds per se, they are working on
“capturing” the brain which houses the mind. If they succeed, they will
introduce the latest domain, sixth of a series, of the warfare domains. Traditionally, the warfare was limited to
land, sea and air. Then the fourth domain of space was added. It was further
extended to the fifth domain; the cyberspace. But now there’s a sixth and
arguably more important war-fighting domain emerging: the human brain.
According to an article titled Hacking the Human Brain: The Next Domain of
Warfare which appeared in WIRED,
this new battle-space is not just about influencing hearts and minds with
people seeking information. It’s about involuntarily penetrating,
shaping, and coercing the mind in the ultimate realization of Clausewitz’s
definition of war: compelling an adversary to submit to one’s will. And the
most powerful tool in this war is brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies, which
connect the human brain to devices. Current BCI work ranges from researchers
compiling and interfacing neural data such as in the Human Conectome
Project to work by scientists hardening the human brain against rubber
hose cryptanalysis to technologists connecting the brain to robotic
systems. While these groups are streamlining the BCI for either security or
humanitarian purposes, the reality is that misapplication of such research and
technology has significant implications for the future of warfare.
Where BCIs can provide opportunities for
injured or disabled soldiers to remain on active duty post-injury, enable
paralyzed individuals to use their brain to type, or allow
amputees to feel using bionic limbs,
they can also be exploited if hacked.
BCIs can be used to manipulate … or kill. Recently, security expert Barnaby
Jack demonstrated the vulnerability of biotechnological systems by highlighting
how easily pacemakers and
implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) could be hacked, raising fears
about the susceptibility of even life-saving biotechnological implants. This
vulnerability could easily be extended to biotechnologies that connect directly
to the brain, such as vagus
nerve stimulation or deep-brain stimulation. Outside
the body, recent experiments have proven that the brain can control and
maneuver quadcopter
drones and metal
exoskeletons. How long before we harness the power of mind-controlled
weaponized drones – or use BCIs to enhance the power, efficiency, and
sheer lethality of our soldiers?
Given that military research arms such
as the United States’ DARPA are investing in understanding
complex neural processes and enhanced threat
detection through BCI scan for P300 responses, it
seems the marriage between neuroscience and military systems will fundamentally
alter the future of conflict. And it is here that military researchers need to
harden the systems that enable military application of BCIs. We need to prevent
BCIs from being disrupted or manipulated, and safeguard against the ability of
the enemy to hack an individual’s brain.
The possibilities for damage,
destruction, and chaos are very real. This could include manipulating a
soldier’s BCI during conflict so that s/he were forced to pull the gun trigger
on friendlies, install malicious code in his own secure computer system, call
in inaccurate coordinates for an air strike, or divulge state secrets to the
enemy seemingly voluntarily. Whether an insider has fallen victim to BCI
hacking and exploits a system from within, or an external threat is compelled to
initiate a physical attack on hard and soft targets, the results would present
major complications: in attribution, effectiveness of kinetic operations, and
stability of geopolitical relations.
Like every other domain of warfare, says
the article, the mind as the sixth domain is neither isolated nor removed from
other domains; coordinated attacks across all domains will continue to be the
norm. It’s just that military and defense thinkers now need to account for the
subtleties of the human mind … and our increasing reliance upon the
brain-computer interface. Regardless of how it will look, though, the threat is
real and not as far away as we would like – especially now that researchers
just discovered a zero-day
vulnerability in the brain.
