{"id":215954,"date":"2019-05-26T06:15:59","date_gmt":"2019-05-26T10:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=215954"},"modified":"2019-05-26T06:15:59","modified_gmt":"2019-05-26T10:15:59","slug":"darpas-justin-sanchez-works-to-stay-a-step-ahead-of-technological-surprises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/05\/26\/darpas-justin-sanchez-works-to-stay-a-step-ahead-of-technological-surprises\/","title":{"rendered":"DARPA’s Justin Sanchez works to stay a step ahead of technological surprises"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: DARPA’s former headquarters in the Virginia Square neighborhood of Arlington. The agency is currently located in a new building at 675 North Randolph St. (Photo By Coolcaesar at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MONTREAL \u2014 Justin Sanchez, a neuroscientist with the United States’ Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency won’t confirm or deny if he’s working on classified projects.<\/p>\n

As director of the agency’s biotech office, his research focuses on healing American soldiers who have suffered traumatic brain injuries in battle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot confirm one way or another, because in doing so it would kind of reveal, but we are part of the Department of Defence,\u201d Sanchez said, following his presentation at the C2 Montreal conference this week. \u201cAnd the Department of Defence does a whole number of (jobs) in a number of areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

His answer is as mysterious as the research he conducts for the American military within the agency, known as DARPA. But he admits the scientific breakthroughs he has played a part in have applications far beyond medicine.<\/p>\n

For instance, his research has recently shown humans can operate multiple unmanned aerial vehicles using only their minds. Research subjects \u2014 already suffering from illnesses such as epilepsy or Parkinson’s \u2014 were implanted with brain sensors connected to a series of their neurons.<\/p>\n

One of his subjects was able to fly a virtual aircraft using a flight simulator \u2014 all with their thoughts. That scientific finding is \u201cabsolutely\u201d applicable to soldiers in combat, Sanchez said, \u201cbut the technology is not ready for prime time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In one month, Sanchez will complete a six-year term at the research agency, whose origins stretch back to 1958. The United States was humiliated when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 into space in 1957. American leaders vowed from that point on, they would be at the forefront of technological advances.<\/p>\n

DARPA’s roughly 200 employees manage research projects around the United States with the goal of ensuring Americans are never again surprised by technology. It is credited with inventing the internet, touch screen technology and GPS.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be ahead \u2014 always ahead,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cAnd part of being ahead is thinking in ways that other people don’t.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another project, Sanchez was able to \u201cboost\u201d a research subject’s memory by sending electrical impulses to a specific part of their brain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can do this today,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have shown proof of concept. We can stimulate the brain to improve memory performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scientists also have data suggesting it’s possible to transfer concepts into the brains of rats.<\/p>\n

Sanchez said scientists have created a mental map about how to solve a maze \u2014 and implanted that \u201cmemory\u201d into the brains of rodents. \u201cThere are early results that show there is a possibility of helping the neurons in the brain (of rats) receive that concept and facilitate their performance in one of those kinds of tasks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Transferring memories into humans is still a long way off, he said.<\/p>\n

But theoretically, it’s not impossible, said Carolina Bessega, chief scientific officer and co-founder of Stradigi AI, a Montreal-based artificial intelligence company.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think it’s completely unfeasible,\u201d she said in an interview at C2. \u201cTheoretically yes, but it’s still early research.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stradigi AI conducts experimental research in machine learning, but it also works directly with companies by offering tailored services in artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

DARPA’s secrecy has sparked countless conspiracy theories and tales of super-soldiers created in basement research labs across the United States, but both Bessega and Sanchez say that is pure fantasy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scientific community,\u201d she said, \u201cin general is pretty ethical.\u201d But Bessega admits it’s impossible to know the kinds of research being done in less transparent countries, such as China.<\/p>\n

China, too, had its \u201cSputnik moment,\u201d according to author Kai-Fu Lee, in his book, \u201cAI Superpowers.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the book, Lee recounts how the Chinese became transfixed when the country’s star Go player was beaten handily by an artificial intelligence backed by Google in 2017. That moment helped spur an intense and ongoing push by the Chinese to become world leaders in artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Sanchez said the United States still leads the world in technological advances, and he wouldn’t say if the possibility of Chinese dominance concerns him. \u201cIf your mission is to create and prevent strategic surprise, you can’t just focus on one person or one place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Biotech, for instance, is democratizing, meaning anyone can order a gene-editing kit online and use it at home. Governments no longer have a monopoly on technological advances, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are living in a world where lots of people can use (technology) in a number of ways, and staying ahead of surprises that can come from that \u2014 that’s what keeps me up at night.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL \u2014 Justin Sanchez, a neuroscientist with the United States’ Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency won’t confirm or deny if …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":215955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5742],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-215954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science-2","mauthors-giuseppe-valiante","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215954"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215956,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215954\/revisions\/215956"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}