1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,500 So with that introduction, Dr. Gerard Ana, 2 00:00:02,500 --> 00:00:05,000 thanks so much for joining us today. 3 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:06,000 Thanks, it's great to be back. 4 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:07,800 Thank you very much. 5 00:00:07,800 --> 00:00:08,800 So just to kick us off, 6 00:00:08,800 --> 00:00:11,300 and to kind of level set before we dive in deeper, 7 00:00:11,300 --> 00:00:15,000 can you define what you mean by the word narrow weapons? 8 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:19,300 You know, the idea of using any instrument or method 9 00:00:19,300 --> 00:00:22,900 as means of contending against others 10 00:00:22,900 --> 00:00:25,300 is a very formal definition of a weapon. 11 00:00:25,300 --> 00:00:28,500 It did not be something that is more level and to per se. 12 00:00:28,500 --> 00:00:30,400 But again, my operational definition, 13 00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:32,500 what a weapon does is in some way, 14 00:00:32,500 --> 00:00:36,000 authors that individuals, thoughts, emotions, 15 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:39,500 behaviors, physical nature, health, 16 00:00:39,500 --> 00:00:43,400 in such a way that is going to be more amenable 17 00:00:43,400 --> 00:00:46,200 to the individual who is yielding the weapon. 18 00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:49,700 So in other words, I'm changing an individual's stance 19 00:00:49,700 --> 00:00:51,300 towards me in some way, 20 00:00:51,300 --> 00:00:56,200 and making them engage in a stance that's more aligned 21 00:00:56,200 --> 00:00:57,900 with what I want them to be. 22 00:00:57,900 --> 00:00:59,800 That's a formal definition of a weapon 23 00:00:59,800 --> 00:01:02,700 that comes right out of the Oxford English dictionary. 24 00:01:02,700 --> 00:01:04,000 Clearly, when we think of weapons, 25 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:07,400 we think of things like bombs, tanks, planes, boats, 26 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:08,500 soldiers. 27 00:01:08,500 --> 00:01:09,700 And that's not incorrect. 28 00:01:09,700 --> 00:01:12,000 I mean, I think the more colloquial use of a weapon 29 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:13,900 represents some instrument that's going to induce 30 00:01:13,900 --> 00:01:16,800 some kind of morbidity or mortality. 31 00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:20,000 And when utilizing these bellicose constructs, 32 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:22,700 that's certainly one of the ideas of weaponology. 33 00:01:22,700 --> 00:01:25,400 But weaponology, as we discussed last time, 34 00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:29,000 can also include things that I do to my own forces, 35 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:30,700 whether it's the human resources, 36 00:01:30,700 --> 00:01:32,500 or whether the actual forces themselves 37 00:01:32,500 --> 00:01:35,300 to make them more efficient in their mission 38 00:01:35,300 --> 00:01:37,600 of national security intelligence and defense, 39 00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:40,800 not only terms of what I do to others. 40 00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:45,300 In that sense, if we put the neuro prefix to weapon, 41 00:01:45,300 --> 00:01:47,300 what we're really looking at is harnessing 42 00:01:47,300 --> 00:01:50,100 the neurological system both peripherally and centrally 43 00:01:50,100 --> 00:01:53,900 and its functions of thought emotions and behavior. 44 00:01:53,900 --> 00:01:57,300 So as to the yield, instruments, methods, 45 00:01:57,300 --> 00:01:59,860 techniques, tactics and tools that can then be 46 00:01:59,860 --> 00:02:01,700 leveraged against others. 