Tag: MEDICAL

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Ethical Concerns Raised Over Elon Musk’s Neuralink

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Interesting segment on ABC’s GMA show delved into billionaire Elon Musk’s cutting edge brain technology–Neuralink implants–that are supposed to revolutionize how we deal with neurological disorders. The GMA segment came against the backdrop of news reports that the first Neuralink implant on a human had taken place.

The guest, Dr Leah Croll described Neuralink technology thus (0:38): “Basically this is the concept of using a brain machine interface to help people. Neuralink is a device that gets implanted within the brain, and then reads the electrical signals that our brain cells are constantly sending to one another, and then it can translate those signals into actions outside of the body, in this case the ability to control a computer or smartphone.”

Dr Croll added that this is by no means novel technology saying, “It [Neuralink] is absolutely not the first player on this field. This area of research really started back in the 90s but in recent years the pace of that research has just accelerated immensely…”

But as we know all too well, with every cutting edge technology, there are bound to be negative effects, and to that, Dr Jen Ashton popped this million dollar question (1:50): “Physically, what are the risks, and ethically, what are the risks that you can see with this type of technology?”

Dr Croll responded that because we are dealing with brain implants here, we should treat Neuralink procedures as any other brain surgery, and worry about all the physical risks we normally associate with such surgeries–bleeding, damage to brain tissue etc. As for the ethical concerns raised by Neuralink, she said (2:26): “When we get into the ethical realm, that raises so many questions because we are in completely uncharted territory here. There’s concerns about the data that this device is collecting and how secure it might be, there’s potential for privacy concerns to come into play, bad actors could potentially come into play and hack these devices. So there’s a lot of discussions that the medical community is going to have to have with the legal community, the ethical community, the technological community, so we can work together to figure out how we regulate something like this.”

Any reasonable person watching this GMA segment would conclude that even though Elon Musk’s Neuralink technology, on its face,exhibits the potential for significantly improving how we treat neurological disorders, the technology comes with serious ethical concerns that necessitate guardrails before proceeding.

This also means time has finally come for the government to come clean regarding the plight of targeted individuals, who have complained for decades about being the subjects of these “mind reading” technologies while being laughed out of the room as some crazy conspiracy theorists. This GMA segment establishes conclusively that we do indeed have technology that can read minds and more importantly, that this research has been going on since the 90s. It’s also worth pointing out that while Dr Croll correctly insists that there must be guardrails put in place before this technology is deployed to the public, targeted individuals have endured this very invasive technology with zero ethical guardrails. Should they be compensated for the irreparable harm this invasive technology has subjected them to? Should Congress hold hearings into government research projects in this field such as DARPA, to ensure that there have not been abuses? These are the questions one hopes the media will pose to the government as we delve deeper into the Neuralink era.

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Excellent UTSW Webinar On Havana Syndrome

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On 02/10/2022 the Department of Psychiatry and the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute at the University of Texas Southwestern (UTSW-Dallas), hosted an excellent webinar on Havana Syndrome featuring some of the leading minds in Neurology and importantly, offering suggestions on the path forward for both government investigators, and affected families (victims).

The webinar titled “Havana Syndrome: Medical, Scientific, and Policy Perspectives”, featured this esteemed panel of subject matter experts.

Among the visiting speakers(not from UTSW) were Cipher CEO Suzanne Kelly, Fox News National Security Analyst Daniel Hoffman, Former CIA Officer and Havana Syndrome victim Marc Polymeropoulos, NPR National Security Correspondent Greg Myre, and of course, the star of the show, the undisputed MVP, Dr. James Giordano(Georgetown), who they saved for last. Dr. Giordano’s entire presentation is below.

