This week’s DANGER ROOM Inbox — where we highlight some of the fascinating email that comes our way — brings us a question about DARPA’s alleged interest in an orgasmatron-like weapon. Strange, you say? Yes, but the writer helpfully cites articles. So there must be something to it!
Why does DARPA, Defense Advanced Research Projects need to replace nose smells and senses and what do they do to control orgasms? Can you find out the names and addresses of the experimenting scientists and contractors. Is this War Games? See article on internet…
Rat-Machine Hybrids. According to a newscientist article, Rats’ brain waves could find trapped people. "In a project funded by DARPA, the Pentagon’s research arm, Linda and Ray Hermer-Vazquez of the University of Florida in Gainesville have used Rats equipped with radios that transmit (the rat’s) brainwaves." A recognizable brain pattern shows when the target smell (humans, TNT, RDX, etc.) is located and the transmitter strapped to the rat’s back tells where the rat is, so they can send in a rescue team. (Right. Or a bomb.)
What I found interesting is "The researchers trained the rats to search for human odour by stimulating the reward centre when it found its target smell." Can we directly stimulate the human brain’s "reward center"? What would that be like? An orgasm? Feeling you were rich? A religious experience? It seems there are several important reward centers. The nucleus accumbens (NA) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA) are two significant ones. No problem. Just by seeing what areas of my brain I need to activate, I’ll energize my reward centers by will power and visualization. The experiment may be very rewarding. We have more control over our brains than you think.
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Fooling the Brain into Orgasm. I found this article in wireheading.com by Sebastian P. Grossman, whom I think was/is at the University of Chicago, facinating. "Some patients respond to electrical brain stimulation by spontaneous and often abrupt expressions of general pleasure , well-being, fondness of the interviewer, and general approval of their present situation (Higgins et al., 1956).
Others report "pleasant" sensations in various parts of their body that are not amenable to definition in terms of normal human experience (Heath, 1963).
Although casual reports of sexual arousal during brain stimulation abound in the clinical literature, one careful examination of human responses to stimulation of over 2000 electrode sites revealed only 2 that had unambiguous sexual content (Sem-Jacobsen & Styri, 1972).
… Patients typically cannot identify the reasons for their apparent well-being. One of the pioneers in this field has suggested that: "curiosity about the strange sensations that are aroused by brain stimulation, rather than pleasure per se, may be the dominant cause of human self-stimulation" (Sem-Jacobsen & Styri, 1972)"
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Biology According to the 7 February 2001 New Scientist, "A machine that delivers an orgasm at the push of a button has been patented in the US." Dr Stuart Meloy has already tested the $10,000 spinal cord implant with success. "When the device was switched on, the patient reported being almost instantly aroused …" The woman, who had not had an orgasm for four years, wore the device for nine days and had sex with her husband on seven occasions. Dr Meloy said that the woman had an orgasm every time – and even experienced her first multiple orgasm."
There is also a more resonably priced $200 orgasmatron for women called "Slightest Touch". BBC News Online was unable to get independent scientific verification that it works. I found this review.
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Why stop at just stimulating the human pleasure center? If we can keep from destroying ourselves and the planet for a few more years we will reach an amazing new level of control. We will soon control our own evolution by purposefully manipulating our own genes.
According to paradise-engineering, "… our genetically enriched descendants [can] be animated by gradients of immense well-being – in contrast to our animalistic mix of pleasure and pain. In the new reproductive era of "designer babies", gradients of innate bliss can form the bedrock of invincible mental health." Imagine a world of super happy people. Would they still be industrious?
"As for manipulating intelligence or athletic ability," according to Dr. Marvin Frazier, who fields human genome questions as director of the Life Sciences Division of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research, "it will take scientists many decades to figure out how to do it."
Are secret genetic labs already growing mutant humans in an attempt to create super strong super smart creatures? Probably. Anything you can think of has been thought of and acted upon.