47 00:02:01,700 --> 00:02:06,400 So as for us to then gain some purchase over their thoughts, 48 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:08,000 emotions and conduct. 49 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:11,500 So a neuro weapon is essentially any weaponized method 50 00:02:11,500 --> 00:02:14,900 or tool that acts through the nervous system, 51 00:02:14,900 --> 00:02:18,100 or at the nervous system, upon the nervous system, 52 00:02:18,100 --> 00:02:21,700 to influence and change the attitudes, 53 00:02:21,700 --> 00:02:25,300 feelings, thoughts, behaviors, and others. 54 00:02:25,300 --> 00:02:26,300 Thanks for that overview. 55 00:02:26,300 --> 00:02:28,300 So when we talk about neuro weapons, 56 00:02:28,300 --> 00:02:31,700 what types of technologies fall under that umbrella? 57 00:02:31,700 --> 00:02:34,700 I think what is important to understand 58 00:02:34,700 --> 00:02:36,980 is that the basic technologies of the brain 59 00:02:36,980 --> 00:02:40,500 scientists can be parsed into two general categories. 60 00:02:40,500 --> 00:02:42,700 Very generally, those technologies that 61 00:02:42,700 --> 00:02:44,900 are used for assessing the brain, 62 00:02:44,900 --> 00:02:47,100 and those technologies that are used for accessing 63 00:02:47,100 --> 00:02:48,900 and affecting the brain. 64 00:02:48,900 --> 00:02:51,100 And underneath those two general ideas, 65 00:02:51,100 --> 00:02:53,300 we can assess what's going on in individuals 66 00:02:53,300 --> 00:02:54,600 and groups of individuals brain. 67 00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:58,400 So as to be able to gain some notion of what nodes 68 00:02:58,400 --> 00:03:00,600 and networks are involved in different processes 69 00:03:00,600 --> 00:03:02,700 of cognition, emotion, and various actions, 70 00:03:02,700 --> 00:03:04,700 and what their dispositions might be. 71 00:03:04,700 --> 00:03:07,300 And we can use those, both as information 72 00:03:07,300 --> 00:03:09,700 as possible, reconnaissance targets, if you will, 73 00:03:09,700 --> 00:03:12,600 to then affect those substrates, those processes 74 00:03:12,600 --> 00:03:13,900 and mechanisms. 75 00:03:13,900 --> 00:03:16,540 Either indirectly through the use of narratives, 76 00:03:16,540 --> 00:03:20,900 memes, symbols, iconographies, psychological operations, 77 00:03:20,900 --> 00:03:23,180 human terrain-teaming engagements, 78 00:03:23,180 --> 00:03:24,500 or more directly. 79 00:03:24,500 --> 00:03:26,420 Now when we're talking about things that are direct, 80 00:03:26,420 --> 00:03:28,900 now we're talking about interventional things. 81 00:03:28,900 --> 00:03:31,620 And given the fact that the neurosciences are indeed 82 00:03:31,620 --> 00:03:33,700 a biomedical life science that also 83 00:03:33,700 --> 00:03:36,020 can join the physical sciences. 84 00:03:36,020 --> 00:03:37,740 Now what we're talking about is those things 85 00:03:37,740 --> 00:03:40,380 attend to fall under the rubric of biological toxins 86 00:03:40,380 --> 00:03:43,900 and chemical weapons, broadly construed as drugs, 87 00:03:43,900 --> 00:03:48,900 microbes and bugs, toxins, devices, and data. 88 00:03:48,900 --> 00:03:53,900 And it's those latter to devices and data 89 00:03:54,700 --> 00:03:56,740 that are really becoming even more prominent 90 00:03:56,740 --> 00:03:59,900 as a consideration and a concern 91 00:03:59,900 --> 00:04:03,580 with regard to international oversight, perhaps regulation, 92 00:04:03,580 --> 00:04:07,260 of what weaponology should and perhaps could be, 93 00:04:07,260 --> 00:04:09,620 and how neural science and neurotechnologies 94 00:04:09,620 --> 00:04:11,900 are then leverageable and employable, 95 00:04:11,900 --> 00:04:13,980 as weapons on a variety of different fronts, 96 00:04:13,980 --> 00:04:16,060 not only being used kinetically, 97 00:04:16,060 --> 00:04:19,740 but increasingly being used as non-kinetic instruments 98 00:04:19,740 --> 00:04:24,740 to affect disruptive effects, rather than destructive effects 99 00:04:25,300 --> 00:04:26,140 per se.