The key takeaway from Dr Giordano’s presentation was this(video at 17:00): “What this thing allowed us to do is to examine in greater detail, the technological readiness level(TRL),of forms of energy that could be directed in ways that would be scalable, fieldable, and therefore operationalizable. Now again, please understand that there is information that simply cannot be discussed in an open forum such as this, some of it exists as confidential and classified…but suffice it to say that information both at the time(2016, 2017, and part of 2018), and subsequently 2018 and 2019…reveal that there are two primary domains of directable energy that represented not only state of the science and technology, but were at a point of technological readiness that would allow or enable possible deployability and operational use. The idea of utilizing accoustic rangeable devices in the high sonic and/or ultrasonic range, very possible, very probable. The possibility of also utilizing some form of microwave energy particularly low to moderate gigawatt microwave energy that could be generated using very very rapid pulsing, perhaps utilizing a light source or laser source to be able to develop nanosecond or perhaps even quicker pulsing, would allow the scalability, the fieldability, and the containability of microwaves, and also get by some of the power source requirements that might be necessary. Why would such devices be in operation?…These types of devices can be used for surveillance, and/or they can be used either kinetically or non-kinetically, for disruptive effects. What do we mean by that[disruptive effects]? What we mean, is that there are a number of nations worldwide that have dedicated effort to employing these devices for testing organic and inorganic substances primarily in the occupational and commercial range…They[nations]include United States and many of its allies, China, Russia, among others. So the technology exists. We know the technology is being employed at least in part for the evaluation of vulnerability and volatility for organic and inorganic substances.”

A layman’s understanding of Dr. Giordano’s scientific analysis boils down to this(feel free to offer corrections/more insight): That microwaves and sound (accoustics) are the two forms of energy that scientists agree, could be harnessed, scaled and deployed to effect the kind of attacks experienced by U.S. Embassy staff in Havana, Cuba. Scientists also agree that this kind of technology(sound and microwave directed energy) is readily available in the U.S.(and its Western allies), China, and Russia, and is currently used for surveillance and other industrial applications(testing the vulnerability of organic and inorganic substances). This scientific analysis by Dr. Giordano is very important because to this day, mainstream media reports have characterized Havana Syndrome as being caused by some hostile foreign power(prime suspect Russia), using some mysterious technology that nobody in the U.S. knows about. Clearly, per Dr. Giordano’s analysis, this technology is already being used in the United States for surveillance and other industrial applications, meaning part of the inquiry into the causes of Havana Syndrome going forward, has to look inward, as opposed to only pointing the finger at Russia and China.

The webinar also featured a joint discussion by Cipher CEO Suzanne Kelly and Fox News National Security Analyst Daniel Hoffman, which focused squarely on the national security implications of Havana Syndrome, as opposed to the other panelists who delved into the clinical aspects. Even though this was an interesting discussion, it totally sidestepped the million dollar question which many attendees, including Yours Truly tuned in for, and that is, Havana Syndrome among regular civilians(not government employees).

Interestingly, the million dollar question found it’s way into the webinar at the very end(after Dr. Giordano’s presentation), as the panelists were entertaining written questions from attendees. One of the questions directed at Dr. Giordano asked what regular civilians(ding ding ding–magic word) who suspect they are victims of similar directed energy attacks, should do?(see video below @ 1:50) Dr. Giordano’s answer was very interesting. He said regular civilians should first consult their attending physicians with their concerns, and upon a traumatic brain injury(TBI) diagnosis, have their attending physician refer them to Walter Reed for further analysis. It has to be a physician’s referral–none of that self-diagnosis stuff. A question as to whether there’s any evidence of regular civilians being victims of directed energy attacks came up at the 18:45 mark, and Dr. Giordano answered in the affirmative, saying yes, there is evidence both in Europe and domestically. WHOA!!

Hopefully Dr. Giordano’s suggestion for regular civilians suffering from directed energy attacks will encourage them to seek the much needed medical attention, and crucially, provide enough leads for scientists and government investigators, to get to the bottom of the Havana Syndrome mystery. Hopefully , it also opens up debate about the plight of regular civilians vis a vis directed energy weapons in the mainstream media, and in the halls of Congress where strangely, this remains a taboo topic, as exhibited by the tweet below.

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