U.S. Government Starts "BaTMAN" and "RoBIN" Defense Projects

[YazzyDream]

I had no idea where to this post this, but I think it's both awesome and hilarious. (Mostly for the names.)

Apparently the Department of Defense has started two new super soldier type projects named "BaTMAN" (Biochronicity and Temporal Mechanisms Arising in Nature) and RoBIN (Robustness of Biologically-Inspired Networks).

Biochronicity and Temporal Mechanisms Arising in Nature (BaTMAN) could develop an understanding of the relationship between biological systems and the spatial-temporal universe through the application of advanced principles from the physical sciences. [...] Topic areas that may be of interest include, but are not limited to: quantum biology and molecular clocks; resetting and synchronization of biological clocks and rhythms; microscale recapitulation in macroscale; evolutionary pressure and time; physiological signal processing and clocks; timing and cognition; and robustness of clocks in development.

Robustness of Biologically-Inspired Networks (RoBIN), seeks to apply the critical control features of biological networks to build unique models for adaptable networks, and create a dynamic biologically-inspired network of scientists and other experts for crisis response and complex decision support. Topic areas that may be of interest include, but are not limited to: exploring collective behavior and recruitment, counter deception, modularity in networks and biology, models of robustness, recruitment of expertise, synthetic immune surveillance, model and design of robust biological networks, self-organized complexity across scales, and robust adaptive response systems.

Source

Official Government Site

[KnightWing]

...Sometimes, government acronyms are awesome. This is one of those times.

[Dread]

Great. Another example of the American military giving cutesy names to methods of killing people.

This is part of why the world doesn't trust you.

[Stavros]

I'd complain but Britain has Skynet.

[KnightWing]

Great. Another example of the American military giving cutesy names to methods of killing people.

This is part of why the world doesn't trust you.

Neither of those projects actually involve killing people; one is a human research project, and the other is a think tank of scientists.

Let's not start throwing around political dogma without cause.

[Dread]

Biochronicity and Temporal Mechanisms Arising in Nature (BaTMAN) could develop an understanding of the relationship between biological systems and the spatial-temporal universe through the application of advanced principles from the physical sciences. [...] Topic areas that may be of interest include, but are not limited to: quantum biology and molecular clocks; resetting and synchronization of biological clocks and rhythms; microscale recapitulation in macroscale; evolutionary pressure and time; physiological signal processing and clocks; timing and cognition; and robustness of clocks in development.

Robustness of Biologically-Inspired Networks (RoBIN), seeks to apply the critical control features of biological networks to build unique models for adaptable networks, and create a dynamic biologically-inspired network of scientists and other experts for crisis response and complex decision support. Topic areas that may be of interest include, but are not limited to: exploring collective behavior and recruitment, counter deception, modularity in networks and biology, models of robustness, recruitment of expertise, synthetic immune surveillance, model and design of robust biological networks, self-organized complexity across scales, and robust adaptive response systems.

Reading between the lines, these things all have horrific implications the first two points bolded in the second paragraph is eerie when applied to your own population and the ideas outlined in the first paragraph (the human research project as you called it) is just plain wrong.

It's not political dogma, it's scientific ethics. Which has been proven again and again to be used for whatever purpose the US government sees fit. Stem cell research kills babies. Bet if they figure out how to weaponize something in a stem cell, then the debate will have a sea change.

[KnightWing]

To be entirely fair, if you "read between the lines" on just about anything, you can see chaos.

The only two things the first paragraph says are that:

(A) they're looking at the way human biological clocks tick, and if/how there's a relationship to the actual "clock" of the physical universe.

(B) Seeing if there's a way to tinker with human biological clocks. Now, I'm not a big proponent of messing with human physiology, but that certainly doesn't sound as bad as what some of the over-the-counter drugs that we already have in stores can do. Still, I do see your point there. Could be a bad thing, possibly.

The second paragraph says that they're examining human sociology in order to know how to deal with large groups of people. Considering how big of an issue that can be in times of war or disaster (foreign or domestic), I don't see the problem. You could call it "manipulation," but that's no different than what market researchers do for big companies. And this could definitely help if we have more disasters like Hurricane Katrina.

You can jump and cry foul at everything the government does, if you like. But that doesn't help. All we've got are the facts; jumping to chaotic conclusions won't help. Having theories before you've got facts doesn't work, because then you bend the facts to support the theories.

[Dread]

The facts I have are what they've said which is scary enough. Not like the DoD is anywhere near forthcoming with the truth of their operations anyway.

If you can read the words "resetting biological clocks" and not be terrified then I have not time for you.

[KnightWing]

If you can read the words "resetting biological clocks" and not be terrified then I have not time for you.

It's moderately worrisome.

Granted, both of those projects combined mean that theoretically the govt could make a type of wide-dispersal "wave" that could make every human in its radius fall asleep, but I'm not terribly scared of that. What, are they going to use it on the American people to MAKE them go to sleep at 10PM? I doubt it; the government as a whole wouldn't stand for it. (is too divided to approve it)

Are they going to use a "sleep ray gun" on enemy troops overseas? That'd be kinda cool, actually.