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If you are interested in brain computer interfaces (BCI), then you need to listen to this very exciting podcast!

I have only been aware of this DARPA NNN (Next-generation Non-surgical Neurotechnology) program since mid-March, and it is my number one topic of interest. I am interested in it because I have a plan for mind uploading to extend my life indefinitely — otherwise known as superlongevity in our group — but I have no interest in allowing anyone to drill holes in my head! DARPA is looking at ways for non-invasive methods of connecting the thoughts in our brains to computers. Over time, this could be a method to capture the thoughts and memories and emotions within my mind and transfer them into a computer substrate. And, to be clear, this mind upload will, in fact, be me.

Naturally, DARPA is not developing this so that I can upload my mind. This is part of their wounded warrior project, where they are trying to rehabilitate soldiers who have had the misfortune to have lost a limb. In addition to the non-invasive neural technology, they are working on haptics to provide a feedback loop for the sense of touch and temperature. They are also working on what they describe as third wave AI to support this technology.

The interview is with Dr Al Emondi, who has had a fascinating career in technology. He is the DARPA program manager in the Biological Technologies department.

I will always admire DARPA for its world-changing technology innovations!


Elon Musk confirmed that Tesla plans to use a different alloy for the upcoming Cybertruck electric pickup.

When Tesla unveiled the Cybertruck last year, one of the most interesting features was the fact the vehicle isn’t going to be built using a traditional automotive body system but with an exoskeleton.

The automaker wrote about the exoskeleton:

I think so.


Will augs like in the video game Deus Ex ever be possible? Why or why not? If one day they are, what are the implications? We have a long way to go, and the more we try to control our system, the less we will have available to us in the future.

DARPA Research (mind controlled, robotic, prosthetic arm) ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xynE-43trQg
Great Perspective on Deus Ex (Ross’ Game Dungeon) ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxOKEsBx4NU

More medical videos by Chubbyemu:
Death by Anti-Diarrheal Medicine ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeLsJ8xtuGU

Sable co-created the story with artist Kristian Donaldson (Unthinkable, The Guild) and Mey Rude, a transgender woman who served as a consulting editor on the project. Sable took some time to talk to SYFY WIRE about biohacking, transhumanism, and how science fiction often predicts the future.


The Dark, by screenwriter and playwright Mark Sable (Unthinkable, Godkillers), is a graphic novel about a world plunged into chaos when a biotech virus pulls everything offline. The plot twists around government conspiracies, techno warfare, biohacking, and the unlikely pair out to stop it before another world war breaks loose. To make it all the scarier, Sable bases his fiction on fact. As a futurist who has consulted with think tanks and The Art of Future Warfare Project, he is well versed in techno warfare scenarios.

The Dark begins in 2035 and follows Master Sergeant Robert Carter, a N.E.O. (Networked Exoskeleton Operator) Marine whose power armor links him to the world’s technology, and whose implants mentally connect him to his unit. He feels what they feel, which proves torturous when his unit is attacked. The Dark takes on a double meaning as the experience leaves him both physically and technologically blind as the world’s tech crashes.

His world changes when he is sent after Camille — a skilled biohacker and analyst for NSA’s Bumble Hive — who is on a mission to expose the government’s use of bio-hacked surveillance. But she’s also attempting to recode herself in the process. You see, Camille is a trans woman and has discovered a way to change her gender at the molecular level. Camille’s quest to expose the truth and Carter’s pursuit of that very truth throw them together in a race against time to save the world.

Research at IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology) has led to the revolutionary development of an artificial liquid retinal prosthesis to counteract the effects of diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration that cause the progressive degeneration of photoreceptors of the retina, resulting in blindness. The study has been published in Nature Nanotechnology.

The study represents the state of the art in retinal prosthetics and is an evolution of the planar artificial retinal model developed by the same team in 2017 and based on organic semiconductor materials (Nature Materials 2017, 16: 681–689).

The ‘second generation’ artificial retina is biomimetic, offers and consists of an aqueous component in which photoactive polymeric nanoparticles (whose size is 350 nanometres, thus about 1/100 of the diameter of a hair) are suspended, and will replace damaged photoreceptors.

The ability to restore sight to the blind is one of the most profound acts of healing medicine can achieve, in terms of the impact on the affected patient’s life — and one of the most difficult for modern medicine to achieve. We can restore vision in a limited number of scenarios and there are some early bionic eyes on the market that can restore limited vision in very specific scenarios. Researchers may have taken a dramatic step towards changing that in the future, with the results of a new experiment to design a bionic retina.

The research team in question has published a paper in Nature detailing the construction of a hemispherical retina built out of high-density nanowires. The spherical shape of the retina has historically been a major challenge for biomimetic devices.

EyeComparison