In the wake of upcoming budget cuts if the projected sequester is implemented in March, President Barack Obama this week approved a multi-billion dollar program which is intended to map the human brain like the genome project, and formulate the creation of artificial intelligence in a computer system.
President Obama has just greenlighted a 10-year Manhattan Project for the human brain. I warned it was coming years ago.
The new billion-dollar enterprise is called BAM, the Brain Activity Map project.
Behind the front of claims that BAM will create new therapies for mental disorders (for which no defining diagnostic tests even exist), the plan is to forward artificial intelligence (AI), which means creating a computer that works at least as well as the one inside your skull. - John Rappaport
In 1990, Congress approved the funding for the Human Genome Project at the cost of $3.8 billion. From this research, an estimated $800 billion in economic returns are expected from the growth of business, technology, pharmaceuticals, and new medical procedures based on the data found.
At this time, total funding measures for the Brain Activity Map (BAM) program have not been approved, however, work on the project is already underway in government and military agencies such as DARPA. The cost analysis for the BAM project is also unknown, but the expectation of a new frontier of businesses and technologies created from new discoveries could easily grow into the trillions of dollars.
However, like the benefits that new medical research provides, there is also the great fear of allowing a government access and ownership to medical data that can be controlled and manipulated through bureaucratic systems, regulations, and laws. As the United States begins operation under a national healthcare framework, new regulations are already being written daily that add to the underlying legislation known as Obamacare. These new regulations could easily be adapted as new medical knowledge is discovered in this, and other projects.
ie... It would not be out of the realm of possibility that when the medical profession discovers and maps brain functions that control violent actions or choices, a mandatory drug or surgery could be administered by bureaucratic consent in this current era of gun control and mental illness. (Think Clockwork Orange)
To date, Congress and the Obama administration have shown little desire to cut spending, and stop the surging growth of our national debt. And with President Obama approving a new project to map the human brain, and spur research into the implementation of artificial intelligence at the cost of several billion dollars, the questions for many Americans are; what is the overall purpose of the project, and to what economic or societal benefit or detriment will the outcomes be?
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