The ultimate question with this research, as with so much of DARPA’s work, is whether the agency will be allowed—or should be allowed—to pursue something with such truly high risk. Like many ambitious areas that DARPA has pursued in the past, from counterinsurgency to computer networking, its neuroscience work could transform the world by revolutionizing medicine, and it could lead to weapons that change the way we fight in future wars. Whether that world will be a better place is unclear.
