The Pentagon’s Gamble on Brain Implants, Bionic Limbs and Combat Exoskeletons

June 10, 2015

(Nature) – But some wonder whether DARPA’s full-speed-ahead model will work as well for biology as it has for the physical sciences and hardware. Living systems are much more complex, they argue, with a multitude of variables that are either unknown or difficult to engineer and control. And because so much of the agency’s biological research is directly applicable to humans, the work is fraught with ethical concerns — not to mention the possibility that even the most benign-sounding developments could be co-opted for war.