1 – UK Ministry of Defense — Human Augmentation (2021)

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Transhumanist ambitions are made possible by military technology. In the 1960’s, the first serious efforts to create a brain-computer interface were funded by the U.S. Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Two decades later, the Internet was developed to make communication lines redundant in case of nuclear war.

Human Augmentation: A New Paradigm, commissioned by the UK’s Ministry of Defense, follows various technological threads to their logical conclusions. A central goal is to merge minds with machines in an intimate human-AI symbiosis:

The ability to enhance one’s physical, psychological, or social capability has been a source of power throughout history, and warfare is the epitome of this dynamic. …

Human augmentation will become increasingly relevant, partly because it can directly enhance human capability and behavior, and partly because it is the binding agent between people and machines. Future wars will be won, not by those with the most advanced technology, but by those who can most effectively integrate the unique capabilities of both people and machines. …

Thinking of the person as a platform and understanding our people at an individual level is fundamental to successful human augmentation.

Beyond cyborg super soldiers, the principle of transcending human limitation through technology is also being applied to civilian populations. One critical concept is that standard tools and transformative technologies—from the abacus to smartphones to brain implants—exist on a spectrum.

In the curiously prescient image below, we see a man using an implanted BCI to type “Hello world” onscreen. Keep in mind, this document was published in May of 2021.

Eight months later, an actual paralyzed man used his Stentrode implant—developed by Synchron—to send the first tweet using only the brain. His message?

“hello, world!”

In a follow-up tweet, the patient said:

“my hope is that I’m paving the way for people to tweet through thoughts”

Imagine receiving neuroenhancement that could rid you of bigotry, or suspicion, or even your warped sense of humor. If “diversity is our strength,” then a polyglot, digitally enhanced superorganism will be unassailable:

Human augmentation could help improve social cohesion by increasing participation in society regardless of individual differences or impediments. Human augmentation could also allow people to connect in more intense and creative ways (for example, via linked brain-machine interfaces).

Human augmentation will also provide tools for people to express their individuality in more pronounced ways, potentially leading to a more diverse society.

Considering the rise of biosecurity states across the globe, an especially horrific aspect of Human Augmentation is the comparison of anti-cyborg sentiments to vaccine hesitancy:

The history of vaccinations demonstrates how proven, and seemingly uncontroversial human augmentation technologies can take many years to become globally effective and accepted by societies. … This example shows that we cannot assume human augmentation will be automatically effective or accepted in its intended use, no matter how beneficial its effects may be. … Human augmentation may be resisted by elements of society that do not trust the effectiveness and motive of augmentation.

Of course, no review of our cyborg future would be complete without indie biohacking. According to the implant company Dangerous Things, anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 people already have digital bio-implants in their bodies.

Perhaps inspired by biblical prophecy, many of these are RFID chips embedded in the hand:

Radio-frequency identification and near-field communication implants are popular biohacks. Once inserted, these ‘chips’ can be used for a great variety of identification purposes. They can replace many of our keys and passwords, allowing us to unlock doors, start vehicles, and even log onto computers and smart devices.

From chipped hands to chipped heads, the Cyborg Age has arrived. As with many innovations—virtual reality, neuro-implants, smartphone components—the technologies first developed in military labs are gradually diffusing into our day-to-day lives.

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2 – IBM — Privacy and the Connected Mind (2021)

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[h/t Phil Gibson @PezntJournalist]

All of these ten documents contain a mixture of breathless enthusiasm and dire warnings. On balance, IBM errs on the side of caution. A brain-computer interface could lead to unprecedented psychological surveillance and mind control by authorities. Beyond that, the danger of having your brain hacked are quite real.

Still, the authors’ dry description of BCI applications—both invasive implants and non-invasive skull caps—sends a chill down the spine. Imagine a world where drooling kids play video games using only their brains. On an institutional level, imagine schoolchildren forced to wear brain-monitoring headbands in classrooms.

Imagine having to wear a skull-cap at work, or even just during the hiring process. Imagine all that neurological data being gathered, analyzed, and used by corporations to sell you better iTrodes.

Freaked out? Imagine undergoing transcranial stimulation to put you at ease with the whole situation.

According to IBM’s analysts, those scenarios are just over the horizon:

• Healthcare – where BCIs could monitor fatigue, diagnose medical conditions, stimulate or modulate brain activity, and control prosthetics and external devices.

• Gaming – where BCIs could augment existing gaming platforms and offer players new ways to play using devices that record and interpret their neural signals.

