by Jonathan D. Moreno
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Product Description
In his fascinating new book, Jonathan D. Moreno investigates the deeply intertwined worlds of cutting-edge brain science, U.S. defense agencies, and a volatile geopolitical landscape where a nation's weaponry must go far beyond bombs and men. The first-ever exploration of the connections between national security and brain research, Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense reveals how many questions crowd this gray intersection of science and government and urges us to begin to answer them.
From neuropharmacology to neural imaging to brain-machine interface devices that relay images and sounds between human brains and machines, Moreno shows how national security entities seek to harness the human nervous system in a multitude of ways as a potent weapon against the enemy soldier. Moreno charts such projects as monkeys moving robotic arms with their minds, technology to read the brain’s thought patterns at a distance, the development of "anti-sleep" drugs to enhance soldiers’ battle performance and others to dampen their emotional reactions to the violence, and advances that could open the door to "neuroweapons"—virus-transported molecules to addle the brain.
"As new kinds of weapons are added to the arsenal already at the disposal of fallible human leaders," Moreno writes, "we need to find new ways to address the problem"--of the ethical military application of so powerful and intimate a science. This book is the first step in confronting the quandaries inherent in this partnership of government and neuroscience, serves as a compelling wake-up call for scientists and citizens, and suggests that, with imagination, we might meet the needs of both security and civil liberty. (20060530)
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Strongly Recommend, 2008-10-31
I just started reading this book, but I'm very interested in the topic and impressed by the credentials of the author. What I have read so far makes me want to get some security clearance and start experimenting on live human brains. Fun!
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
The Title Says it All, Mind Wars...a study in Ponerology? , 2008-10-30
I think the use of WAR in the title by Moreno,especially having read his earlier book Undue Risk: Secret State Experiments on Humans and the concerns it raises are valid, and results from the use of phrases from the Transhumanists like "WE ought to embrace", "OUR ability to change humanity", "WE need to begin debating and planning for OUR transhuman future".
A party of WE and OUR creates an Interest Group, and thus an Issue. By involving NGO's, professional associations, and governments, all of which have financial and power interests at stake, and by using media through publicity campaigns, they legitimize their issue by making their Issue, everybody's issue.
Then they propose their solution, which was created in Think Tanks fifty years ago, and impose it as Public Policy upon everybody else. This process they call GOVERNANCE. This is actually a process of herding the population like a trail driver and cattle to a destination that they have determined. Thus this is the true meaning of the term WE when it is used inclusively by them. I merely ask, as in the old Lone Ranger joke, where Tonto says "What You mean WE Paleface?"
The reality is, that at the highest levels of participation and decision making, the scientific and political "committees" always consist of "experts", who are incapable of admitting of a binding ethical obligation to refrain from imposing policies that they favor upon others who don't want them. Yet they artfully arrange things so that everyone is forced to subsidize their agendas through tax-supported initiatives while unaware of it. They can always rationalize why thisw is necessary.
After sufficient marketing, publicity campaigns and brainwashing which they call the "democratic process", their agenda is moved forward. Vocal opponents are often portrayed as traditionalists, conservatives, backward or as ignorant obstructionists...even diseased and defective, simply because they want to be left alone or are overall happy enough without being manipulated.
Terms like "We", and "Our" have always meant the "few, self-appointed "experts", the government and Foundation financed oligarchies, if you will, with their far reaching scientifically designed agendas. The "natural person" as opposed to some contrived invention called a "trans-human", as the these "experts" envision themselves to be someday, has a right to be left unmolested by these establishment psychopaths who are determined to drive them like herds to market, and cram an agenda of political domination disguised as scientific "advancements" down their throat.
Who gets to decide on which people get to benefit from these advances and which are denied once THEY are in control of it? Is it Dr. Mengele's Fan Club? The Militarists? Or our family Doctors, who are held hostage by this corrupt system? What are their qualifications? Will everyone benefit equally? Do those who view science as a means to dominate and control the weaker and less aggressive in society get this privilege? Where does it "end"? What is their End Game? Is it the ruling psychopathic elite who currently makes up the "WE, OUR"? What stops them now? from warring, stealing, exploiting, murdering, harassing, enslaving, and dominating most of the human race? From having peace? NOTHING.
