Military working on radio controlled moths, sharks & rats

The term bugging may have a new meaning in the digital age, scientists are working on fitting small creatures with video cameras, electrodes and batteries. The goal is to create an ‘army’ of radio controlled creatures including sharks, rats, moths, pigeons and maybe even cattle. The creatures would be employed as spies, used for search and rescue and could could start a new arms race – a creature one at that.

The U.S. was left behind last year when a Chinese team successfully transferred cyborg technology to birds. Pigeons’ brains were implanted with electrodes that allowed the Chinese team to command them via wireless signals from a laptop. They created the ultimate cyborg “spy in the sky.”

They will be incredibly useful in search-and-rescue missions. Because they can identify specific scents, such as those of humans or explosives, cyborg rats are expected to be used to find people trapped under rubble or to sniff out bombs.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA is working on using brain implants to steer a shark into following false odors create a remote control shark.

Scientists plug into and hijack these living animals’ sensory abilities because they are vastly superior to the majority of artificial sensors available on the market. The cyborgs’ intense sense of smell, for example, allows them to detect the faintest trace of chemicals — a skill very useful in counter-terrorism.

DARPA has been inserting tiny brain probes into insects such as moths and beetles while they are still in the pupa stage, so the implants are naturally incorporated into their bodies as they grow. The implants, wired into the cyborg insects’ nerves, allow operators to control their movement remotely and send back information to a central computer.

Almost indistinguishable from the average insect, these cyborg spies will provide our military and counter-terrorism specialists with a huge surveillance advantage.

One day wars could be fought in far off lands between armies of remote controlled bugs, or countries could save costs and just fight wars on networked versions of Warcraft instead.