• Employment and Industry – where BCIs could monitor workers’ engagement to improve safety during high-risk tasks, alert workers or supervisors to dangerous situations, modulate workers’ brain activity to improve performance, and provide tools to more efficiently complete tasks.

• Education – where BCIs could track student attention, identify students’ unique needs, and alert teachers and parents of student progress.

• Smart Cities – where BCIs could provide new avenues of communication for construction teams and safety workers and enable potential new methods for connected vehicle control.

• Neuromarketing – where marketers could incorporate the use of BCIs to intuit consumers’ moods and to gauge product and service interest.

• Military – where governments are researching the potential of BCIs to help rehabilitate soldiers’ injuries and enhance communication.

Remember, having mandatory electrodes jabbed into your skull is not the most pressing concern. At least, I hope not. A more immediate problem is the normalization and mass implementation of non-invasive brain technologies. These will be more easily justified. For the naturally compliant, they’ll be readily accepted.

There are already high-end BCI helmets on the market, such as Kernel Flow. When they get cheaper to manufacture and deploy, you’ll start seeing them everywhere.

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3 – XRA — Immersive Technology and Infrastructure (2021)

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Facebook made waves when Mark Zuckerberg laid claim to his corner of the Metaverse, but it hardly started with him. This is a concerted effort to place screens over every pair of eyes on the planet.

The XR Association is a flashpoint for this movement. The organization was founded in 2016 to promote virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality. Today, members include by Oculus (Facebook/Meta), Microsoft, Google, Sony, Vive, and a number of other tech corporations. The goal is to normalize the Metaverse in business and industry.

Without shame, the XRA openly promotes the Fourth Industrial Revolution as conceived by Klaus Schwab and the WEF:

Immersive technology will play a vital role in America’s drive to Build Back Better, and it will undergird much of our advanced physical and digital infrastructure. Virtual, augmented, and mixed reality (collectively, immersive technology or “XR”) is helping industries across the spectrum become more innovative, more productive, and safer. …

As the World Economic Forum has recognized, we are at the beginning of a Fourth Industrial Revolution—one in which a range of new technologies will fuse the physical and digital worlds, impacting all disciplines, economies, and industries. As Congress sets to work drafting the 2021 infrastructure package, we urge you to incorporate immersive technology.

In the months after Immersive Technology and Infrastructure was published, capital has poured into countless Metaverse projects. Today, the media undulates with waves of propaganda depicting lifeless virtual worlds as the coolest thing since sliced bread.

It’s not hard to imagine workers of the future wearing VR goggles on their faces that match the BCI helmets on their heads. If you thought hard hats and hi-viz vests were annoying, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

One argument for stuffing Westerners into a phony virtual realm is to keep up with progress being made in the East. This is often urged from a military standpoint, but the concept extends to the wider economic landscape as well:

China anticipated this paradigm shift years ago and has taken impressive steps towards controlling its future. Immersive technology—which will be the key enabler of the metaverse—is featured prominently in the CCP’s Made in China 2025 strategy. …

If the United States is to position itself as the global leader of the next century, we need to “future proof” our infrastructure.

One sure fire way to “future proof” society is to assimilate every individual into the MetaBorg. If it’s good enough for China, it’s good enough for you.

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4 – Samsung — 6G: The Next Hyper-Connected Experience for All (2020)

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The notion of “smart cities” unnerves a lot of people, and for good reason. A smart city has cameras around every corner and digital sensors embedded in pretty much everything, from your car to your sink faucet.

This interconnected network—linked through the ghoulish Internet of Things—requires massive data flow from device to device. 5G networks are needed to glue any digital termite colony together. Even now, across Asia and elsewhere, plans are being laid for the 6G revolution.

In this Samsung white paper, we witness milestones in the life of a blonde South Korean digital native—from primitive 4G to modern 5G to ultra-smart 6G.

As a wee babe in 2010, she became dependent on her glowing smartphone.

By 2020, she’s an independent woman whose physical being is monitored by wearable devices. Through earbuds, her consciousness is tuned by sensory augmentation. Even her fridge is smart enough to keep tabs on her. Nothing is private, nothing is sacred, but everything—down to her pretty little toes—is smart.

By 2030, her whole consciousness will be shaped by 6G-powered augmented reality. Indoors, bug-eyed robots will ogle her from her nightstand. Outside, drones will watch her from the sky. Over time, she’ll effectively fuse with The Machine. She won’t just be smart—she’ll be super 6G smart.

But it’ll take a sprawling 6G wireless infrastructure to build her humming smart city and cozy smart home:

[T]oday’s exponential growth of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and automation will usher in unprecedented paradigm shifts in the wireless communication.