Do THEY need super-human intelligence, strength and life extension to be better people? I doubt it. Furthermore...Why would they ever consent to allow "normal ethical" people this benefit? Why would we allow them to have those powers? Read the book Political Ponerology by Andrew Lobaczewski and it will put this issue in an entirely different perspective.
Political Ponerology (A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes)
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Interesting analysis of military uses of brain research, 2007-05-05
This is an intriguing but speculative volume exploring the possible national defense uses of human brain research. The author, Jonathan Moreno, states his fundamental hypothesis. The idea behind this book (page 3): ". . .if national security agencies had so much interest in how the relatively primitive brain science of the 1950s and 1960s [e.g., testing the effects of LSD] could help find ways to gain a national security edge, surely they must be at least as interested today, when neuroscience is perhaps the fastest growing scientific field, both in terms of numbers of scientists and knowledge being gained." The author wonders at the lack of "ethical discussion among neuroscientists on the national security applications of their work" (page 5).
Moreno speculates about a number of possible links between brain research and national security. Among possible applications: (a) How to better interrogate possible intelligence sources; (b) brainwashing/mind control; (c) improving the performance of our own troops (e.g., how to deal with fatigue); (d) nonlethal weapons.
He concludes the book with a chapter entitled "Toward an ethics of neurosecurity," in which he argues that we need to explore the ethics of possible applications of brain research for national security. He also notes that (page 183) "We should be able to learn and apply the lessons of the new brain science for peaceful purposes. . . . The fields of conflict resolution and peace studies could enrich and be enriched by information from the neurosciences."
The arguments in the book tend to be speculative. The grounding of the argument is not always secure. However, the book does stimulate thinking about a cutting edge issue in application of contemporary science to national security. In that context, this book is useful reading.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
 Lots of material for public discussion of neuroethics, 2007-03-09
This is a great book, as long as you think of it as a book for laypeople, to get up to speed on ethical issues revolving around neuroscience research, especially as they relate to US military efforts. It is well written in a fairly conversational tone that keeps the reader interested. I was disappointed that, although it appeared to me at first to be an objective, academic book, it isn't really. I was misled because Moreno is an endowed professor of biomedical ethics, and there are 9 pages of "Sources" and an index. The trouble is that Moreno failed to link many of his points, facts, quotes, and opinions to any of the written sources; there are no citation numbers or other ways (except when he mentions names, which he often doesn't or can't) to trace something he said to the source. Given the highly speculative and controversial nature of the subject matter and how important it is to know where it came from, this would be inexcusable for an academic book. He might get 4.5 stars for his 2nd edition if he fixes this oversight.
Disclaimer: I am a neuroscientist and a pacifist. I wish Moreno had been clear about _his_ position, but we had to guess until p. 136 (out of 184), where he finally admits he finds himself "squarely in the middle" between Fukuyama's ("Our Posthuman Future") dread of all things new and the Futurists' transhumanism. I prefer Ramez Naam's stance, admitting often in his excellent book "More than human" that we ought to embrace, not fear, our ability to change humanity. Moreno's fence-straddling in many ways is a good thing; it allowed him to discuss both sides of a number of arguments rationally and in some detail. As a neuroscience insider (who does not accept military funding), I agree with him that too many researchers deny or ignore the ethical implications of their research.
Moreno's book is an important follow-up to Naam's, since Naam said we need to begin debating and planning for our transhuman future, and Moreno does a fine job of seriously beginning or expanding the parts of that discussion involving the nervous system. His final recommendation is that national committees be formed to make these debates more public. I hope that happens.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Any concerned with democracy, warfare or connections between science and politics must read this., 2006-12-12
MIND WARS: BRAIN RESEARCH AND NATIONAL DEFENSE draws some important connections between psychological study and military objective, making it a recommended pick for both military and psychology collections at the college level. Here is a unique presentation of connections between natural security objectives and brain research, documenting ways in which U.S. security forces seek to manipulate the human nervous system to favor warriors and disrupt enemies. From virus-transported molecules called 'neuroweapons' to drugs which repress violent tendencies, neuroscience projects offer deadly potentials influencing not just battlefield applications, but civilians and freedom as well. Any concerned with democracy, warfare or connections between science and politics must read this.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
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