These circumstances lead to four major megatrends advancing toward 6G: connected machines, use of AI for the wireless communication, openness of mobile communications, and increased contribution for achieving social goals.

Part of this “connectedness” and “openness” is having every element of your life recorded and replicated in virtual space. Using that information, corporations and governments can construct a virtual model of your entire being, inside and out. They can anticipate your wants and behaviors, and provide just the right stimulus to keep you in line.

On a broad scale, they can do the same with every person, device, robot, and squirrel within reach of their sensors. These “digital twins” can then be studied and manipulated in virtual space—soul clones to be played with like dolls:

Digital Replica

With the help of advanced sensors, AI, and communication technologies, it will be possible to replicate physical entities, including people, devices, objects, systems, and even places, in a virtual world. This digital replica of a physical entity is called a digital twin. In a 6G environment, through digital twins, users will be able to explore and monitor the reality in a virtual world, without temporal or spatial constraints. Users will be able to observe changes or detect problems remotely through the representation offered by digital twins.

In order to realize advanced multimedia services such as truly immersive XR, mobile hologram, and digital replica, 6G needs to provide a much higher data rate than 5G.

Come the revolution, augmented humans will live in a technocratic paradise. We’ll be like wingless eusocial angels, crawling around our 6G-powered termite mound.

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5 – CSET — Mapping U.S. Multinationals’ Global AI R&D Activity (2020)

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Artificial general intelligence is the holy grail for transhumanists. The human brain is limited, and there’s only so many smart drugs and iTrodes you can cram in your head. To get past that cognitive limit, it’s believed, we’ll need vast AI systems to do the hard thinking for us.

In fact, nearly every paper in this collection notes that human augmentation is the bridge between the feeble human brain and advanced AI.

But who’s developing these AI systems?

And where?

Mapping U.S. Multinationals’ Global AI R&D Activity tracks six Big Tech firms across the world. Interestingly, most of the experimental work is done overseas. From the executive summary:

• For the four companies where we could find information on labs—Facebook, Google, IBM, and Microsoft—we found 62 labs conducting AI R&D. The majority of these labs (68 percent) were located outside of the United States.

• European countries, mainly the United Kingdom and France, host 19 percent of AI labs in our dataset. Other common destinations were Israel and China (10 percent each) and India (8 percent). The only region in the world without any AI labs was Latin America.

• Media reports and economic studies suggest U.S. immigration restrictions are associated with U.S. companies’ global expansion.

• Many of the world’s biggest AI companies are American; this paper focuses on Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, IBM, and Microsoft in particular. Together, these companies spend over $76 billion on R&D annually, and their collective market capitalization stands above $5 trillion.

• Their business models are globalized. Apple, Facebook, Google, and IBM each receive less than half of their total revenue from the U.S. market. Microsoft and Amazon receive 51 percent and 69 percent, respectively.

This international market, along with a pliable foreign labor force, provides an explanation for why Silicon Valley and Seattle are so keen on open borders. To Big Tech, the world is one big pile of data (and dollars) waiting to be sucked up into The Machine.

According to this report, the “number of public AI labs by company” is:

Google: 23
Microsoft: 20
IBM: 11
Facebook: 8

After seeing the meteoric rise of Google’s DeepMind project—based in the UK—it’s no surprise they dominate the field. Microsoft is coming up behind them fast, though, and IBM’s Watson is legendary.

While most personnel are based in the U.S. (68%), most of the actual labs are operated overseas (also 68%). Why? Cheap labor, obviously. But one wonders if AI companies aren’t also attracted by lax ethical constraints. The paper doesn’t say.

As if their seeds were scattered by the four winds, American AI labs have sprouted up across the globe. Many are unaware of this, but Nigeria is a hot spot for computer programmers.

However, for unstated reasons, American AI firms abhor Latin America. Maybe their bots don’t like llamas and piranhas.

On the other hand, an alarming number of American AI labs currently operate in China. Google and IBM both have a lab there. Of Microsoft’s twenty labs, four are in China. If you ever wondered how communists came up the ingenious TikTok algorithms to ensare the ‘Merican mind, wonder no more. Pandas learn fast.

Coincidentally, in the 2019 Netflix documentary Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates, the last episode centers on Gates’s experimental nuclear power plants in China. The series ends with Gates bummed out that Trump’s aggressive policies threw a monkey wrench into his China projects.

Was there an impact on Microsoft’s experimental AI research, too? How about now, under Biden? These days, Elon Musk is doing great over there.

Chinese collusion aside, the four “American” corporations tracked above have AI headquarters all over the world:

The top AI labs in the East are:

The top AI labs in the US: